Williams upbeat about progress ahead of start of 2012 F1 season

The Grove-based outfit has pinned hopes of a recovery on a technical reshuffle and a switch to Renault engines - with early results from testing being encouraging.

Chief operations engineer Mark Gillan is happy with what he has seen so far in testing, and feels the team is on course to enjoy much better results this time out.

"We are in good shape," explained Gillan. "We have done a lot of mileage, we have gone through the systems and everything looks pretty good. Plus, both drivers are pretty complimentary of the car and still learning."

Gillan feels that as well as the new car being a step forward from last year's, the whole team has made progress too.

"I think things have settled down somewhat," he said. "We went through a transitional period and things are much better now. It is clear where everybody is required to bring performance and direction, and lead in certain areas, so things are good.

"I think we have now got more structure and we do things in a very rigorous way, so we don't put things on the car that are not shown to be quicker. The parts are consistent, they fit better and generally the whole process is running much smoother."