Williams take aggressive approach for 2008

Williams are constructing an all-new car for next year, which they believe will take them back into the winners' circle for the first time since 2004

With Nico Rosberg saying earlier this week that the team could become the third force in Formula One in 2008, Williams technical director Sam Michael has revealed the team are adopting an aggressive approach to their plans for next season.

"It's not an evolution of the FW29; it's a new car," he told autosport.com about the team's plans for their new challenger.

"A car that's a revolution, is fast, and wins races. It's not the same car as this year's. We've started from scratch. It's not the direct successor."

Williams plan to launch their new car in early January, and the team have already switched all their design focus on to it, having signed off their final developments of the FW29 last week.

Michael echoed Rosberg's confidence about next season, as he predicted the team will make a big step forward over this year.

"It's not a case of just thinking we're going to win next year's world championship, and Nico's not saying that either," explained Michael.

"He's just saying what he can see has happened at Williams over the past 12 months from a design point of view, and he can see that next year is going the right way.

"We can definitely take a big step forward with the car, because we're regularly between eight tenths and a second away from the guys who are on pole.

"That's the sort of gap we need to close, as well as cover the sort of development they're going to be doing over the winter, because they're not going to stand still either."