Nico Rosberg reckons Williams is currently improving its car at a faster rate than large manufacturer-backed teams like Ferrari and Toyota and can take another step closer to the front at this weekend’s British Grand Prix.
In recent years the Grove-based outfit has tended to start the season promisingly only to fall ever further behind as its better-funded rivals outpaced it in the development stakes.
So far this year Williams has maintained its form much better and scored its best result last time out in Turkey, where Rosberg finished a strong fifth and beat Felipe Massa’s Ferrari on merit.
“I think we’ve definitely made progress in development, compared to the past two years where we’ve always fallen back a little bit,” the German told reporters on Thursday.
“This year we’re always there and developing well.
“I think one has to say Williams is doing a great job this year, because our budget is much smaller than some other big teams who we’re fighting against directly like Ferrari and Toyota, and we’re developing quicker than them.
“So it’s been going well and I think I can be pretty pleased with that. Of course we want to be a bit further up, but we’re on the right path.”
Rosberg believes Williams has remedied one of its main weaknesses from last season – inconsistent performance from one circuit to another – and will not struggle through Silverstone’s fast, downforce-dependent corners as it has in recent years.
The FW31 will also feature a significant aerodynamic upgrade at this weekend’s race, leaving Rosberg hopeful of making further inroads into the top teams’ advantage.
“I’m hoping for points, for sure, and I think we can do even better than that; I think we can finish in the top six, maybe,” he said.
“We have a good update on the car, we’ve been strong in recent races and our direct competition brought their updates at the last race, where we were also looking good.
“It was surprising that we beat Ferrari fair and square [in Turkey], to be honest; we really drove away from them. That was a little bit surprising – I didn’t expect it to be that way.
“Even though this has been our weakest track in the past, somehow this year we’re much more consistent from one track to another and I have a feeling our car could do well here.
“What we’ve managed to achieve until now is just to stay in a similar place – top eight all the time – but I’m hoping that for Silverstone we might make a little step forward, because we have a big step on the car.”
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