Barrichello: Williams hasn't lost ground

The Brazilian enjoyed a spell of great form in Valencia and Britain, finishing fourth and fifth in the two races, but he could not score in Germany and starts only 12th in Hungary today.

Barrichello put that slight slump down to other cars being better suited to the track, rather than Williams having fundamentally fallen behind. He said his real pace was masked by traffic issues in qualifying, and expects to be stronger in the race.

"In Formula 1 you need to progress at every race," said Barrichello. "It's not like some years ago when you had five races to bring updates in. Right now people are bringing things to every circuit.

"I can see the attitude of some of the cars is different and they go well at some sorts of tracks. So for me it went well in Valencia, it went well for Silverstone and I still think this track should have suited us better.

"But let's see in the race. I had nice long run pace."

Barrichello added that Williams had another upgrade scheduled for the forthcoming Belgian Grand Prix, so could expect a performance boost after the summer break.

"We have an update coming for Spa as well," he said. "It's aerodynamic stuff, a bunch of things that they've tried that seem to be better."