Williams Chief Technical Officer Pat Fry insists that the team must develop a “winning mindset” in order to fulfil its “ultimate goal” of challenging for Formula 1 titles.
After ending up bottom of the championship for the third time in four years upon F1’s return to ground effect machinery last year, Williams improved up to seventh in 2023.
Despite only introducing a solitary upgrade package in Canada in June, the Grove-based squad held off a late charge from AlphaTauri to clinch its best placing in six seasons.
Williams’ revival is being overseen by ex-Mercedes Strategy Director James Vowles, who identified Fry, formerly of McLaren and Ferrari, to bolster the team’s technical ranks.
Having been persuaded by Vowles to help Williams’ attempts to return to the front, Fry has declared the British outfit must begin developing a winning mentality instantly.
“The ultimate goal in the end is to be a championship competitor,” Fry said.
“In 2-3-4 years time, we need to be getting in the fight, breaking into the top three. It’s a tough ask to do when you’re building from where we are, but I think it’s all possible.
“I guess having worked with Ron [Dennis] and [the mantra that] second is the first of the losers, having worked at Ferrari for five years where you celebrate winning but nothing else, I’m kind of tainted in that way. So, we need to build this space back to be a winning team.
“In a team that’s been underfunded, you end up with individual systems in each place and you’re building on a company without an overall vision. And the first thing is, what’s the overall vision?
“So, it starts with whatever, ‘win the championship in five years’. Then below that we’ve got to put the tools in place. We’ve got to develop the people, we’ve got to develop the mindset. I guess it’s easy to map out and hard to do.”
Fry, who occupies the same position as he had at Alpine, explains that he is already planning ahead in each technical division beyond Williams’ short-term aspirations.
“The first thing I’m doing is [identifying] what tools and technology we need in five years time,” the Briton added. “You’ve got to think that far ahead, because a lot of this stuff takes you that long to put in place.
“I’ve already been having those sort of conversations with the various managers of the departments, so it’s good to get their idea of where we are, where we need to get to and then try and pull everything together.
“It’s going to be a collective decision of where we actually need to get to and what we actually need.”
