Williams had to hit rock bottom before we could start making progress again, deputy boss Claire Williams says.
The historic British team endured their worst ever season in 2019 scoring just a solitary point and sitting at the back of the grid throughout.
Gradual progress was made and by the final race in Abu Dhabi, George Russell was only four-tenths slower than 18th-placed Kimi Raikkonen in qualifying.
So with hope that the worst is now behind them, Williams explained why the past year has been necessary for their recovery.
“You’ve got to sometimes hit rock bottom to know what your issues are,” she said via Motorsport.
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“Sometimes you just go through these situations and you can get to where you need to get to by the skin of your teeth.
“But you actually need to understand what’s going on in your system to make sure that you’re not just getting somewhere by the skin of your teeth and you’ve got to have a plan and a proper process.”
The scale of Williams’ issues last year were clear even before a wheel was turned after the team missed the first two days of testing.
However, Claire was again adamant that the setback was again actually a long-term positive.
“I would say that the team responded really well to that because it can be quite difficult for people to be very open and honest in those situations, but we encouraged honesty within it,” she added.
“In any situation like that, it can always be difficult for people to put their hands up and be honest and open.
“But our team was incredibly receptive to the process that we asked them to go through, which allowed us to put in place a load of plans in order to address the areas of weakness that were causing the issues in the first place.”