Williams keep spirits up after new low

Former champions Williams say they have reason to be optimistic about the future despite hitting a new low in Abu Dhabi at the weekend.For the first time -- or at least as far back as co-founder Patrick Head could remember -- the nine-times constructors' world champions started a Formula One race with both cars on the back row of the grid.Neither Brazilian Rubens Barrichello nor Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado finished in the points, their sixth successive blank sheet in a dire season that has brought just five points from 18 races.In old money, with points only awarded to the top 10 finishers from last year, Williams would not have scored even a single point with just two ninth places and a 10th to show for their efforts.    Head, chairman Adam Parr and Barrichello refused to be downcast however."Fundamentally the car is too weak and unusually we've been unable to improve that situation during the year," Head, one of the sport's engineering greats who presided over seven drivers' titles between 1980 and 1997 and is known for speaking his mind, told Reuters."But I'm very confident that with the new senior technical staff that we will turn that around. Already major progress is being made on next year's car on pretty much every parameter on it," he added."I'm very confident we'll dig ourselves out of it but when you are in a season like this ... it's obviously extremely stressful for everybody."