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|
| April 31,
2001 |
| Brazilian Grand Prix
- QUALIFYING |
| Ralf
Schumacher "My weekend didn't start so well with a gearbox problem, but
we have improved the set up of the car and the tyres work well in
hot conditions. The BMW engine is strong, so I
am looking forward to a good race tomorrow although I
am not sure we are yet ready to compete with Michael in the
Ferrari." |
|
| R.Schumacher
Williams BMW (M) 1:14.090
(2nd) |
|
|
|
|
| March 23,
2001 |
| Brazilian Grand Prix
- PREVIEW |
Ralf
Schumacher “The Brazilian Grand Prix is amongst
the most
demanding
races of the F1 calendar. The Interlagos track should be a really
good one for us, a bit like Malaysia. Usually in Brazil it’s
very warm, which helps our tyres and
doesn’t affect our engine, which is very good anyway. I see problems
only if it should rain, because on a wet track or when it’s drying
out, we still have some gaps. I hope that the track surface has been really
improved, because in the past years I experienced a real pounding
so much so that after a few laps I already had a headache. Otherwise I
am very pleased to enjoy again the great Brazilian steaks!” |
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| March 22,
2001 |
| TEST
- BARCELONA |
| Ralf
Schumacher “I suffered a few technical
problems today. Late in the afternoon, I heard some strange
noises coming from the engine and I decided to stop the car
on the track. The team is now investigating to understand what
went wrong. Before that, I was working mainly on traction control
and set-up work for the Spanish Grand Prix. Due to a
bad sore throat and a cold that I caught in Malaysia,
I won’t be able to continue testing tomorrow.” |
|
| R. Schumacher
BMW:WilliamsF1 1:22.270
35 laps |
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| March 20,
2001 |
| RALF
WANTS TO STOP SCHUMI |
| He
said "It has been a good weekend. We seemed to improve, we
seemed to get closer and I hope we can go further
and be a bit bigger pain for Ferrari. I hope Michael
is not going to win nine because I want to win
one of the next races if I can. We are closing
the gap now and I am hoping to take the opportunity and
win. Ferrari are looking very strong but no one is unbeatable,
so we will do our best and see what happens." |
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| March 18,
2001 |
| MALAYSIAN
GRAND PRIX - RACE |
| Ralf
said "That was some race,In some ways it is a disappointment, given where
we started on the grid, and I can't understand what happened
at the first corner. Barrichello should know that the car in front
has right of way going into a corner, and I was ahead of him. In the middle
of the race I began to get a bit of understeer, which was due to my set-up
rather than the tyres. The handling worsened after
my third stop - and my brakes also began to fade a little. Despite
all that, it was good that I was able
to hold off Hakkinen at the end - and I am pleased to score the first points
of the season for BMW, Williams and Michelin." |
|
| R.Schumacher
Williams BMW (M)
+ 0:48.200 (5th) |
|
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| March 17,
2001 |
| MALAYSIAN
GRAND PRIX - QUALIFYING |
| For
the second race of the 2001 season, Ralf Schumacher will start from
the second row. |
Ralf
Schumacher said:“I am definitely surprised, I didn’t expect to be so close
to this position, especially after where we were
yesterday. I had several positive laps and a truly brilliant
third run and it’s clear that we have a very good package.
I don’t see ourselves out-racing Ferrari and McLaren tomorrow, partly because
Michelin haven’t ever raced on this track. However, I am confident that
we will score some points tomorrow, which I couldn’t achieve in Melbourne.
The biggest difference between
here
and Australia is that the tyres are now much better suited to the circuit
as Albert Park was the first shot for Michelin. It was fun to fight with
my brother, I can imagine how our parents must have been feeling watching
the duel at home!” |
|
| R.Schumacher
Williams BMW (M)
1:35.511 (3rd) |
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| March 17,
2001 |
| Malaysian Grand Prix
- Qualifying Quotes |
| Q. Michael,
what's it like fighting with your brother rather than McLaren? |
Michael
S: Fun, I'd say! I think we should tell him that he's
so young, and things should be slowly built up! No, he is doing
well, and it's great to see him there. The team and himself have built
up something which they can be proud of and they're giving us a good challenge.
Honestly, where is the challenge coming from? In the end of
the day, when we're racing, it doesn't really matter.
I'd rather see him there, honestly, than somebody else, because
we
know
each other well from the past, we know how to handle each other in
races. So I look forward to that, but it will be competition on the circuit. |
| Q,
We enjoyed that. How did you enjoy it? |
| Michael
S: Pretty much - it was good! I was saying to Ralf before, our father must
have gone mad with his heart rate, and our mother. They're more nervous
than we are, and seeing us two there must have been entertaining. |
| Q, So who
would you prefer sitting beside you on the front row? You've got your team-mate
- which of the two would you prefer? |
| Michael
S: He [Ralf] is too fast on the straights, so obviously it's nicer to have
Rubens next to me so we two can keep him hopefully behind us. |
| Q, But
then your brother's behind you? |
| Michael
S: After the start, yes, I hope so. |
| Michael
said "It was great to be fighting with my brother. I think our parents'
heartbeat must have been high and that they were more
nervous than us. It was a fun session and it is great
to see him up here. It does not matter where our challenge
comes from, but I would rather it comes from him because
I know him better than the others. But, for
the race, I would rather have my
team-mate alongside me." |
| We
enjoyed that. How did you enjoy it? |
|
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|
| March 17,
2001 |
|
| Malaysia Qualifying
Press Conference |
Q:I
suppose we're slightly surprised to see you here in third place
today,
but are you surprised? |
| Ralf
S: Well I'm definitely surprised to be honest. I mean, after yesterday's
performance I didn't think that we were close to that position. We're unexpectedly
close to Ferrari. But that is just in qualifying. I think we had a good
package together today. I got a good lap in too. I don't see
us racing against them or McLaren tomorrow, but we'll try our
best to score a few more points. |
| Q: Given
how fast you've been - you did actually put three good laps together -
why do you not see yourself being able to keep the pace in the race? |
| Ralf
S: Especially with them [Ferrari] you never know where you
are. In Melbourne they were playing games even in qualifying. And then
they showed the real performance in the race, so lets wait and see. So
you know they have quite a big gap to the rest of us still. We have something
to do with the tyre situation. We don't know how it is in the race - obviously
Michelin haven't raced here before. There are so many question marks. I
don't want to think about racing against Ferrari tomorrow. I would rather
look after myself and try to finish the race. |
| Q: But
do you think you have an advantage? Williams is one of only two teams to
have tested in very hot weather in South Africa and obviously its going
to be very warm tomorrow. |
| Ralf
S: Well we have tested, but as we see we are not first so it didn't seem
to mean that much. But we mainly do it for ourselves, for temperature problems
we might get in case we have weather like that, that's the only reason. |
| Q: Ralf,
well done - you looked as though you
were enjoying yourself out there as well? |
Ralf
S:When I started off and was at first just slightly quicker than Rubens,
I knew that they were going to go quicker. When
Michael had his problem in the last turn I knew we
had to go mid-35. What I didn't know was that
we are actually able to
do it!
But yes, we proved that we had a good car
and a good package today, although I wouldn't be over-excited about it.
We had a good day today, but obviously Michelin hasn't
been here racing, and we still have some problems with the car, so I wouldn't
expect us to be that strong in the race. But we will try
our best and try to score a few points. |
| Q:
You sat and saw the last time of Michael's
and shook your head... |
| Ralf
S: I was up there, and I was expecting him to go quicker. Then when I saw
the first sector, I hoped: sometimes a driver can miss a sector, and I
must admit it would have made my life easier if I didn't need to
try afterward. But for me it was simply the
limit, a 35.5. I'm happy to be as close as we are today. I think we are
far better than anyone expected, to be honest. |
| Q: Some
people would say, what has made the difference
from Melbourne to here? |
| Ralf
S: The biggest difference here is that the tyre fits better to this circuit.
It is exactly the same tyre, but in Melbourne it was
the first shot for them, and we seem to struggle on circuits
like that a little bit at the moment. We had that as well during
winter tests, so we have to do some work on it. Even here it's not perfect
yet, obviously, but it's working a lot better. |
| Q: Would
you prefer a softer tyre? |
| Ralf
S: A different tyre. I didn't mean a different company,
I meant Michelin - just a different sort from Michelin, just
to put that right! |
| Q: Ralf,
by the disparity in the times, it looks pretty obvious that the tyre war
has really begun, and Michelin, even though they are in their first season
in F1, have made a big stride? |
| Ralf
S: I think Michelin have done a good job. I wouldn't call it a real war,
it's a fight, and it's good for Formula One, in my opinion. It raises the
game, gives some more opportunities to some teams,
and even for teams like us today, if the tyre fits a bit better to the
circuit we can show up, and I think that's good for Formula One. |
| Q: Ralf,
you said you're not 100 per cent confident to be keeping the same pace
in the race as you did in qualifying against the top teams. Is it possibly
down to the tyre choice as well? |
Ralf
S: No, I wouldn't say that is a problem. We chose the best we had here.
Obviously the problem is we simply don't know what's going
to happen throughout the race. We had a
Friday which looked relatively promising, but as you saw as well
in Melbourne they (Ferrari) seem to be pretty strong in racing
and I'm not so sure whether we can follow them. But anyway,
at the moment we're happy with what we achieved today
and we will just go into tomorrow's race
and obviously try our best. But I think McLaren is going to push from the
back, because what I have seen last time in Melbourne is that
they were quite far away from Ferrari
in
qualifying
but all of a sudden in Sunday's race they seemed
to give them still a little bit of a hard time. So
I expect them to be quick tomorrow and it will be difficult for us then. |
|
|
|
| R.Schumacher
Williams BMW (M)
1:35.511 (3rd) |
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|
| March 17,
2001 |
| MALAYSIAN
GRAND PRIX - SATURDAY FREE PRACTICE |
|
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|
| R.Schumacher
Williams BMW (M)
1:36.475 (2nd) |
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|
| March 16,
2001 |
| MALAYSIAN
GRAND PRIX - FRIDAY FREE PRACTICE |
| Ralf
Schumacher was 10th in the first Free Practice sessions of the Malaysian
Grand Prix. |
He said
"I had some set-up problems today. The car was oversteering in many corners,
which still gives us some work for tomorrow. It wasn't a tyre induced problem
though, the reason for the imbalance lies in the set-up of the car. As
I didn't suffer any
technical
problems we could complete all the to-do-list on my car and test what we
had planned." |
|
| R.Schumacher
Williams BMW (M)
1:40.617 ( 10th ) |
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| March 15,
2001 |
| RALF
SCHUMACHER HAS SPOKEN ABOUT THE CRASH IN MELBOURNE |
| He said:
"It is something that can happen to all of us as you focus so much
to overtake the car in front of you and
you sometimes miss the braking point and I guess
that is what happened to him (Villenueve)." |
| "I haven't
actually spoken to Jacques, but you cannot really blame a driver
for it, can you? You could see what happened and
it is very sad for everyone, of course - for the
family, for us too. I wish I could turn back the
clock, but you cannot do that and all you can do now is push for higher
safety standards from our side and from the FIA." |
| "I don't
plan to speak to him, for me that thing is over. If he wants to come and
speak to me, he can, but I don't seen any need to do that." |
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|
| March 14,
2001 |
| MALAYSIAN GRAND
PRIX |
| Friday
16, March |
| free
practice 1.1 : 11.00 - 12.00 (GMT +
8) |
| free practice 1.2 :
13.00
- 14.00 (GMT + 8) |
| Saturday 17,
March |
| free practice 2.1 :
09.00 - 09.45 (GMT + 8) |
| free practice 2.2 :
10.15 - 11.00 (GMT
+ 8) |
| qualifying session :
13.00 - 14.00 (GMT + 8) |
| Sunday 18,
March |
| warm-up
: 10.30 - 11.00
(GMT + 8) |
| RACE
: 15.00
(GMT + 8) |
| |
| London time: GMT |
|
|
|
| March 09 ,
2001 |
| Malaysian Grand Prix
- PREVIEW |
Ralf
Schumacher "The Malaysian circuit is one of the most modern of the Formula
One calendar not only due to the nature of track itself but also
to its great facilities such as the garages and the paddock, which
are a true model for all other race tracks. With
regard
to safety, this circuit represents the highest standards. The gravel
traps, for example, are of the latest generation. Nevertheless the Malaysian
Grand Prix is one of the hardest races because of the hot temperatures
and the huge humidity and I also find it quite difficult to find the ideal
line on this track. Anyway I am glad to be in Malaysia. I flew here
straight from Australia to recover from the trauma of the events of Melbourne." |
|
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| March 09 ,
2001 |
BMW.WilliamsF1
Team Barcelona Test Schedules
(20th
- 23rd March 2001, Barcelona) |
| BMW.WilliamsF1
Team will be back for the test at Barcelona the week after the Malaysian
Grand Prix. |
| March
20 , 2001 Marc Gene |
March
21 , 2001 Ralf Schumacher
March
22 , 2001 Ralf Schumacher |
| March
23 , 2001 Juan Pablo Montoya |
|
|
|
| March 04 ,
2001 |
| Australian Grand Prix - RACE |
Ralf Schumacher
"I am awfully sorry that a man who was looking
after our safety was killed
today. My deepest sympathy goes to his relatives and friends. I
was on the inside of the track going my way and
being careful not to make any change of line. I braked
and suddenly felt a huge bang
in the back and saw Jacques flying over me. I spun hoping
that I would crash nowhere. I think that Jacques overrated
himself a bit, just like last year in Canada,
when he ran into my car. After I got out of my car I had a look at
the cockpit of the BAR, which was almost
destroyed and I was glad to know that Jacques had
already stepped out of it." |
|
|
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|
|
| March 03 ,
2001 |
| Ralf Schumacher will start from 5th positions
respectively for the first race of the 2001 season. |
Ralf said "After yesterday's
performance it went much better than expected today.
A big compliment must go to BMW: The new
engine is really strong.
Furthermore we have managed to match
the set-up and the
tyres. The Michelin tyres worked much better
than yesterday and it
also helped that the grip level of the track
improved remarkably
from Friday. I could imagine that we might
even look a little bit better
tomorrow." |
|
| R.Schumacher
Williams 1'28"625
(5th) |
|
|
|
|
| March 02 ,
2001 |
| Ralf Schumacher sixth
quickest in the first Free Practice sessions of the 2001 season, Australian
GP. |
He said
“We are not really there where we would like to be but the season
is just at the start the gap to the top is bigger than we expected
and we need to work on that. We struggled with understeer,
which appears to be tyre related. But this is no surprise, with Michelin
we are in a completely
new
situation. I believe anyway that tomorrow we could qualify in the
top eight.“ |
|
|
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|
|
| March 02 ,
2001 |
| Australia 2001: Friday, 1st free
practice |
1. R. Barrichello
Ferrari
1.29.056
2. M. Schumacher
Ferrari
1.29.368
3. M. Häkkinen
McLaren
1.30.03
4. D. Coulthard
McLaren
1.30.052
5. R. Schumacher
Williams
1.31.352 |
|
| Australia 2001: Friday, 2 free
practice |
1. R. Barrichello
Ferrari
1.28.965
2. J.Trulli
Jordan Honda 1.29.267
3. M. Schumacher
Ferrari
1.29.284
4. D. Coulthard
McLaren
1.29.324
5. M. Häkkinen
McLaren
1.29.799
6. R. Schumacher
Williams
1.30.277 |
|
|
|
| March 01 ,
2001 |
| AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX |
| Friday
March 2nd |
| free
practice 1.1 : 11.00 - 12.00 (GMT + 11) |
| free practice 1.2 :
13.00
- 14.00 (GMT + 11) |
| Saturday March 3rd |
| free practice 2.1 :
09.00 - 09.45 (GMT + 11) |
| free practice 2.2 :
10.15 - 11.00 (GMT + 11) |
| qualifying session :
13.00 - 14.00 (GMT + 11) |
| Sunday March 4th |
| warm-up
: 09.30 - 10.00
(GMT + 11) |
| RACE
: 14.00
(GMT + 11) |
| --- |
| London time: GMT |
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