Angered by the way in which his contract negotiations for the Williams-BMW team have been progressing, Ralf Schumacher has hit out at team boss Frank Williams and threatened to leave the team while speaking in an interview.
Saddened by the way in which his contract negotiations for the Williams-BMW team have been progressing, Ralf Schumacher has hit out at team boss Frank Williams and threatened to leave the team while speaking in an interview.
Speaking to German newspaper, Bild am Sonntag on Sunday, Ralf commented that he was fed-up with Williams team boss Sir Frank Williams and his ‘hard-ball’ tactics.
Schumacher’s contract negotiations with Williams over the past few months have not been finalised. He’s accused his team of retracting a new contract that was ready to be signed.
“It would be sad [to leave the team] but I can’t allow myself to be treated like that by Williams. I’m not frustrated,” added Schumacher. “But I find it hard to understand certain things that have happened these past few months.”
Schumacher claims that Williams has accused him of only being interested in money.
“Frank Williams says I’m nothing but a money-grabber. I can only laugh at that. He knows that I would agree to cut my current salary in half,” Schumacher said.
He stated that he was furious when Williams failed to turn up to sign a new contract last year.
Recently, Frank Williams spoke about the negotiations between Schumacher and the team and said: “We have agreed to park up the problem for some time and review it mid-season onwards.
“There is no rush for us to do something about 2005 and we will look at everybody. We have got a lot of people we can look at,” Williams concluded.
Schumacher’s team-mate, Colombian driver Juan Pablo Montoya, is already set to leave Williams after agreeing to drive for McLaren in 2005.
