Williams have already endured more than their fair share of criticism, first for having a really young and not particularly talented line-up, and in Barcelona their performances were lacking to say the least. More often than not, the team was found at the very bottom of the timesheet, which has left fans unhappy.
Six out of the eight days Williams were dead last. The FW41 is more than 2.7 seconds off the pace, but team boss Paddy Lowe insists the car is a work in progress, and that people should give them more time.
"I think a large degree of change both in the team that delivered the car and the car itself, that can take a while to develop and optimise," he told ESPN.
"I think we can make a lot more progress within the season and even into next," he continued. "It's still early in the potential I think that's in the team."
"The correlation is pretty sound. Actually Williams' ability to measure aerodynamic performance is one of the strongest I've seen. The technology and the people together is very strong."
"We've got a great wind tunnel, it's well up there with the best. So we've got good tools and we make good use of them but I think there's potential to do even more."
To Williams' credit, they have been one of the most active teams on the track in pre-season, completing the fourth most laps of all teams. Will just reliability be enough though?
Read more about:
Today
Popular on GPBlog
1
Sainz incensed with Albon controversy: 'Lost confidence in everything'
1794 times read
2
Horner responds to Brown's 'challenge': 'You did it to us last year'
1042 times read
3
Is McLaren cheating? Wolff: 'It'd be nice not to get 35 seconds over a race'
1011 times read
4
Vasseur and Horner look to Barcelona with hope: Here's why!
940 times read