Williams technical director Sam Michael reckons the 2009 season will continue to be characterised by teams making big performance gains due to the still infant development of the new generation cars.
While Brawn has generally remained the team to beat so far, most other teams have suffered fluctuating fortunes with Ferrari the latest to vault up the order following a major car upgrade.
And offering hope to the likes of current strugglers BMW and McLaren, Michael believes it will still be possible for teams to match, or even exceed, the steps forward made by others so far.
Asked if the development race was still producing large improvements or if it was beginning to tail off, he replied: “It is still big steps.
“While it does that, it means that there are lots of teams who are maybe struggling at the moment [who] could easily catch up quickly because they could easily take as big a step, if not greater.
“The cars are still very underdeveloped compared to the end of last year and that’s why that’s happening.”
While the sports established ‘big four’ of Ferrari, McLaren, BMW and Renault have been up and down in form more than most, Williams has been a consistent presence among the points positions during the opening six rounds – equalling its best result of the season with sixth in Monaco last Sunday.
Michael was pleased its FW31 was able to maintain the team’s strong form on street circuits from recent years, given it has also been more suited to aerodynamically-demanding venues such as Sepang and Barcelona.
“Some of the tracks where we have been weak on in the past like Barcelona, it was our most competitive race up until Monaco – to be only three tenths off in Q2,” he said.
“It is pleasing to see that we haven’t lost our ability on street circuits because I thought some of the improved characteristics we’ve had on the FW31...I thought maybe the aero maps had changed so much that some of the things we do won’t hold up on street tracks.
“Melbourne is not quite the same as Monaco, but it’s still a street circuit, and we were competitive there and here.
“I’m hoping when we look back we say we’ve just improved the car everywhere so we haven’t had any blips up and down, we’ve been reasonably level.”
Williams’s technical chief concedes the team is unlikely to be quite as quick at the next round in Turkey, but is still expecting a strong performance.
“It’s not just Monaco where we have been reasonably competitive,” he said.
“We are more competitive here than at the other tracks, but that’s just down to the set-ups and things we run at Monaco and always have run at Monaco.
“I don’t expect us to be quickest in Q2 in Istanbul but I do expect us to be within half a second.”
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