Nico Rosberg is confident that Williams will return to stronger form at the Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend, following some mixed results in China last weekend.
The German started the season in impressive fashion, leading the early stages of the Malaysian GP, but had a tough time in Shanghai – especially in the wet conditions. However, he thinks the Shanghai performance should be discounted because of the struggles every team had to get their tires working.
"Shanghai you have to neglect completely," said Rosberg. "In Shanghai everything was completely messed up it wasn't important how quick your car was, it was important how well your car made the tires work.
"Some cars for reasons, not known to any engineer in Formula 1, all teams haven't got a clue what's going on. I've spoken to other teams and we don't know ourselves.
"Some cars make those tires work on a specific track like Shanghai, but there are two or three tracks in the year in the past where the problem that the tyres just don't work properly occurs. Shanghai is the best example for that. Some cars don't have to be better as such, but they just make the tires work and then that's the fundamental thing for Shanghai. The best example is Red Bull, who have been quick in Shanghai all the years through because they make the tires work.
"Buemi was top 10, that's not going to happen again here, so we just need to completely forget about Shanghai and I think things are going to turn back to where it was in Malaysia here, with Brawn being the quickest and Toyota, then us and Red Bull."
Rosberg said he did not understand why teams struggled so much with the tyres in Shanghai, but he remains bullish about the prospects of the team's FW31.
"Last year was a disaster for us and it wasn't a given fact that we would do better this year. But we have a much better car and it's a nice thing because it allows us to have nice races."