Technical director Paddy Lowe admits the focus in 2018 will be on the development of the new Williams FW41 rather than immediate results.
The first car to be created under the leadership of Lowe, it is a significant shift in concept compared to last year with Williams hoping to turn around the disappointing results of the past two seasons.
A largely underwhelming performance in testing, however, has worried some fans, particularly after the decision to replace Felipe Massa with Sergey Sirotkin for this year but Lowe insists the drivers are not to blame.
“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,” the former Mercedes boss told ESPN.
“We can make a lot more progress within the season and even into next. It’s still early in the potential I think that’s in the team.
“The limitation in the car at the moment is corner entry instability,” Lowe continued. “It’s particularly exaggerated at the moment with what we’re running and if we can unlock some progress there we will find a lot more lap time than we’ve got.
“Some other aspects of the car are working really, really strongly through other phases of the corner.”
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Entering his second year with Williams, Lowe also continues to be impressed by the operation the British team has while also seeing room for improvement.
“Williams’ ability to measure aerodynamic performance is one of the strongest I’ve seen. The technology and the people together is very strong,” he said.
“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.”
