DECEMBER 10, 2001

Ralf Schumacher to race with glasses

Ralf Schumacher says he will be racing with spectacles next season.

RALF SCHUMACHER says he will be racing with spectacles next season. The BMW Williams driver won three races in 2001 but recently tried eyeglasses for the first time and found they improved his vision. Ralf has yet to drive a Formula 1 wearing glasses but hopes that it will make him even quicker.

For many years it was believed that racers could not be competitive unless they had very good eyesight because of the slight distortion of vision caused by the gap between the glasses and the eye butt that theory was proved wrong in 1997 when Jacques Villeneuve won the World Championship.

Schumacher says that his brother Michael will be the favorite for the World Championship next year but there are many in F1 circles who feel that Ralf's biggest problem in 2002 will be his own team mate Juan Pablo Montoya.