Valtteri Bottas is fearful Williams have dropped further back from Mercedes and Ferrari in performance, predicting a tough year for the team.
Bottas has endured a difficult start to the season, finishing only eighth and ninth in Australia and Bahrain respectively.
The Grove-based outfit brought upgrades to Bahrain, however, it was unclear if they had made progress due to a poor strategy call that saw both drivers drop to the lower end of the points.
The Finn hasn’t finished higher than sixth place in China since his debut back in 2013, nevertheless, Bottas hopes he can have a clean weekend to ease his fears.
“Yeah, it’s been quite a tough first couple of races,” said Bottas.
“Especially for me pretty unlucky, things happening, and just looking forward to getting a nice, clean weekend and seeing what kind of results we can actually do with a proper weekend but it seems that it’s going to be a really tough year, very close.
“Ferrari and Mercedes are definitely more far away now than in the last two years.
“So that’s unfortunate but we just need to keep trying and getting closer and yeah after that we are in that field of a few teams – Red Bull and Toro Rosso, they seem to be very close – so every single bit we can improve this season is going to make a big difference.”
