Williams Target Ferrari's Titles

Williams set their sights firmly on taking back Ferrari and Michael Schumacher's Formula One titles this season at the launch of their 2002 challenger on Friday.

"Having won races last year, the target obviously is to be a serious Championship competitor this year," said technical director Patrick Head before the BMW-powered car had a first outing at a wet Silverstone.

"Our expectations for the third season (with BMW) are high," said team principal Frank Williams. "We have great hopes for our new chassis, the FW24, and for the new BMW P82 engine. Beyond that, we've got the strongest team of drivers," he said, describing Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya as "hyper-competitive".

Williams roared back as race-winners last season after three barren years, with Germany's Ralf taking three Grands Prix and Colombian newcomer Montoya one. The two, who do not pretend to be friends, also had four pole positions but the team that dominated the sport in the 1990s ended up third overall in the Championship.

Williams paid the price for inconsistency and some unreliability and Head pulled no punches in talking about the old car.

Extremely Quick

He said it had shown "some considerable deficiencies" and had been extremely quick at some circuits and slow at others. "We've got to put that right," he added. "We weren't in any way reliable enough and we've got to put that right to be challenging up front."

"This car's got a few areas that are different," he said. "We hope its a faster car than last year's and we hope that it will be more reliable. The car is a lot lighter, much of which comes from the engine and the insulation of the engine.

"The aerodynamic performance in the wind tunnel is considerably better and we hope that will be reflected on the track."

BMW Motorsport director Mario Theissen, the German manufacturer's engine supremo, said the new power plant was a completely new one.

"We redesigned it and redefined it," he said. "In the end we changed every part so it is a new engine."

Montoya, seen by many Formula One veterans as Michael Schumacher's biggest rival this season, has tried out the new engine and had no doubts it was a big improvement on one that was already the most powerful on the grid.

"It's better, it's a big step forward," he said. "It's better in every sense of the word."