By Nikki Reynolds, F1 Editor - Motorsport.com

Like most people, Gerhard Berger is expecting an interesting fight on track
this season and he predicts that the competition between Williams drivers
Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya will be a fierce battle. The former
BMW motorsport director expects this season's car to be in good shape from
the first race at Melbourne in two weeks time.

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"The WilliamsF1 BMW FW26 is looking promising and should be truly
competitive from the outset in 2004," said Berger. "Ralf is getting better
and better, and, if he can be consistent throughout the whole season, then
he will be challenging for the Championship.

"Juan would love to be World Champion, but he can't afford to ignore Ralf.
It will be a constant battle between the two of them throughout the season
so I'm sure it's going to be a closely fought championship."

Williams completed a three-day test at Valencia this week, working on set
up, traction control, systems and tyres, as well as race simulations in
preparation for Australia.

"Just before bad weather hampered the test programme on Friday, the BMW P84
engine successfully completed another race simulation," said BMW's Mario
Theissen.

"The engine specification used will be the one we have in Melbourne so we
should be well prepared for the season's opener. Next week, we will spend
the final, pre-season test in Imola fine tuning the P84."





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