Williams launch: BMW pushes on

Last year's BMW V10 engine was the most powerful on the grid. The horsepower, thought to be in the region of 850bhp, propelled the Williams FW23 to victories at Imola, Montreal, Hockenheim and Monza last year - the quickest circuits on the calendar.

For 2002, BMW expects to push their engine to higher levels still as Theissen explained at the launch of the new Williams FW24 at Silverstone today (Friday).

"Our first engine, the E41 of the 2000 season was a leap from zero to 90 per cent," said Theissen. "The P80 upped that to 98 per cent and yet we will never achieve 100 per cent of what is technically possible. The benchmark shifts with every successful innovation. The crossbar is raised as you jump."

The new P82 is based on last year's successful engine, but has several modifications. It consists of almost 5,000 individual parts, with around 1,000 of them all-new. The focus has been to give greater reliability and lessen the weight in the upper part of the engine to optimise the centre of gravity.

The engine, which was developed and manufactured at BMW in Munich, had its first bench-test in September and was run for the first time on October 3.