Williams see light at the end of the tunnel with F1 upgrades

There is "light at the end of the tunnel" for Williams as Formula 1's rock-bottom team try to mount a recovery from their dismal slide over recent years. Williams are the only team not to score a point over the first six races this season, having amassed just seven last year.

Williams impressed in the early years of the V6 Hybrid era, thanks to a power unit partnership with Mercedes, but their development has taken a sharp downturn since 2016.

Things have reached a nadir this year, with Williams late to pre-season testing and then bringing a car to the opening rounds of the championship that has been drastically slower than the others.

However, the team hope upcoming upgrades will help them catch up with the pack and then enable more grand ambitions.

"We can see some light at the end of the tunnel now. It may be slow but we all know that it takes time to bring performance to your car," deputy team principal Claire Williams said.

"There's definitely a lot of good work going on back at the factory that people may not necessarily be seeing yet.

"It's just not our mindset at Williams. We don't write a season off just because we aren't doing well. For us, at the moment, we're really looking at '19 and '20 very much as almost two seasons [combined].

"It's just evolution and development and we've just got to keep bringing performance at each and every race. We've definitely seen that we've done that, we're closing the gap to the ninth-placed team and we've got to keep doing that as the season progresses."

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