Williams struggles with balancing act
Williams recent domination of Formula 1 came to an abrupt end in qualifying for the British Grand Prix, as problems with the balanced of the FW25 restricted Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya to just fourth and seventh on the grid respectively
Conditions in the session appeared to deteriorate for the later runners, with a heavy wind picking up across the circuit that likely accounted for the handling imbalance both drivers suffered from. Some consolation will come from the fact that Michael Schumacher was also affected, and will start fifth in his Ferrari.
"I am disappointed with this result because my car was very good and very stable this morning, and then it turned out not to be as positive in the warm-up and in qualifying," said Montoya, whose struggles with the car were apparent from on-board TV footage of him wrestling his FW25, which proved entertaining, if not fast. "I didn't seem to have found the right balance as I was experiencing plenty of oversteer in some of the corners and generally poor traction.
"The car was very difficult to drive and very snappy. Now we must consider this in some detail before tomorrow. Anyway, we knew that this track was going to be tough for us."
By contrast, Ralf Schumacher was somewhat more upbeat. "I believe we are well prepared for the race even though my qualifying result wasn't excellent, mainly due to the fact that I was struggling with the balance of my car, so as a consequence I am not too disappointed," he said.
"Ferrari have again proved to be very strong here but nevertheless Michael is starting behind me on the grid. However, today's qualifying result was quite unusual."
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments