Analysis: Williams on the recovery drive

This year they are just 11 adrift of the French car manufacturer, and in with an outside chance of overhauling them in the final three races of the year.

Although the vastly diminished difference owes a lot to the difficulties Renault have had with the R27 car, there is no doubting that Williams have also made a big step forward in their bid to return to the front of the field.

But the statistics, and the glimmer of a hope of finishing third in the constructors' championship this year, are not yet enough for Williams. They may be back on the recovery trail, but they feel the job is not done yet.

Technical director Sam Michael, who has seen the team take points in the last five races, is keen to keep ambitions in check and not get too excited about the chances of his ever-improving team now. There will be none of the bullish sound bites that some of his rivals would spout forth if they found themselves in a similar situation.

"As you know it's not our style to do that," he told autosport.com after seeing Nico Rosberg take sixth place in Belgium last weekend.

"Our style is to do it on the track. There were a couple of times earlier this year where our performance was good but we stopped with reliability problems, so that was a bit of a disappointment.

"So we've probably not noticed this ramp up in performance in the last few races, as we've seen other opportunities earlier this year. At Monaco for example we were genuinely quick, and there were two or three other races where we were definitely strong.

"So that is probably why we aren't getting too excited about it. Nico is doing a great job and driving fantastically now. The great thing is that Nico will be able to look at it and know he handled it and worked his way up - and hopefully he is on a bit of a wave at the moment."

Michael will readily admit that the pressure was on the team this year to erase the memories of 2006 - when poor reliability left them languishing eighth in the constructors' championship.

And the fact that the team have been able to get on top of their reliability issues has played a key factor, Michael believes, in delivering the extra spurt of speed.

"We started the season off quite well in Melbourne and Malaysia where we were quite competitive," he explained. "Bahrain and Barcelona were not so good, but then in Monaco, Montreal and Indy we were strong again.

"Obviously having the DNFs in Malaysia and Indianapolis hurt our total by six points, which could be quite important at the end of the season. But we have built up over the year and having a more reliable car has helped a lot. Last year we had 11 mechanical-related DNFs, and this year we have had three, with three races to go.

"It is much better, although it's not where we want to be. We want to have zero defects due to mechanical reasons - although I guess that is probably unreal.

"Once we realised the car was reliable, it meant we could concentrate on speed. We couldn't do that before as we were totally concentrating on keeping it running. You never can really look back and say that a bad year is good for you, but I think we have to accept that last season has helped."

It says much for the state of Williams' progress this year that attention in recent weeks has focused from looking over their shoulder to defend their place in the constructors' championship from Red Bull, to now only looking forwards and having a sniff of a challenge at Renault ahead of them.

Michael says the team will do what they can to overhaul the French car manufacturer, but is doubtful there are enough races left to do it.

"I don't think there is enough time," he said. "The reality is we lost to Renault with reliability and DNFs earlier in the year, and they did a better job than us over course of season. But it is not going to stop us trying.

"We will need a bit of luck to score four points per race, and it will need Nico to come fifth at each event with them not scoring anything. It's not likely, but you can always go to a race and be lucky.

"As we saw with Red Bull at the Nurburgring, you can get 10 points in one weekend and that changes everything. We are definitely going to keep pushing and we have got a bit of an upgrade for Fuji."

The real proof of Williams' progress will not be where they finish this year's constructors' championship, though. It will be in the amount of development they can make this winter to close down the gap on the teams ahead of them.

"We're pleased with progress we are making," said Michael. "But we have got to find a second a lap to be competing with McLaren and Ferrari.

"At some places, like Canada before the Safety Car, we were about six and a half tenths slower, and there are other tracks where we have been weaker. But our average this year is one second.

"So we need to look at one second per lap to gain on them, plus any development they will make over the winter. We understand that coming off a difficult year in 2006, in the first season with Toyota, it was not realistic to think we could win. But, that has to be our aim for the future."