Williams review with Mario Theissen

1st x 4 (Schumacher 3, Montoya 1)
1st x 4 (Montoya 3, Schumacher 1)
A memorable debut victory for the still new partnership at Imola.
The disastrous opening laps at Spa, and Jos Verstappen's assault on leader Montoya in Brazil.
Clearly the team has momentum on its side, but McLaren will now challenge its status as top Michelin runner. Key technical man Geoff Willis leaves for BAR just before the start of the season, and that won't help ongoing development.

On balance it was a superb second season for the BMW Williams combination, and four poles and four victories was better than anyone on the inside dared hope for. But it could have been so much better.

In the first part of the year accidents proved very costly - more often than not the Williams guys were not at fault - while later on reliability issues cropped up. There were also far too many fumbles in the pits, although on occasion the refuelling equipment rather than the team itself was to blame.

Ralf Schumacher established himself as a driver of the top rank, although he was eclipsed in the last part of the season by Juan Pablo Montoya. When he struggled early on it was all too easy to forget that the Colombian was a rookie, and he still had a lot to learn. But from the off he displayed the sort of fighting spirit that Frank Williams enjoys so much.

How the two hotshots compare will be one of the most intriguing aspects of next year, although the current consensus is that Montoya has gained a psychological edge. Adam Cooper spoke to BMW Motorsport technical director Mario Theissen, the man who runs the company's F1 programme in partnership with Gerhard Berger.



"It was an extraordinary season, and we exceeded expectations, which was good. People talk about three strong teams and not just two any more, and that was our goal for the second year. In addition we won four Grands Prix and we had four pole positions, which was certainly something we could not expect. So altogether I'm very happy about the season."



"Sure. That was really special. We were in the lead before, but this time in Imola we were really strong, on our own in the lead of the race. Time gets long! As you wait everything goes through your mind, and it was really rewarding to make it. It reminded me of Le Mans 1999, which was about the same situation. Fortunately it didn't take that long!"



"We certainly had several weekends which were really disappointing. I remember personally Austria, and I remember Spa of course. But that's how it is if you are new. We are still learners. We are not beginners any more, but we don't have the stability of a real top team yet. That's what made Ferrari different from any other team this year. But it took them four or five years as well to get there, and you just have to understand and accept that it takes time. You have to experience all the different situations that can happen during a race - you cannot learn it at home, you cannot study it, you just have to experience it at the race."



"Exactly. I think it's natural, and I'm not too much worried about it. Certainly it's our focus for the coming season to work on reliability, to work on precision accuracy in all the processes we have during a race weekend, and also at home when building the engine. I hope we can improve in this respect for next season."



"The engine was all new, and there was nothing taken over from the 2000 engine. The concept was quite different. The target was higher of course, and to achieve this we had to get closer to the limit in terms of everything - power, weight, and dimensions. We went from a 72 degree vee to 90 degrees. We did a careful evaluation before doing this, and we found that this was the optimum."



"The first time the engine ran on the dyno was the Monday after Indianapolis, so it was still September. The first time on track was before Malaysia, in the last 2000 season test. But this was kind of a roll out more than a real test. But from the first week of December onwards we were testing almost weekly, with one car dedicated 100 percent to engine development, and of course in parallel we had engines running on our dynos. We learned a lot, and basically we did most of our work with the intermediate car. We really made progress during track tests - we had a very efficient and worthwhile test in Barcelona, and we really found many things. It was not about basic layout of the engine, but more the environment."



"I think we didn't go too far, because if you look at the problems we had it was not because the engine was too adventurous. It was just simple errors. Basically the engine was absolutely reliable. We only had one problem which required a design change, which was a conrod bearing problem early in the year."



"Yes, as I said it's about precision and accuracy in every single step in the workshop, and at the track as well."



"The main target to open up the vee angle is to get the centre of gravity down on the car. But if you open it up too much in the end you have to lift the whole engine, because you still need some space for the exhausts. If you raise the engine in the end the centre of gravity will not drop any more, and then it doesn't make sense."



"Aside from reliability and precision, this is the other area we have to improve. We have shown this year that if everything goes right, the track suits the car, the weather is fine, the drivers are good, then we can win. But we have shown so far that we are not able to really exploit the potential of the whole package every day at every track. And this is what we have to learn. This is to a certain extent about the performance of the car in slower tracks."



"We were. We have seen that Michael was way ahead of everyone in the first sector of the lap, but other than that we were quite competitive. And this is really encouraging for next season."



"So far it certainly is! I don't believe in the approach of having just one strong driver and one second class driver. We certainly have to make sure that next year they work like this year as well. I cannot complain about anything. There was much hype about their rivalry, but in fact if you look at how they drove and what they really said, it was absolutely OK. We didn't have one single situation which was difficult or detrimental to the team's success."



"We might have more of these situations next year, and we certainly have to prepare and to talk to the drivers, have a clear strategy how to deal with it, and an agreed one. I'm quite optimistic because above all they are professionals, and they know there are two goals - certainly their personal success, but also the team's success, and in the end you can only succeed if you act according to these targets."



"I would say F1 is a global business, and BMW is a global brand. We have certainly not opted for German drivers but for the best drivers that the team could get, and Ralf belongs to that group."