Despite not collecting a single point in Melbourne, the Williams team will travel from Australia to Malaysia in upbeat mood.<\/p>\n
The famous British outfit’s slide from its race and title-winning days hit rock bottom in 2011, scoring just five points all season and only finishing ahead of the three struggling new teams in the constructors’ championship.<\/p>\n
But Oxfordshire based Williams has restructured for the 2012 season and is now led technically by former McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan, and in Australia the newly Renault-powered FW34 qualified comfortably in Q3.<\/p>\n
In the race, Pastor Maldonado was pushing Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso for fifth place when he crashed heavily on the very last lap.<\/p>\n
If he had made it round to the chequered flag, Williams would have scored more points in one hit than it managed all last season.<\/p>\n
“The car was considerably better than anything I have seen in recent years,” said team chairman Adam Parr.<\/p>\n
Referring to Maldonado’s crash, the team’s new driver mentor Alex Wurz told Austrian ORF television: “Of course nobody is happy.<\/p>\n
“The bad news is that we have to leave with no points, but the team has made a huge leap forwards.”<\/p>\n
Jaime Alguersuari, the former Toro Rosso driver turned radio co-commentator, called Williams’ step compared to 2011 “giant”.<\/p>\n
“No doubt about it, Williams are the big surprise,” the Spaniard told Mundo Deportivo when asked about the new field of 2012.<\/p>\n
“Last year their car was really, really, really bad, and so they have taken an exceptional leap.”<\/p>\n
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