Williams readies major Suzuka upgrade in F1 battle with Ferrari

Williams is locked in a close battle with the Scuderia for third in this year's F1 constructors' title race.

The British team holds a nine-point edge following the recent Singapore Grand Prix, where Williams finished fifth with Felipe Massa on the sort of twisty street circuit that has not suited the FW36 this season.

Williams has an aerodynamic update scheduled for this weekend's Japanese GP at Suzuka, and performance chief Rob Smedley reckons this, coupled to his team's improving form on the operational side and a track layout that should better suit its car, is reason for optimism.

"We're really, really getting on top of tyre management," Smedley explained.

"I think the tyre management in Singapore helped us immensely.

"You saw a great example of that with Felipe, and Valtteri [Bottas] - even with a broken car - was able to manage tyres.

"The way we were able to extract probably above the car performance in qualifying, via the tyre management we do, personally, I'm immensely pleased with all the science and the experience and the engineering that we put in there.

"Going to Japan that stands us in really good stead.

"In Russia I think the [tyre] compounds are reasonably conservative; I think that will stand us in really good stead.

"We're also going to tracks now that have much bigger power effect, much bigger drag sensitivity, so we're really, really optimistic."

SUZUKA 'BIG TEST' FOR FERRARI

Ferrari finished fourth in Singapore with Fernando Alonso, who qualified closer to the dominant Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton than at any other race this year.

The Spaniard said this weekend's Suzuka race would be a "good test" of whether Ferrari's improved form can be sustained for the championship run-in.

"Hopefully we can continue like this," Alonso said.

"Obviously it's just a hope and we need a normal circuit.

"Suzuka will be a good test for us to see if we are in a good form or not.

"We'll see. We would like to keep improving the car and get closer to the leaders."