Williams Must Wait to Race High-Revving BMW Engine

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya and Williams teammate Ralf Schumacher must wait until they arrive at Indianapolis for the United States Grand Prix before they know if BMW will allow their new high-revving engine to race.

Montoya was helped to the fastest ever Formula One lap in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix on Saturday by the first Formula One engine to ever rev above 19,000rpm. But he will not race the engine against Schumacher's Ferrari in Sunday's race, and BMW motorsport director Mario Thiessen said: "Everything we aim at is to race. We have a two-step release procedure.

"After the engine has successfully done 250km on the dyno and Hockenheim original circuit more than once and a successful test of 250km then it is released for qualifying. As soon as it has completed 400km, then it will be released for a race - but at the moment I cannot say whether or not we will manage to complete this process before Indy."

After a cautious return to Formula One with Williams in 2000, when the engine revved to 17,000rpm, BMW stepped up the limits by 500rpm twice in that year, then once again at the end of 2001.

"We started with making the engine reliable then we started to increase the power step by step and this means to increase revs," said Thiessen. "What we have achieved today is the final step for the P82."