Williams technical chief Paddy Lowe has asserted that the beleaguered team will emerge stronger from its current malaise, rejecting suggestions key figures should leave.
Williams last year slumped to its worst Formula 1 season in history, finishing at the root of the Constructors’ Championship, with head of aero Dirk de Beer and chief designer Ed Wood departing.
Williams’ FW42 was not ready in time for the start of pre-season testing and the outfit had a compromised two weeks in Spain, with a limitation on spare parts curtaining its running.
It prompted the returning Robert Kubica to suggest he had completed only 20 per cent of his targets for pre-season, while team-mate George Russell conceded Williams is currently the slowest team.
Those comments, allied to the team’s status in playing catch-up and the slow times it set during testing, has fuelled belief that Williams is set for another campaign adrift of the midfield.
Lowe, who re-joined Williams from Mercedes in early 2017, asserted he had “no concerns” regarding his own job security, and stressed that seeking to oust team members would not be the correct plan of action.
“What I have observed is over many years in Formula 1 there is a habit of changing the people when things don’t work but what I’ve also observed is that the stronger teams are the ones who do exactly the opposite,” he explained.
“Every difficulty and every problem in a team is an opportunity to learn, not only to not repeat it but to be even stronger next time.
“I came up with that line at a previous place and they still use it – every difficulty will be regretted by the competition because we will come back stronger – but when you have an issue you take that learning and you turn it into an advantage.
“What you shouldn’t do is go and get rid of people because you will throw away that experience and knowledge.
“It is very important that the team build together, develop together and grow together to become stronger and more effective.”
Lowe was keen to point out that Williams’ delays were not the first such occasion that a team had begun a season later than its opponents.
“Something to bear in mind is it not the first time teams haven’t shown up on day one and it is an incredibly difficult task to get a car out to run particularly with the constant desire to keep pushing performance,” he said.
“If you are pushing out the same car that you did last year it would be all quite easy.
“While we’ve had a failure in terms of delivery in context we are still [testing], we have a car running reliably and we’ll put it behind us and learn from it to make us stronger.”
