Williams fears Ferrari onslaught

Williams, whose team won the final race of the year in Brazil, is fearful that Ferrari's recent decision to delay the debut of its new car until the start of the European season could be a warning sign that the Italian outfit has found something special to exploit new technical regulations introduced this year.

"What worries me deeply is Ferrari announcing not that long ago, two to three months ago, that they were bringing a new car for April again," said Williams, referring to the fact that Ferrari will start the season with an updated version of its 2004 car.

"They didn't say it nine months ago, so they have obviously travelled along the route that we have all travelled along with the new aerodynamic rules and said, 'we need to be cleverer and more inventive than this.'

"And I am just worried they have may have thought of something very, very clever and thought it is worth having a fresh start to get the best out of it. I hope I am wrong."

Ferrari is set to be the only outfit other than Minardi to start the season with an interim car before unleashing its definitive 2005 model later in the campaign.

Williams himself remains optimistic that his team can start the season as strongly as it finished the 2004 campaign - even though new regulations make the competition more unpredictable than it has been for years.

"It should be a good start for us next season and, of course, all the rules have been changed," added Williams. "So no-one knows really exactly how much downforce the others have got back, so we don't really know."