Willi Weber Adopts Desperate Measures For Ralf - PlanetF1

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This is a funny article...

Weber Adopts Desperate Measures For Ralf
09/03/04

Does Willi Weber think Frank Williams was born yesterday? Or is he now so desperate to keep a top line drive for Ralf that he will try and pull off hopelessly transparent stunts like tipping off a newspaper that he was on the brink of signing to a different team.

"We are in agreement with Briatore and a contract is purely a formality," he told the German newspaper Bild about a deal he'd supposedly sorted with Renault.*"In Bahrain we will have a last meeting with Frank Williams. If we cannot agree, Ralf will leave. Ralf is not compelled to stay."

Yeah, right.

The story is surprising for many reasons not least because Weber tried it last year - citing Toyota as Ralf’s next destination - and it didn’t work.

Frank Williams has had 35 years of dealing with drivers and knows very well that as long as he keeps producing the best or the second best racing car on the grid, the very best drivers will beat a path to his door.

He also knows that Briatore is going to be in no hurry to hire a driver to replace one of the men he manages. Certainly if it got to halfway through the season and Trulli was having an old dog of a season then it might cross his mind.

But let’s not forget that Flav dumped Jenson Button in favour of Jarno Trulli and Jenson proved in his debut season at Williams that he was at least a match for Ralf, especi***y on the trickier circuits (Spa and Suzuka) during the latter part of his debut year.

The showing from Melbourne must have worried Weber, as it probably did a lot of Ralf’s fans. You had the man who is leaving the team driving the doors off his car to get past five cars including Jenson Button.

And there’s Ralf who wants to be signed for another two years who can only follow Jenson around and has to wait for him to pit to get past. Not only does it bring back thoughts of the Canadian Grand Prix last year, it c***s into doubt the race craft of Schumi junior.

So if Frank and Patrick Head are going luke warm on Ralf it’s not so surprising.

Webber’s antics have even moved BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen to comment that the team only wants the fastest drivers available and that their nationality is not important. So if this was*Weber's masterplan, then it’s backfired spectacularly.

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Here's another article from Planet-F1 on this:

Only Toyota are interested in Ralf Schumacher Says Frank Williams


Williams team boss Frank Williams said Thursday that Toyota are the only Formula One team interested in signing Ralf Schumacher.

Schumacher's manager Wili Weber has said that the driver is close to agreeing a deal to move from Williams to Renault, but Williams told German magazine Kicker that was "nothing but nonsense."

"Toyota are the only ones," Williams said.

He said he still hoped Schumacher would accept a new deal from Williams. "I've made Ralf a new proposal. He will earn a little less than he does now, but the decision is his and his alone - Williams or Toyota."

The Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper reported that Toyota have offered the younger of the Schumacher brothers 19 million euros a year until 2006.

Schumacher, 28, whose contract with Williams expires at the end of the season, has fixed the Bahrain Grand Prix on April 4 as the deadline for a decision to be made on his team for next season.