Williams Chief Technical Officer says the team’s current predicament is a “new challenge” on a personal level, having spent most of his 30-year F1 career at the sharp end of the grid.
Lowe began his career in the late 1980s with Williams, when it was a front-runner, before moving to McLaren in 1993, taking wins and titles courtesy of Mika Hakkinen and Lewis Hamilton.
Lowe switched to Mercedes for 2013 and was a senior member of the team that presided over a dominant spell from 2014-16, scoring all bar eight wins in a three-year period, along with all titles.
Lowe departed to take up a role with Williams at the start of 2017 but the operation’s fortunes have plummeted this year amid problems with its recalcitrant FW41.
Williams, fifth last year, holds a lonely 10th place in the Constructors’ Championship, 12 points behind Sauber, having taken only one top 10 finish this year.
“There have been some other challenges I’ve faced on different vectors, but [this is a] new challenge for me anyway,” he said of being at the lower end of the grid.
“I’ve been fortunate in my career not to work in a team that wasn’t at or within reach of the front, performance wise, that’s where we were always playing in the top 10 and towards the front of the top 10 or towards the very front.
“It’s a new experience for me to work in a team that has a lot of work to do to get to back where we want to be.
“So that creates some new challenges for me personally so I’m learning all the time.
“Some things you get right, some things in the last year I would do differently but I think that’s the nature of life.
“You face challenges and you learn from them and hope that builds your experience to do a better job next time.”
Lowe remains adamant that Williams has the resources and the personnel to escape from its current lowly placing.
“The more we get into understanding where we are and why, and what’s not working, the more it makes sense,” he said.
“We’ve got a great team, some very creative people, and I think if we can work in the right direction, which we’re now turning around to do, I think we can make some really good progress.”
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