Webber Frustrated by Williams' Lack of Speed

Patrick Head, co-owner of the Williams team and now director of engineering, says that Australian driver Mark Webber had made no secret of his frustration with the lack of pace of the new FW27.

Williams are playing catch-up with their Formula One rivals before the season has even started. Team bosses told reporters at a lunch on Tuesday that they expected to be adrift of rivals Renault and McLaren, who have looked quick in testing, when the season starts in Melbourne on March 6.

"He [Webber] is clearly disappointed with the performance of the car," said Head. "He realises that the basic car is potentially good but that aerodynamically it is in need of some more downforce.

"He's obviously disappointed by that and knocked back a bit," added the Briton. "I've had a few telephone calls from him and he's not disguising his disappointment. But for me to say to him 'Oh don't worry Mark it'll be alright on the day' is not my style.

"I've told him exactly what we're doing but I'm not going to predict that by Malaysia we'll be front row or whatever because I think it'll take a little bit longer than that."

Webber, signed from Jaguar at the end of last year, is making his first appearance for Williams at his home Grand Prix and had high hopes of a higher finish than his career best of fifth with Minardi on his 2002 debut.

He is partnered by Germany's Nick Heidfeld, who has just one podium finish with Sauber to his credit.

Team boss Frank Williams was confident the BMW-powered team, who finished fourth last season after a troubled start, would be challenging for wins before long however.

"We're starting a little behind them, again," he said of Williams' rivals. "But I think we've now got the means, the assets to really make some very rapid recovery. Not tomorrow morning, but over the next few months."

Williams said he would be disappointed if the team was not up with the leaders after six or seven races.

"I don't think that we'll be on the front two rows (in Melbourne)," he added. "But we might be. Everyone's sandbagging a little bit."

Head said the aerodynamic problem with the car was evident on the eve of its unveiling in January after tests in the team's new wind tunnel.

"Without over-playing it too much, we've had some discrepancies between the model in the tunnel and the full-sized car in the tunnel," he said. "We're going through a process of understanding exactly why that is and I think we're learning an enormous amount that will help us get quite a bit stronger as we go on.

"Australia is a bit of an unusual track. In 2003 when our car was not very strong at the beginning of the year we almost won the Australian Grand Prix," Head added.

"But then we went to Malaysia and qualified eighth and 17th or something...you get far more the true measure of where a car is aerodynamically in Malaysia."