Williams confident new car will complete more laps on day two at Jerez

Williams chief operations engineer Mark Gillan is confident that the FW34 will complete a greater number of laps on Wednesday after its first day on track focused on systems checks related to its switch from Cosworth to Renault engines.

The team was forced to cancel a planned straightline test at the Idiada Proving Ground in Spain last week because of weather conditions, meaning that this was the first serious run of the new car.

Pastor Maldonado completed only 25 laps on Tuesday and Gillan is looking forward to the FW34 completing more long runs now that the initial work has been done.

"With moving to a new engine, you've got a lot more systems checks than you would normally have with the running of a new car, so we are building up slowly," said Gillan when asked by AUTOSPORT about the car's progress.

"We went through a number of short runs just to check the engine installation and also the aerodynamic platform and the cooling side. It's not just about engine integration, it's the cooling systems and the KERS integration.

"We had a few teething problems today, which we were getting to grips with understanding just to make sure that we have a full day's running tomorrow."

Gillan is confident that once the team has sifted through the data gathered, the car will be ready to start to match the other teams for track time on Wednesday.

"There are a few things still to sort out, as you'd expect with the first running of the car," Gillan added. "But we are in a good position.

"The plan is to do some longer runs, do some general mechanical and aerodynamic setup checks and learn a bit more about the car and its usage of tyres."