Monday March 11th, 2002

BMW motorsport boss Gerhard Berger is confident the Williams team will be closer to rivals Ferrari at next weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix.

World Champions Ferrari, using an updated version of last year's F2001, dominated the season opening Australian Grand Prix with German Michael Schumacher winning the race by more than 18 seconds ahead of Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya.

The Italian team have already announced they will use the F2001 again at the Sepang circuit this weekend, but despite having won there in the previous three years, Berger is expecting his Williams team to present a serious challenge to Ferrari's domination.

"The victory of Michael Schumacher and Ferrari in Melbourne wasn't a big surprise to me," said Berger. "I always said that Ferrari will be the benchmark this year. The situation reminds me of 2001 when Ferrari won the season's opening race and was under pressure two weeks later in Malaysia.

"I also expect that our package of chassis, engine and tyres will profit from the high temperatures at Sepang, and we will get close to the Ferraris. We should not read too much into the results in Melbourne, and for sure, there will be races this season when Ferrari are not dominant, and we should make the most of these opportunities to win."

Published at 11:12:27 GMT