Lowe recognises 'incredible competition' on grid

Williams engineer Paddy Lowe has claimed that he expects to be 'up there' among the more established constructor teams this upcoming season, but recognises the 'incredible competition' on the grid between the respective outfits to fight for podium places and wins.

Lowe's team are hoping for an improvement this campaign, but many figures in the sport believe they could struggle due to the inexperience of their drivers, Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin, who are the youngest driving duo on the circuit.

Williams are expected to fight with the likes of Force India, Renault, and McLaren for top half positions in the rankings, but it is Lowe's goal to close the gap on the top three teams, Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull, as much as possible too.

"We are trying to achieve an element of step change and not just a progression," said Lowe.

"We were two seconds or so a lap slower than the front runners [in 2017] and that is something we would like to close up considerably. So we are looking for a step change.

"We are hoping to be well up there, but we recognise some incredible competition out there,

"Obviously the front three teams are established in a good position. We have Force India who did a terrific job last year and beat us in the championship.

"We also have McLaren with a different engine: they will be a threat. And we have Renault emerging. So that is already six out of the nine teams we are competing against. We don't take anything for granted."

Lowe has revealed that WIlliams have hit all of their virtual targets during testing, but thinks they still have work to do to maximise the potential of their new vehicle.

"Broadly we've hit our targets, but we are always pushing until the end," he continued.

"We have got to the stage where we are finding things in the tunnel and it's on the cusp of 'can we get to them for the first race?'

"We've hit performance targets we set internally, but there are a couple of caveats. Are those targets ambitious enough and will those transfer to the track? That remains to be seen.

"One of the things we can measure is on absolute performance. So while we are reluctant to say we want to come third, or fourth or fifth because we cannot predict what others have done, we would like to see a lap time gain against the guys who were taking pole position last year."