German Nico Rosberg is capable of Formula One podium finishes before the end of the year, according to Williams director of engineering Patrick Head.
The 23-year old earned a season-best fifth last time out in Turkey and Head is expecting the driver to reap the rewards of an improving car.
"I think Nico and the team will get stronger as the year goes on," Head told BBC Oxford.
"Everyone is developing their car race by race, us included."
He added: "Nico is getting more and more out of the car, and we hope to start seeing podium positions as the season goes on."
Head has backed Rosberg's ability to challenge at the front of the grid.
Speaking at the team's headquarters in Grove in Oxfordshire, Head says work has already begun on Williams' car for 2010, whilst striving for extra performance from this year's model.
"We are still able to find considerable improvements to the car, and that will carry on until these technical regulations have been quite mature, if they stay the same for some time to come," he said.
"As a company we are still heavily into the design of our car for 2010. So it's the usual workload of developing what we have and working on next year's car and other projects as well."
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.
~RS~a~RS~International~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~41~RS~){kind=small}
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~41~RS~)
E-mail this to a friend
Printable version
~RS~a~RS~Domestic~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~S~RS~" height="1" width="2" alt="" /></p><!-- E BO -->
</div>
<img src=){kind=small}
Bookmark with:
What are these?