Williams expects to take a step forward in Europe

The Grove-based outfit has had a disappointing start to the campaign, with neither Pastor Maldonado nor Valtteri Bottas scoring any points so far.

The team is focusing its efforts on improving the exhausts area of the FW34, and thinks that the European phase of the season will help it accelerate its progress.

Chief race engineer Xevi Pujolar said that an update package coming on board for Barcelona should be an improvement, but he acknowledged that a lot more work was still needed.

"We are working with a package for Spain and we expect it to be better - but we cannot say how much," he said.

"All the races [at the start of the season] were very close together, with every track changing and what was happening with the tyre changing - so while we could see the problem, from one place to another it was not exactly the same.

"So we have been catching up and trying to get the best for Barcelona. Once we are in Europe, then probably everything will be a bit easier.

"First of all the logistics are an improvement, plus we are closer to the factory - so everything will work much better."

Although the team is not expecting a quick solution to the exhaust issues, Pujolar says the fact that recent updates have worked on the car, shows that it can have confidence about what is coming.

"At the moment we think that it's going in the right direction, even though it is not going as fast as we would like," he said.

"But all the parts we brought to the car we've run them, so that's good."