Thiessen hopes to compete with Ferrari

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Following the formation of the BMW Williams alliance in 2000, the Anglo-German team have enjoyed moderate success in Spain, with Montoya's 2nd places in 2001 and 2002, and are now looking to improve on that success and close the gap to their competitors.

"The BMW P84 engine successfully passed another endurance test over the San Marino Grand Prix weekend, most notably in the final laps of the race when Juan Pablo achieved rpm levels on a par with those achieved during qualifying, which enabled him to defend himself against Fernando Alonso's attack," said BMW Motorsport Chief Mario Theissen. "This achievement has underlined the value of the work we've carried out over the last few weeks."

"Our on-going development effort in Munich is focused on achieving maximum revs and output in the second half of the engine's 800-kilometre lifespan, i.e. during the race," he added. "We're working on achieving this even whilst in seventh gear, which on some circuits is engaged for more than five seconds at maximum revs. In the past, it was customary to make the top gear longer, by 500 to 1,000 rpm, in order to reduce this continuous load."

"Our recent development strategy is primarily directed at those components which have to sustain high thermal and mechanical loads," he explained. "We have subsequently developed significant expertise in both design, aided by computer simulation, and in high-precision manufacturing, an advance which stands us in good stead for the single engine rule. For BMW, the Formula One project has once again proved to be an effective foundation as these insights are now filtering into the development of production engines."

"Demand on the engine at Barcelona is average, with a moderate proportion of the lap taken at full throttle. With an 880 metre start/finish straight though, every extra bit of horsepower pays dividends. The BMW WilliamsF1 Team clearly has a significant gap to close to the competition but we will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to achieve this."