Williams looks set to unveil a new nose for its 2016 car within the first two or three races of 2016.
The Grove team was a pioneer of the short-nose concept that is now widespread up and down pitlane.
Many were therefore surprised when Williams's 2016 car did not feature an even shorter version than its predecessor when launched ahead of the winter season.
Paddock rumours at the Barcelona tests, however, hinted that a shorter nose is coming either for Melbourne, Bahrain or China.
Technical boss Pat Symonds is coy, suggesting that "only little things" are coming for the FW38 in Australia.
However, it is rumoured that despite failing a recent crash test, the short nose will be crash-tested again next week.
Auto Motor und Sport claims that it is 5cm shorter than the current version, which according to Symonds "was already very difficult to get through the crash test".
