Grove-based Williams hope a new upgrade will boost their hopes of chasing down fourth place in the constructors championship.

Formula 1 heads to the Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas, this weekend for the 18th round of the season.

Williams trail Force India by ten points with four races remaining, but a new Mercedes power unit upgrade could help improve performance.

And chief technical officer Pat Symonds is hoping for a far better showing in Austin compared to last year when both Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa were forced to retire.

He said: “While last year’s event was severely disrupted by weather, we hope for a more straightforward weekend this time around.

“Apart from the weather, one of the surprise features last year was how bumpy the circuit had become in just twelve months.

“We certainly are hoping that it hasn’t degraded any further as last year was a challenge, and ultimately led to the retirement of both our cars.

“That aside, we hope the circuit will reward our new power unit upgrade being introduced for this event.”

Enstone-based Renault are in an upbeat mood after a morale-boosting couple of races.

After Jolyon Palmer picked up his first Formula 1 point in Malaysia, the British driver and teammate Kevin Magnussen showed good pace in Japan to finish 12th and 14th respectively.

Palmer said: “We had good pace, good strategy, kept the tyres alive and that’s what we’ve been doing quite well the last two races.

“We’ve managed to jump into the midfield.”

Banbury-based Haas were just a place off the points last time out and this weekend is a special one for Romain Grosjean, who will complete his 100th grand prix.

The 30-year-old said: “I don’t know when I’m going to stop, but I think I’ve still got plenty of room in front of me to keep going.

“Definitely 100 grand prix is quite something in my lifetime.”