Nico Rosberg reckons this could be the season that his Williams team get the jump on Ferrari and McLaren.

Eight races into the season, Williams are in a Ferrari/McLaren sandwich, 10.5 points behind the Scuderia and 2.5 ahead of McLaren.

This year's FW31 has often proven to be one of the quickest cars during practice sessions, and although the team haven't translated that into race results, Rosberg is confident Williams are heading in the right direction.

"It is nice to see that in the past years we have been dropping back, and this year we are outperforming teams like Ferrari in development," the German told Autosport.

"So that is really nice to see, especially with the budget that we have it is fantastic. It really represents a lot of efficiency and good management and everything.

"We are now fifth in the Constructors' Championship, beating McLaren, and it should put us in a good position to attack Ferrari who are still in front of us if we have some good races."