Williams Unlikely to Win 2003 Title, Says Berger

Williams are unlikely to wrest the Formula One world title from Ferrari in 2003 even if they perform better than last year, according to BMW motorsport director Gerhard Berger.

"Unless something suddenly goes wrong at Ferrari, it's unlikely that the BMW Williams team will be World Champions in 2003," the Austrian said ahead of today's launch of the new Williams FW25 car at the Circuit de Catalunya.

"But the new BMW engine is again designed to set benchmarks for Formula One in 2003 and we certainly want to see more podium places and wins than last year."

Technical director Patrick Head, whose team last won the Championship in 1997 and finished runners-up last year, also had no illusions about the challenge facing Williams.

"We expect Ferrari to make another significant step with their 2003 car but we consider that the FW25 will provide a much stronger basis to mount a challenge than was the case in 2002."

Williams last year scored less than half the points tally of dominant Ferrari, who won 15 of the 17 races and set records throughout the year. Michael Schumacher finished on the podium in every race and wrapped up his fifth world drivers' title earlier than any other driver in history.

While Williams won just one race, Ralf Schumacher leading a one-two in the Malaysian Grand Prix last March, Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya started seven times on pole position and claimed the fastest qualifying lap ever at Monza. Berger said it would be wrong for Williams to concentrate entirely on Ferrari.

"We will have to keep an eye on McLaren for sure, especially now that Mercedes has poached some of our technicians and the team is bound to grow in strength again," he said.

BMW engine expert Werner Laurenz joined McLaren's partners Mercedes at the end of last season. Berger said the rivalry between Ralf and Montoya, who collided on track last season, was unlikely to change much.

"If two teammates have been together for two years and haven't shown too much difference in their performance, that isn't going to change in the third year," he said. "I'm assuming that they will both be on a par again in 2003 and will be among the front-runners."