Mastering Pirelli's tyres will be the key to a close battle for top spot behind Formula 1's 'big three' teams in the latter phase of the 2016 championship, according to Williams's technical boss Pat Symonds.

The British team will aim to fend off the threat posed by Force India but also Toro Rosso and McLaren over the remaining nine races of the season.

"I believe that in terms of the relative strengths of the teams, things will be more static from now," he told Brazil's UOL Esporte.

Symonds is referring to the fact that, with huge technical rules changes coming for 2017, most of the grid will now focus all development efforts on next year's cars.

However, he said that does not mean the pecking order will not go up and down.

"The problem is that not many of us are really on top of these tyres," said Symonds. "We are in a situation where, when we get it right with the tyres, we have a good weekend, but the next weekend the result is quite different and another team is doing well.

"We will continue to see these ups and downs."

Yet Symonds doubts that the teams' ability to choose their compounds per race will be particularly crucial in the latter stage of 2016.

"We are now making these choices with more experience and so probably the trend is that the choices will be increasingly similar," he said.

Williams are currently fourth in the standings, 15 points ahead of closest rivals Force India.