Williams focus on 2009 after another blank

Former champions Williams are resigned to ranking among the 'also-rans' for the rest of the Formula One season.

"We recognise that we are right at the back of the grid effectively, too often if not every time," said team owner Frank Williams at the Belgian Grand Prix where Germany's Nico Rosberg and Japan's Kazuki Nakajima again failed to score on Sunday.

"This year's car is almost as developed as we can successfully do it, short of a major revamp of all the aerodynamics," said Williams.

"Next year's car is the one on which we pin our hopes."

Williams, winners of nine constructors' championships between 1980 and 1997 as well as 113 races, started the season impressively with Rosberg third in Australia and Nakajima a strong sixth.

However, the two drivers have between them scored just two points in their last seven races with Toyota-powered Williams sinking to seventh overall and level on points with the much-improved Toro Rosso.

"We're not saying 'watch out for our next race' because it isn't going to be like that," said Williams.

"We'll just have to soldier on, try and get more out of what we've got.

"We may have one or two little bits for the remaining races but essentially our main focus is on next year's car.

"It's almost a fresh start for everybody and we started on that quite a long time ago this year. We'll see if that works for us."

Rosberg, son of former champion Keke, summed up his afternoon at Spa.

"I did the best I could from where I started and the performance we had in the car," he said.

"Adding all this up, 12th is probably about the best we could have achieved.

"Now we need to look forward to Monza and try to improve things. After the recent test there, we are confident that it is a track that will suit us better."