Williams aims to regain lost ground

The Grove-based squad's new FW25 chassis has shown fleeting glimpses of promise this season, but the team hasn't been able to find consistent pace from the package. It lies fourth in the world constructors' championship, behind the big two and Renault, but is hoping for more at the A1-Ring this weekend after last week's test in France.

"We ran the FW25 at Paul Ricard last week with Ralf [Schumacher] and Marc [Gene] sharing testing duties," said chief operations engineer Sam Michael. "Predominantly we focused on tyre testing as well as spending some time evaluating brake materials, the suspension and the aero package. We feel we've made some good progress which we hope to be able to demonstrate on the track this weekend."

Juan Pablo Montoya, currently seventh in the points race and one place behind team-mate Schumacher, said: "Hopefully this will be a good race for us. The track's a fairly complex one set-up wise but it's quick and suits my driving style.

"Ralf and Marc have been testing some new parts in Paul Ricard, so it will be interesting to see if the car has improved since Barcelona. Last year, I managed to score a podium position, so I'm looking to repeat that this year and consolidate our position in the championship," he added.