Williams set to refocus efforts on '08

The Grove-based outfit have endured an inconsistent season - showing strong form at some tracks but producing disappointing performances at others.

And on the back of two uncompetitive outings in the French and British Grands Prix, Williams director of engineering Patrick Head has suggested that the team may have to change the way they distribute their efforts between sorting out this year's car and creating the new 2009 challenger.

"We've sort of been switching quite a lot of attention towards 2009, and our aero programme has been working in part on 2009 for quite some time," said Head.

"We recently moved the majority of the aero programme to be on 2009, but we are in the process of retro-putting some attention back on 2008 because we need to do better than we are doing at the moment."

Head said the problems with the Williams car appear to be aerodynamic related - although he made it clear they were not simply the result of a lack of downforce.

"The majority of it is probably aero-characteristic rather than raw downforce, I think," he said.

And Head admitted that it would be a tall order for Williams to get themselves back into contention for fourth place in the constructors' championship this year unless they turned their current situation around dramatically.

"I think that will be a pretty difficult challenge because we've got to improve our car a fair bit to equal them, and Mark (Webber) seems to be on a bit of a roll, doesn't he? If we provided Nico with the right equipment then I'm sure he would be there.

"You never give up on anything in this world. Just when you're saying, 'goodness me', everything turns around, everyone falls off at the first corner and you come sailing around in first. So you just never know when things can sometimes go in your favour, and sometimes go well against you. You never say that it can't happen. But it is certainly quite difficult."