Williams F1 team sure the new FW34 car is a step forward

The Grove team endured its worst ever Formula 1 season last year, scoring just five points on its way to ninth place in the standings.

Williams is hoping to revive its fortunes with the new FW34, with engineering chief Mark Gillan adamant that the car proved to be stronger in the first test at Jerez.

"It is a definite step forward," said Gillan. "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."

He added: "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 can not look good in certain areas but there is not much laptime 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."

He praised the Renault engine powering the car this year, when the team and the French car maker are reunited.

"It's very good, very positive. It is a very impressive engine," he said.

Gillian was also happy with the performance of Bruno Senna during the first test with the team, the Brazilian the busiest man over the week with 250 laps covered.

"I would say from our side, we were very pleased with his general consistency," Gillan said.

"Obviously he is learning the car. His feedback is excellent, very precise. It is good to get a new perspective on things and very, very useful - so the debrief went on twice as long as it normally does and it was very, very good at all."