Williams has unveiled its FW38 ahead of the new Formula 1 season, conceding it will be “a challenge” to retain its place as the best of the rest behind Mercedes and Ferrari.
The 2016 car, that will make its debut at the first pre-season test in Barcelona on Monday, again bears the iconic blue, red and white stripes that have become synonymous with the team over the past two seasons.
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But after finishing third in the constructors’ championship in 2014 and ’15, Sir Frank Williams knows it will be a tall order for a three-peat.
“Williams has started to cement our position back amongst the front-running teams after finishing third in the championship in the past two seasons,” he said.
“This has been a great achievement given the resources of those around us.
“Staying where we are will be a challenge in itself, but we are determined to keep improving because only winning will ever be good enough.
“We have a very stable team going into 2016, with Felipe and Valtteri teaming up for a third successive season.
“They work well together and both have the ideal blend of speed and consistency.
“Our technical team has also remained very consistent which will be to our advantage and we have some of the best engineering minds on the grid at our disposal.
“We have a busy couple of weeks of testing coming up to learn more about our package and to refine the car ahead of the first race.
“We will have to wait until Melbourne to find out exactly where we stand in the pecking order, but I’m confident that our hard work over the winter will stand us in good stead.”
Deputy team principal Claire Williams believes the FW38 is an improvement on last year’s car given the stability in the regulations.
Williams is convinced the team can keep the likes of Red Bull, Renault, McLaren and Force India at bay over the coming campaign.
Williams said: “2016 promises to be a very competitive year in Formula 1 and there will be a number of strong teams who have us in their sights.
“We are confident we have made a step forward over the winter and the FW38 will build on the strengths of the FW37 and address some of its weaknesses.
“We started design work on the car earlier than normal and hopefully this extra development time will stand us in good stead.
“The car we are launching today is by no means the final product.
“We are already planning updates for Melbourne and will be pushing for constant improvements over the course of the season.
“Williams enters 2016 in a strong place. We have a great team of people and over the past two years we have started to regain our competitive edge.
“Now we need to build on that and take this team back to where we all want it to be.”
