Williams eager to improve in China

Date published : 11 Apr 2010 - 07:29:08

Williams technical director Sam Michael says his team is determined to put its Sepang missed opportunity behind it with a strong points-scoring run in China next weekend.Nico Hulkenberg and Rubens Barrichello both reached Q3 in the wet Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying session, but fell back in the race - with Barrichello stuttering off the line and immediately falling to last, and Hulkenberg drifting back through the field in the race.Fernando Alonso's late retirement meant Hulkenberg eventually salvaged the final point - but it was far less than the high-aiming team had hoped for after its cars took fifth and seventh places on the grid.After the issues we faced in Malaysia, we're heading to China with a clear target of improving our performance," Michael said. "There are several key areas which we obviously need to concentrate on. "Firstly, we need to ensure that both drivers make it into the top ten again in qualifying in order to give them the best possible chance of scoring some needed points in the race."Michael is confident that there will be no repeat of the glitch that stranded Barrichello, although he admitted that Williams's starts are not good enough even when all is functioning correctly."We also need to work on our starts," he acknowledged."We have resolved the problem that Rubens had on the grid, and we will be carrying out a series of starts practices during the Friday sessions."He added that the FW32 would benefit from several upgrades next weekend."In terms of car developments, we have been working hard on producing some aero improvements for the front and rear wings for Shanghai," Michael said.Williams is currently seventh in the constructors' championship after the opening three rounds.Although it has scored points at every race so far, it has yet to break into the major scoring positions, with Barrichello's eighth place in Melbourne its best result of 2010 to date.