Given Williams-BMW’s current pace, the team was unlikely to win any races in the first half of the season, says former BMW Motorsport boss Gerhard Berger. Is he being overly pessimistic?
Given Williams-BMW’s current pace, the team was unlikely to win any races in the first half of the season, says former BMW Motorsport boss Gerhard Berger. Is Berger being overly pessimistic?
Following WilliamsF1’s mediocre showing at the beginning of last season, Berger was highly critical of the Grove-based team, recommending that BMW seek an alternative partner, or even launch a works team. However, Williams-BMW staged a remarkable comeback – Juan-Pablo Montoya took the championship fight to the penultimate round at Indianapolis.
Following Ferrari’s domination of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 6, Berger is convinced that the gap between the Scuderia and its rivals, including Wiliams-BMW, will remain static until later in the season.
“I don’t think in the first half of the year it is going to be possible to close the gap to Ferrari because the gap is really big,” he told . “They need to do development work, and development work usually takes a bit of time.
“I don’t see a big change in the next races except the influence of heat and tyres,” he added. “Maybe from mid-season on, we are going to see a strong competition”.
