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Williams sure FW35 has potential

It was another tough weekend for Williams at the Circuit de Catalunya © Sutton Images

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Williams chief race engineer Xevi Pujolar says there is "definitely potential" with the FW35 and that the team won't switch focus until 2014.

Having endured a poor start to the season, Williams made little progress with the car in Barcelona as its upgrades only enabled it to finish 14th with Pastor Maldonado and 16th with Valtteri Bottas. Both drivers were lapped in a race which Maldonado won last year, but despite the updates not providing the step forward the team had hoped for, Pujolar is confident Williams can save its season.

"I think there is potential," Pujolar told ESPN. "I mean, if you look at the people at the front there is quite a big gap, but there is an intermediate group that we think we can make progress and gain positions. There's definitely potential with the car, it's just that we need to now try to move a bit faster."

Pujolar also said that the length of the season meant the team had to chase performance with the current car.

"At the moment it's still possible, and we cannot give up now. What we've done now is the fifth race and races are going fast, but we need to try to improve. We cannot say 'Oh, we'll give up now', there's a long way to go and we don't want to stay in these positions until the end of the year, we want to make progress."

Asked if there was any concern for the 2014 car as a result of the current struggles, Pujolar replied: "No, not at the moment at least."

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