Williams says it can win without manufacturer budget

The Grove-based team finished third in last year's constructors' championship behind Mercedes and Red Bull, and sits third again this season, having scored three podiums finishes in 12 races.

Although the team is operating on a much smaller budget compared to rivals like Mercedes or Ferrari, Williams sees no reason why it cannot win races again.

"I don't see why not," Williams, whose team last won a race in 2012, said.

"F1 is not just about the engine, ti is about your chassis, and it is about so many other components, that if you get that bit right then why cannot you beat your engine supplier team?

"F1 is cyclical, people have their time at the top and other people have their time at the top – so it has to be coming soon."

She added: "The budget is not the constraint for us. We have a healthy budget at Williams, we have always said that and we have always only spent according to the budget that we have.

"We do a great job. Running P3 in the championship at the moment and having secured P3 last year, we demonstrated as a team that you don't need to have the enormous budgets.

"We are working to the best of our abilities with the budget we have and the budget we have doesn't constrain us.

"We wouldn't say not to another 10, 20 or 30 million but we don't have at the moment, so we have to work with what we have got. As I said, I don't believe it is all about the people you have and the brainpower."

Still improving

Williams insists her team is still in an upward spiral after several difficult years, and she is convinced the best is yet to come.

"We are still a team that for 10 years at least was in the doldrums and was losing its grip around how we go racing and racing competitively," she said.

"You see a much improved Williams on the track but there are so many parts of the team that we still need to improve on, and to improve those processes that take you to being a frontrunning winning F1 team that we have to get right and fine tune.

"Those mistakes are there for the world to see every two weeks and the work that still needs to be done and work exposed when we make a mistake.

"This year is a consolidation job and for us to be fight where we are against teams with much bigger budgets that are behind us, the team has done a good job but I think we all know there is work to do."