Williams plays down chances for Spanish GP

Ralf Schumacher scored the Grove-based team's first GP win since 1997 with a dominant performance in the last race at Imola, but Sir Frank Williams is unsure of how competitive his squad will be round the Circuit de Catalunya.

The team has struggled to find pace in recent tests at the track and also could be hindered by a lack of development on its traction control system, which makes its return to F1 this weekend.

"We didn't test very well at all in the last test at Barcelona," Williams told Autosport's sister title Motorsport News. "We were quite a way off the pace, so that's of some concern."

Schumacher is equally unsure about how well he will fare this weekend after both he and team mate Juan Pablo Montoya consistently ran in the midfield during Silverstone testing last week.

"It is difficult to predict where we are standing," said Schumacher, "because we had some good tests at Barcelona and others were not so promising. We still have some work to do to improve our traction control."

The German believes that rather than his Imola victory taking the pressure of winning away, it has actually created more expectation as people now know what the team is capable of. Schuey Jr also hints that the FW23 may not be well suited to all the tracks on the GP calendar.

"We always thought we would be able to win a race," he said, "but we are still not reliable enough on every circuit. What has happened because of Imola is that we have put ourselves under more pressure to prove we are able to win more races."

While Williams struggles to maintain its run at the sharp end, joint drivers' championship leaders Ferrari (with Michael Schumacher) and McLaren (with David Coulthard) will be hoping reassume a position on the top step of the podium.

McLaren boss Ron Dennis is confident of a good performance this weekend at a track where the Woking team has scored a one-two finish for the last three years.

"I think we'll do a good job there," said Dennis. "We've had very good results in early-season testing and we've worked very hard at introducing a good electronics package, which will hopefully make us as good as anybody."