Williams sticks with Gene

After two seasons racing for Minardi, the Spaniard joined Williams at the start of 2001, and has completed nearly 42,000km of running for the team over the last three years. He was drafted in to race for the team in this year's Italian Grand Prix after Ralf Schumacher was injured in a testing crash, finishing a creditable fifth.

"Testing is the backbone of our racing performance and the essential hard grind of the job," said Sam Michael, Williams' chief operations engineer. "I'm confident that the BMW WilliamsF1 team could have no-one better as the mainstay of our testing programme. Marc is quick, consistent, and provides the team engineers with excellent and intelligent feedback."

"I am delighted to continue my relationship with the BMW WilliamsF1 team for next year," said Gene. "2003 has been a very busy and special year, busy because so far this season I have completed 24,000 testing kilometres, and obviously special since it marked my debut with the team as a race driver at Monza, a race I really enjoyed.

"For next season, my goal is to assist the team in every way to win the World Championship."