02.10.2003 BMS SCUDERIA ITALIA HAVE AIR RESTRICTOR RULING LIFTED AS FERRARI DRIVERS PREPARE TO BATTLE FOR THE TITLE
The GT Commission Bureau, having checked the performance of the no 22 and 23 Ferrari Maranello cars, and in order to achieve a balance of performance with the new cars, has suggested that the no 22 and 23 cars be allowed to revert to the original size of restrictors, 32.1 mm, instead of the 31.6 mm they had for Anderstorp and Oschersleben. The team has accepted this change, which may be applied from the next race.

Italian team BMS Scuderia Italia took an unassailable lead in the Teams Championship in Oschersleben, with their seventh win of the season placing them 40 points ahead of Lister Racing. However, the results remain provisional, appeal pending. In the Drivers classification, it is now certain that this year's Champions will come from among the drivers entered by the Italian team. Biagi and Bobbi lead, ahead of Bryner and Calderari, with Gollin and Calderari dropping behind the Care Racing duo.

"It is great that we will not have the smaller restrictor any more," team spokesman Marco Streparava explained. "This is excellent news for us, as Estoril has a long straight, and we will really need the power. We have now realised that we have provisionally won the Championship, depending on the appeal.  The team has continued to work, but we will have nothing new for Estoril. The main factor is that with no restrictor, we have good chance to have the cars running at 100% of their capacity."

Matteo Bobbi, "I like the Estoril track very much and I have very fond memories of it. For example, in 1999 I won second place during the Formula Renault 2000 European championship. In Portugal, I will be racing during the first and third hour of the race and will also be doing the qualifications. This is a very important race for us. Thomas and I are the leaders in the classification and everyone thinks that we will be more than capable of winning the title.

"I must admit that this however doesn’t bother me, our strength is our tranquillity that we have used and that has allowed us to get great results throughout the season. In Estoril we will have 80 kg of ballasts but the organizers have decided to remove our restrictors that were imposed on the Scuderia Italia’s cars for the last few races. Once again, I’m calm and concentrated. I think this is the only way you can get winning results."