Williams still encouraged by Turkey

Michael saw signs of encouragement from Turkey - with Rubens Barrichello nearly making it through to Q3 - but felt that Williams missed the chance for points because it stuck to a three-stop strategy.

"We had quite a competitive first stint, because we were on the same pace as the Renaults," Michael explained to AUTOSPORT.

"We went into the second stint and they changed strategy, as they went for a four stop. And, in hindsight, we think we should have done as well because we were too hard on tyres.

"The Toro Rosso and Sauber are clearly not as hard on tyres as we are, so they can manage the three stop, or one less stop than us, but we cannot do it at the moment.

"We looked at it, and thought whether we should follow Renault onto a four stop, but we had to make that choice around lap eight - and that is where we went wrong. Once you have made your bed, you really cannot back out of it because you have missed the window, and then you will just end up in traffic and not be able to overtake.

"We tried to stick with a three-stop but it was not the right thing to do. The only people who can get that sort of strategy to work is people who are soft on tyres."

Despite the disappointment of Turkey, Michael says that the team's situation should definitely be better at the Spanish Grand Prix - when a raft of updates are added to the car.

"We have a good step for Spain," he said. "Hopefully we will get the rear wing sorted that we had out here and we can improve the [airflow] separation on that.

"We have a new diffuser and it will be interesting to see how that works. We have got some good numbers on that."