Brazil win a boost for Williams

Williams could only manage fourth in the constructors' championship, behind Ferrari, Renault and BAR, having expected to challenge for both the drivers' and constructors' championships before the season began.

"Everyone knows it's been a difficult, and disappointing, season for the team," said Williams on the team's official website. "We thought we had made considerable progress over the winter, but our rivals had obviously made significantly larger steps than we had.

"That changed as the year progressed, however. With some operational re-structuring and a lot of hard work by all involved, the car improved considerably and steadily throughout the second half of the year. The product of that eventually translated into the win in Brazil which was, undoubtedly, important for all involved and a fitting reward for all their hard work.

"It's certainly been a long year for all the teams," he added. "On the track, Ferrari dominated the field once again, but this was expected. We thought we had made a significant step forward in winter testing but we had obviously under-estimated other teams, namely Renault and BAR, who had impressively leap-frogged us.

"Other factors also hindered our track performance, namely the disqualifications in Canada and the US and Ralf's [Schumacher] accident."