segunda-feira, maio 31, 2004
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Sam Michael: 'It would help if our drivers didn't keep crashing'
(Planet F1)
Sunday May 30 2004
The Williams pit wall must have been fuming after the first lap of the European GP when Williams' drivers had another of their infamous incidents, compromising both their races.
Heading into the first corner on lap one, Juan Pablo Montoya outbraked himself and hit Ralf, the contact breaking the Colombian's front wing. Ralf came off worse, though - Montoya was able to continue after getting his FW26 fixed, but Ralf's race was over.
But instead of blasting his team-mate the 2003 European GP winner, who has been involved in an incident of some sort at every race this year except Spain said: "It was a very unfortunate accident with Juan who just braked a bit too late since he was trying to gain some places at the end of the straight. I am 100% sure Juan didn't do it on purpose therefore I am not going to blame him for this. It was a very normal start accident."
Tell that to Cristiano da Matta, who was caught up in the team-mates' tussle, and also forced into retirement. Ralf has, however, apologised.
"Shame I hit Cristiano Da Matta too, but I was just a passenger on my car at that time, since Juan had hit me in the back and then in the front and I had no longer control on the car. I am sorry for Cristiano but there was nothing I could do to avoid taking him out."
He added: "This accident is frustrating, of course, but I can guarantee we'll fight all our way back and I am sure we'll soon be in racing again."
Giving his version of their accident Montoya, who went on to claim eighth place, saw things a little bit differently and believes the fault lies with Olivier Panis - or at least anyone but himself. He explained: "When I made it to the first corner Rubens Barrichello, who was in front of me, braked quite early and both Ralf and I locked the tyres. Then Ralf went for the outside and I stayed behind Rubens but when I was going around the corner Panis dived up the inside hitting my front tyre which threw me straight into Ralf. A hairpin is always going to cause problems in a racing start."
"After that I had obviously a tough race, having to recover from 18th place. I still could collect one point, but I know there was more in the car."
The fact is remains had the two steered clear of one another, the European GP could have yielded more than just one point, as new technical director Sam Michael was quick to point out. "We would have been much more competitive if both our cars had come through the first corner without incident," he stated.
posted by
Viviane at 9:56:00 AM
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