Williams must endure more pain before resurgence - Lowe

Williams chief technical officer Paddy Lowe says that the team must face more pain before it starts to make inroads on the teams ahead. Williams has had a torrid 2018 season so far, scoring just four points in the opening 12 races, leaving them at the bottom of the constructor's standings.

The Grove-based team has been suffering from aerodynamic issues, which is making the FW41 very difficult to handle. At the Azerbaijan Grand Prix earlier this year, Lance Stroll crossed the line in eighth place, which remains Williams' only top ten finish this year.

However, a recent front wing update has helped, as Lowe explained to Auto Motor und Sport. However, there is still a lot of work to do: "As you start digging, you find more and more problems. We have to make up a lot of ground," he said.

2019 will see a slight change to the aerodynamic regulations, with the main change being simpler front wings. Lowe outlined that Williams is struggling to fix its 2018 car, while also attempting to put enough resources into the development of its 2019 challenger.

"In the meantime, we have to endure the pain until there is a solution," he said. "It's mainly aerodynamics but also more than that. The car lacks stability. We've fallen behind compared to last year. We hope to make some more changes after the break but it won't be half of what we need. Still, we're hoping for a better second half before we concentrate fully on the 2019 car," Lowe added.

Lowe compared the situation to McLaren in 2009, when he led the efforts to fix a badly-born car: "It's not directly comparable, but it shows that if everyone works purposefully, with discipline and while staying calm and united, you can pull out of it. In the end it's a technical problem, and all technical problems are solvable.

He also defended its two drivers, Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin. The team has the most inexperienced line-up on the grid, but Lowe denied that that has anything to do with its struggles this year.

"It's better for any team to have two multiple world champions," Lowe admitted. "But our problems have nothing to do with the inexperience of our drivers. They're doing a good job in a difficult situation. The car would not be better if we had other drivers."

Fergal Walsh