FW34 a 'definite step forward'

Sunday 19th February 2012

FW34 a 'definite step forward'

FW34 a 'definite step forward'

Williams are looking forward to the season ahead, adamant their FW34 will yield better results that its predecessor.

The Grove-based team had a tough time last year as they bagged just four points from 19 grands prix, their worst Formula One season ever.

This prompted several changes within the team, the most notable being the departure of technical director Sam Michael and the swap from Cosworth to Renault power.

The team launched their Renault-powered FW34 ahead of the first pre-season test in Jerez with engineering chief Mark Gillan confident it's an improvement on last year's.

"It is a definite step forward," he told Autosport.

"It is definitely a very different car and there is a lot of things that we need to start investigating and unlock because last year we could not go down those particular routes because we were prevented by the way the car behaved or the way it used its tyres.

"It is clear that the car is very different to last year. And there are certain areas where we need to improve. Set-up tends to take a while to iterate too, and certainly that is what we will be looking to in the next couple of tests.

"Sometimes the car cannot look good in certain areas but there is not much lap time by improving those specific things, but in areas such as the low speed, where you get most lap time to gain, those are areas to investigate to always try to improve."

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