Williams and Mercedes are in talks to partly expand their partnership with the latter adding gearboxes to their current engine supply deal, motorsport boss Toto Wolff has revealed.
As the Grove-based team has struggled during 2018, currently bottom of the Constructors' Championship with just four points in 12 races, many have wondered if closer ties to the German manufacturer could be a way of boosting performance.
Given Williams' proud history as a successful independent team, technical director Paddy Lowe, formerly team boss at Mercedes, has rejected such an idea, that view though may be loosening slightly.
“Formula 1 is changing," he admitted. "Force India were one of the early ones to abandon the full constructor definition that teams had historically followed of essentially making everything except an engine.
“We’ve seen more and more teams adopting gearboxes from elsewhere. Now we have the Haas model where you adopt everything that is not listed.
“We have our eyes open to all of those possibilities because we owe it to ourselves. You’ve got to move with the times and do the best thing for the performance of the team."
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Wolff then confirmed the possibility, telling the official F1 website: “They are an engine client of ours. It’s not a huge thing to increase that to a gearbox. We are in discussions about doing that.
“Nothing is signed, nothing is done and we need to decide in the next few weeks because the chassis design is at an advanced stage for Williams, so we’ll see how that pans out."
