Claire Williams claims that the new season will be one of the toughest ever as teams look ahead to the new rules coming in next year.

Teams often have upgrades throughout the year, but they will have to balance that with developing ideas for next year far earlier.

Williams' deputy team principal hopes they have closed the gap to Mercedes and Ferrari in the winter, although she has no idea where they are in the pecking order.

"I get a sense that we haven't done a bad job," said Williams.

"We've found some more downforce and the drivers are saying we've got some more grip in the medium and high speed corners.

"The car is quick on the straights, even quicker than it was before, which is great.

"The team has worked really hard over the winter and we've got some cool new bits on the car.

"We have upgrades scheduled with some small modifications for Australia and then some for Bahrain and then throughout the season.

"This year, it is going to be tough because we have 2017 regulations coming. It's going to be a real challenge."


✅ Check out more posts with related topics: