Frank Williams says his team is hopeful the new FW33 car unveiled on Tuesday will help the British squad take a step closer to the leading squads in 2011.
Williams finished the 2010 season in sixth position, its best result since 2007, but was still unable to fight for podiums finishes and is now aiming to take another step forward. The team boss is aware that the task will not be easy, but insists Williams is as ambitious as it has ever been.
"Our ambition is get back to the front of the grid," said Williams. "We know that won't be easy, but we hope this car will take us closer to the leaders than we were in 2010. As a team, we're as ambitious now as we've ever been."
Technical director Sam Michael said he is positive about the competitiveness of the new car, although he conceded it is far too early to make predictions.
"Until you start testing you're never sure how you're going to stack up against the opposition, but we're optimistic," he said. "We think this is a good car, but we'll have a better overall picture in a few weeks time."
He added: "The design of this year's car has been pretty smooth. We've improved our way of working by increasing the communication between the mechanical and aerodynamic departments, and that improved our decision making processes. It allowed us to increase the optimization time spent on each part of the car."
The car will start testing at Valencia today, but the current spec will be upgraded later with a new aerodynamic package for the start of the season.