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Williams paid the price this year for having inexperienced drivers on board, reckons Rubens Barrichello.

The Grove-based outfit has endured a frustrating campaign since Pastor Maldonado's sensational victory in the Spanish Grand Prix - which was the last time the Venezuelan scored any points.

It currently lies eighth in the constructors' championship on 54 points, 21 points adrift of its nearest rival Force India.

Barrichello, who was dropped by the outfit at the end of last season in favour of Bruno Senna, believes the team's current plight comes from not having an experienced driver on board.

In an interview with Brazilian station Radio Jovem Pan, Barrichello said he thinks that neither Maldonado nor Senna were in a position to get the most out of the opportunities they have had so far this year.

When asked what he believes he could have done at Williams this year, Barrichello said: "This kind of thought cannot exist, because I am not driving the car and I cannot think what could be or couldn't be with me there.

"But the truth is that the car proved to be very competitive. They [Williams] made a good job with that to put the car many positions ahead on the grid [of where they were last year].

"And it is a shame, because I believe that they should have, at least, double the number of points that they in fact have.

"This happens of course because of the inexperience of the drivers - who are fast, but don't know how to get the chances that the equipment they have in their hands provides them."

If Williams doubled its current point tally, it would move it up to sixth in the constructors' championship behind Mercedes.