Williams not going to ‘write off’ 2018 season 

Williams has a recovery programme in place and will not “write off” the 2018 Formula 1 season, following its difficult start to the year.

The British squad opted for an aggressive design philosophy with its 2018 F1 car but its push for added downforce resulted in a negative impact on its straight-line speed, an area the team previously benefitted from. 

But despite facing the prospect of a tough season that so far has left Williams languishing at the bottom of the constructors’ championship having scored just four points from the opening seven races, deputy team principal Claire Williams insists her outfit is not ready to give up on its campaign. 

When asked if she feels confident the team can turnaround its fortunes, Williams replied: “That’s the whole purpose of our recovery plan. We’ve never said we’re going to write this season off. In no way would we ever say that at Williams. 

“We’re only a third of the way through this year. There are a lot of races left to go. We haven’t done what we wanted to do in the first third – scoring four points is not where we want to be. 

"But the guys are doing a good job, as I said. But it does require a little bit of patience. It’s not easy turning things around that fast. We’ve got a lot of work to do, particularly on the aerodynamics side of things, and that takes time.”

Williams has undergone a series of changes to its aerodynamic department, with senior figures Dirk de Beer and Ed Wood leaving the team amid its terrible start to 2018.

But Claire Williams insists the Grove-based outfit is in a strong position to improve as the season progresses and already has a series of upgrades in the works for upcoming races as it bids to work its way back up the midfield pecking order. 

“We’re obviously having quite a difficult start to our year but we have a really strong technical team in place back at Grove who are working really hard and really cohesively, and that’s the most important thing, and everyone just has their heads down and is trying to get us out of the trouble we’re in at the moment,” she explained. 

“So we’ll be bringing updates to forthcoming races, we’ll have to see how they pan out. It’s just a case of working hard and keeping everything crossed so that we deliver the performance that we need to do, so that by the end of the year we’re back up to the front of the field, but that’s going to be hard work for us.”