Williams' chief operations engineer has said that the team can be competitive again before the end of the current Formula 1 season.

The team secured pole position and a race win for Pastor Maldonado at the Spanish Grand Prix, but have scored just 15 points in the 11 races since.

Mark Gillan told Autosport.com: "I really do hope that, at the end of the season, we are back at the sharp end of the grid and I can see no reason why we cannot be.

"It takes time and, with back-to-backs it is difficult to react, especially flyaway back-to-backs, but now we have a bit of a break I am confident within the team that we can come back fighting.

"The challenge now is to be more competitive and get into Q3, at whichever track we are at."

At last weekend's Korean Grand Prix, neither Maldonado nor teammate Bruno Senna made it into the third part of qualifying, or scored any points in the race.

Williams are currently eighth in the constructors' championship.