F1 News

Williams flattered by a good engine for years before 2018 nosedive

Williams "flattered by a good engine" for years before 2018 nosedive

14-01-2019 13:38
2
Author profile picture

Jake Williams-Smith

Williams has been "making up the numbers" in Formula One for years according to the team's chief technical officer Paddy Lowe. Williams has been in freefall since their third-place finish in 2014 and cannot predict when a recovery will begin.

2018 represented the legendary teams worst ever finish as an F1 constructor, accumulating just seven points all season. Lowe admitted that the team has been carried by their Mercedes power unit and other teams' struggles.

“There have been good years and bad years relatively and they can be explained by different factors that vary in your favour,” he said.

“But the underlying point is we haven’t been competing in the way you need to compete to win, which is our objective. We have essentially been making up the numbers. We won a race in 2012 but I think you’d agreed that was an isolated result and then the win before that was a long time ago.

“Yes, we’ve had some reasonably good years, as an example 2014 was a good year. But I think you’d agree we were flattered by a good engine and other teams who for their own reasons didn’t have a good year. The underlying performance hasn’t been where it needed to be for a very long time.

“It’s not only about investment, it’s about a process and even culture. There’s a huge amount of change going on but it’s only starting. These things take a long time.

“This is why we won’t give any prediction of results. Because the first thing you’ve got to do is change your engineering and then when you change that you start making better products, i.e. racing cars, so even to make the changes in the organisation takes time for those effects to come through, it won’t be instantaneous.”

Williams will have an all-new driver line-up in 2019 with Robert Kubica returning to F1 alongside F2 champion and Mercedes junior driver George Russell.