George Russell has played down expectations of a significant improvement by Williams in 2020 following its poor campaign last year.

The team finish last in the constructors’ championship for the second year in a row last season and was often too slow to compete with its midfield rivals. It fared better in pre-season testing this year, which raised hopes of a resurgence, but Russell doubts they’ve done enough to lift themselves off the back row of the grid.

“No doubt we’re in a better position,” he said, “[but] I think realistically we are still the slowest car. I’m not going to get carried away with ourselves, but we’ve definitely reduced the gap.

“So that’s all we could have hoped for over the winter and we’ll go to Melbourne and see. But like I said, don’t expect to see us in Q2, Q3 sort of thing. We’ve definitely improved but expectations are all under control.”

The team’s 2019 chassis was often a second off the pace of the next-slowest car. Russell hopes this year’s car is at least quick enough for them to take advantage of problems for other teams.

“Last year when we out-performed our car we were still qualifying 19th and finishing 19th,” he said. “So I hope this year when people slip up and we perform well, that’s when we can take opportunities and we should be racing.

“But like I say, expectations are under control. Doing it in Barcelona when the test is one thing, going to Melbourne will be a completely different story.”

Williams faces a rebuilding period similar to that McLaren has recently been through, Russell believes.

“As Williams, we want to progress much further up the grid. Their goals aren’t just to be fine at the back, it’s over the next few years to be really making some big strides. Hopefully this is a turning point but it’s a long road. I think McLaren are the best example of that, how long it took them to recover and look where they are now.

“So like I say, it’s better to under-promise and over-deliver. But from my side and everybody at Williams, we’re just going to go to Melbourne to try to get everything out of that car.”

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2020 F1 season