FEBRUARY 18, 2002

Montoya gets a new race engineer

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA will have a new race engineer in 2002, Williams's Tim Preston having decided to stop travelling after two years running Jenson Button and then Montoya. Preston rejoined Williams in 2000 on the understanding that he would work as a race engineer for two seasons before taking a role in the team's development department at Grove.

Preston will be replaced next season by Tony Ross, who joined the Williams sportscar program in 1998 and helped to develop the BMW sportscar into a Le Mans winning car in 1999. After that program was cancelled, Ross became the test engineer in charge of the Michelin development program in 2000 and then worked as a test team engineer last year.

The Williams team this week revealed that the old BMW sportscar facility in Grove has been turned into a brand new conference center and museum. The impressive new facility is much more flexible than the original conference center at Grove and the team can now accommodate several groups of visitors on the same day. While the team's sponsors have first call on using the facility, it is available for hire to other organizations.

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