Robert Kubica described as "a good sign" the fact that his Williams FW42 was responding differently to changes undertaken by the British team.
Kubica and team mate George Russell were desperately off the pace in the first two opening rounds of the 2019 season as they struggled with a car embedded with a fundamental issue that Williams believes will take time to solve.
In Shanghai, the Grove-based outfit's drivers once again made up the rear in Friday's practice sessions, yet Kubica felt encouraged by the impact on the FW42's handling of the team's latest tweaks.
"The car feels a bit different to last two weekends, so that's a good sign," said Kubica, who was faster than Russell in both FP1 and FP1 in Shanghai.
"Now we have to see the data, what to do, as the balance is quite different to the previous two events.
"We just did some changes just to understand and it's not that we have some improvement. It's just something we changed in the characteristics of the car and it seems like it's responding differently.
"Of course on this track you have quite a lot of understeer so understeer is kind of a killer here, so we have to wait and see."
While he isn't expecting Williams to move up the order any time soon, Kubica did note a slight improvement of the FW42's pace relative to its nearest rivals thanks to the minor updates implemented by the team in China.
"If we haven't done anything to turn it around in the last two months, there'll be nothing happening in 12 hours," insisted the Pole.
"I think the long run pace was fairly decent compared to Racing Point. We definitely as a team seem closer, so again that's positive and all going in the right direction."
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