Bruno Senna moves on from tough Australian Grand Prix

The Brazilian retired from the race after colliding with Felipe Massa. This followed a clash at the first corner that dropped him to the rear of the field and a disappointing qualifying performance.

But Senna is confident that his bad luck is now behind him and he can fight for points at Sepang provided he has a clear run in qualifying.

"The season started last week and all of the bad luck stayed there I hope," he said when asked by AUTOSPORT if he sees this as the real start of his campaign. "If you start in the middle of the grid, the odds of someone hitting you are higher.

"Qualifying was a lottery in Melbourne on my soft tyre run because we didn't really get the mileage before. Things are a bit more straightforward here in terms of tyre warm-up for qualifying."

Senna believes that free practice will be key to laying the foundations for an improved qualifying showing.

Despite having to sit out Friday's first session for reserve driver Valtteri Bottas, Senna is hopeful that he can catch up during the second and third sessions.

"This weekend will be different because Valtteri will drive the first session," said Senna. "We are trying to mitigate it by doing more running in FP2 and FP3, hopefully getting the mileage needed to prepare for qualifying.

"If you look at last weekend, my performance compared to Pastor [Maldonado] on the medium tyres was very similar. Here we have the medium and the hards and I think I've sussed those compounds out.

Senna added that if the team and drivers deliver to the maximum this weekend, it is possible for Williams to pick up points with both cars.

But he warned that given the midfield is so close, the team must live up to its potential if it is to do so.

"The only reason that we couldn't be in the top 10 is if we don't do as good a job as the other guys," said Senna. "Everybody around us has the chance to be in the top 10."