WILLIAMS: 2008 Contender? Patrick Head Interview

(from autosport)

Williams co-owner Patrick Head is sure his team's new FW30 is quicker than last year's car, but has played down suggestions they are poised for a surprise challenge on pacesetters Ferrari and McLaren.

The strong pace of the new Williams-Toyota was clear in its first runs at Valencia in Spain this week, when Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima appeared to be the closest rivals to Ferrari and McLaren.

Although Head is encouraged by what he has seen so far, he is well aware of how much work the team still needs to do.

"The car is better and faster than last year's," he said. "But we can still see there is a good gap between Ferrari and ourselves, so we have got a lot of work to do.

"Like most of the teams we are expecting to develop our car before the first race in Melbourne, but I doubt we will be sitting on the first row of the grid in Melbourne. I hope we are reasonably well up though."

When asked by autosport.com about whether or not he was happy with the first test of the new car, he said: "We are never happy... it was okay. It is never acceptable, but it is the right direction. It is a faster car, but not fast enough yet."

With BMW Sauber struggling to overcome balance issues with their new car, and Renault not yet having shown a return to front-running form, Williams' pace this week could see them emerge as the main threat to Ferrari and McLaren in 2008.

But Head is keeping his ambitions in check and thinks it is still too early to make any firm predictions about the form of other teams.

"I don't know," he said. "Before the season starts you never know where everyone is, but certainly behind Ferrari and McLaren it looks quite close."

When asked whether he believed Ferrari had the early edge in testing, Head said: "I haven't looked at the times closely enough but I think it is very close between those two."

Head also praised the progress of Nakajima, who he thinks will prove himself as a worthy Grand Prix driver this year.

"I hope he can establish himself as a regular in F1," said Head. "F1 is a tough business and you need to establish your credentials. I hope he can do that. I am sure he can, and I think he has probably got a good future."