Williams deputy boss Claire Williams is supporting technical director Paddy Lowe, admitting the team is somewhat relying on him to turn around their current problems.
When the Briton made the move from Mercedes in March last year, his arrival was seen as the start of good times for the Grove-based team with his vast knowledge and experience from working with championship-winning teams.
However, trying to change philosophy with the 2018 chassis, the situation has gotten much worse with Williams currently bottom of the Constructors’ Championship and with little hope of making progress.
The departures of chief designer Ed Wood and aerodynamicist Dirk de Beer haven’t helped either but the daughter of team founder Sir Frank insists Lowe is not going anywhere.
“Paddy is our CTO [Chief Technical Officer] and I back him 100%,” Claire told Formula1.com. “Paddy is a triple world championship-winning technical director. He’s inherited a team with some issues and weaknesses and it’s his responsibility to fix these issues as our CTO.
“Giving someone a short time to do that and expect miracles is naïve. He needs more time to fix these issues. At the end of the day, we’re all relying on Paddy and his team of engineers. It’s those guys who make the car go faster.
“We need to make sure we give them everything we can resources-wise to do what they can to give us a good race car. I trust Paddy and his team will deliver.”
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Though some progress has been made in recent races, Lowe himself admits 2018 is likely now a write-off for Williams.
“We’ve done a lot of very good work, but when you go and look at the numbers, we’ve probably stood still relative to our competitors,” he said
“We’re not going to give up, but if we’re realistic, the idea of getting back towards the front of the midfield at this stage in this season is maybe not going to happen.
“So naturally, which happens anyway, a lot more focus moves to the following year.”