After the difficult Spanish Grand Prix, the BMW WilliamsF1 Team carried out an examination and discovered the reason for Juan Pablo retirement at Barcelona.  On lap 47 of the Spanish Grand Prix, Juan Pablo Montoya pitted for the fourth time, and subsequently had to retire due to a brake problem that had started to develop as early as the third lap.

“The pedal was getting longer and longer,” revealed the Colombian. This was a great pity as his second slot on the starting grid had raised hopes that he might take another good result.

According to WilliamsF1’s Chief Operations Engineer, Sam Michael, the problem was caused by bad judgement concerning the brake cooling.

“We made a decision to go for much smaller (brake) ducts to try and get some more aerodynamic performance out of the car and really it was wrong,” said Michael, “Every circuit is hard on brakes these days because you are always pushing everything as far as you can, but here we just stepped over the limit, obviously.”

Ralf Schumacher also had to contend with a brake problem and consequently had to use them cautiously until he crossed the line. Nevertheless, the German succeeded in taking sixth place, thus adding three points to the Anglo-German alliance's tally.

“I don't want to call it the team's fault,” said Ralf, “The team does its best to give us the best possible cars and I don't call it a mistake. It was just pushing it very far, a bit over the limit. But at least it was possible to finish the race.”