Williams: "Performance has been poor for years"

Williams CTO (Chief Technical Officer) Paddy Lowe has admitted that 2018 was an extremely difficult year for the Grove-based team, but he's also confident Williams "have already completed the turnaround" as the problems have been addressed.

With just seven points scored, Williams finished in last place in the constructors' championship by quite a long distance. Both Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll have left the team, with the latter making the step up to Racing Point. The duo has been replaced by rookie George Russell and F1 veteran Robert Kubica, who will compete in F1 for the first time since 2010.

Lowe insisted to SpeedWeek that better times are ahead now for Williams.

"The good thing is people have recognised the problems and are working hard on them," Lowe explained.

"I’m not going to make pinpoint predictions and say we will improve in the world championship. But I know we will be better. We have already completed the turnaround."

However, Lowe also thinks that it wasn't just 2018 that was a bad year - Williams has been punching under its weight for a while now.

“Our last victory was back in 2012 with Pastor Maldonado in Spain and the last victory before that was in 2004. That was a long time ago. "My conclusion: our performance has been poor for years.

"You need changes in the organisation, but these do not take effect immediately. Williams has been too static."