Williams Toyota - Spanish GP Preview - Points is the target

Like some of its rivals, the start to the 2009 season has been a frustrating one for the Williams Toyota team. Nico Rosberg looked strong in Melbourne but fell away late in the race to finish in sixth position and again at Sepang, the German racer showed well in leading the race but would eventually drop to eighth in the rain shortened event.

With 3.5 points on the board the Grove-based team head to the fifth round of the championship in Spain hoping that updates to the FW31 package will yield a change in fortune and performance.

“It’s been a bit of a frustrating start to the season," admits Rosberg. "We should be going into Europe with more than 3.5 points from the first four races. We were looking competitive at the outset in Australia, but things just haven’t gone our way.

"It’s also so close out there, probably the closest season I’ve raced in. We’ll have some aero upgrades for Barcelona which I’m hoping will help us and push us further up the grid. It would be good to score some points to reward the team at Grove who have been pushing really hard.”

“With the new rule changes, this year really is all about who makes the greatest progress back at the factories with development. As with all the other teams, we’ll have an upgraded car in Spain and I hope it will make the difference we need.”

Team-mate Kazuki Nakajima has had an even tougher start to the season and has yet to break into the final round of qualifying. This coupled with three failures to finish leave him just 19th in the standings.

“It’s been a tough start to the season for me - I’ve had three DNFs out of four races and I don’t want anymore," he said. "I’m going to put them behind me now though and concentrate on the work ahead. There’s still 12 more races to go and I’m determined to get some good results for myself and for the team.

“I really like Barcelona and have lots of racing experience there,” Nakajima continued. “Last year, I had a good qualifying session and scored two points for the team coming seventh in my debut race. As I haven’t had a great first few Grand Prix, I hope that this will mark the start of a new phase for me and I can do something good in Barcelona.”

“I didn’t have the new parts on my car in Bahrain so I’m looking forward to trying those out in Spain and to see how the other new bits go. I’m sure that the upgraded package will be a step forward, we already know how much time it will give us, but it’s all relative compared to what the other teams have done.”