From the depths of 2011, Williams is now ‘not far’ from the pace of F1′s strongest teams.
That is the claim of Pastor Maldonado, who in the newly Renault-powered and Mike Coughlan-designed FW34 qualified eighth and was pushing Fernando Alonso for fifth in the race when he crashed out of Sunday’s season opener in Melbourne on the last lap.

It indicated a major turnaround for the formerly championship-winning team that collapsed to a dismal ninth place in last year’s points standings.

Venezuelan Maldonado hopes last Sunday was indeed the start of a Williams resurgence.

He said this weekend in Malaysia “should be interesting”.

“McLaren and Red Bull look strong, but we are not far away,” he is quoted by Finland’s Turun Sanomat.

“We were very close to (Red Bull’s) Mark Webber in the first and second stints,” said Maldonado.

“I think we are faster than Ferrari, Sauber and Force India,” he added.

Maldonado’s last-lap crash in Australia cost Williams a full ten points — double the team’s tally of the entire 2011 season.

“We need points in the future,” he acknowledged, “but we are also now more relaxed now.”

“One or two” of F1′s existing twelve teams might bow out of formula one before November’s Abu Dhabi finale, Bernie Ecclestone has warned.

“I think there are a couple of teams in formula one who really shouldn’t be there. They are a bit out of their depth at the moment,” he said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

Losing two teams would drop the grid down to 20 cars, but the FIA is in the process of perhaps allowing Villeneuve/Durango, Epsilon Euskadi, Stefan GP or Cypher Group to debut next year.

But Ecclestone insisted: “All we ever want is 10 teams. Lotus is a good name. I wouldn’t want to lose them. But in general this year has been a bit of a nuisance because it has cost money to keep these (new) teams in.

“It has cost a lot of money to pay for them to compete.”

It is likely the Briton is referring to HRT, who are now shuffling around drivers with the deepest pockets for the two race seats, and Virgin, whose main sponsor Sir Richard Branson said last year the team would have F1′s smallest budget.

“The bottom line is they haven’t really and truly given us value for being there,” said Ecclestone.

“If suddenly these teams don’t turn up at races then I don’t think the crowds will get any smaller, or the TV sets will turn off, or the newspapers will stop writing, will they?” he added.