Williams Reserve Judgement on FW24 Performance

Williams have refused to be drawn on suggestions that team bosses Frank Williams and Patrick Head are unhappy with the progress of the new FW24.

The Grove-based team unveiled their 2002 challenger at the end of January, and have been testing at Barcelona and Valencia since then. However, according to BMW's motorsports boss Gerhard Berger the British squad were not satisfied with the performance of the FW24 so far.

"It is true that after the first tests the new car did not produce the lap times we were expecting," Berger told Autocar magazine earlier this week. "I always regard the speed of a new car on its first outing as a very important sign. And, even taking into account the need to make chassis set-up changes, we are not satisfied."

However, Williams have denied that their bosses are not pleased with the new FW24, adding that they will wait until the first practice session in Australia to make any judgements concerning the performance of the BMW-powered machine.

"Neither Frank nor Patrick will be drawn on this," said a Williams spokesperson. "We will wait until first practice at Melbourne before making an evaluation of our technical potential rather than making judgements which would seem appropriate at this stage of the year."