Williams had to "reconfigure the machine" to improve

Williams have had to make major changes behind the scenes in order to fightback in the second half of the season, as the team hope to compete with the midfield going forward. 

Instead of continuing with the same processes that have placed them into this situation, the British team have completed an extensive review of their Formula 1 operation. According to deputy team principal Claire Williams, they have returned to 'base principles' in some areas.

In the last race before the summer break at the Hungaroring, George Russell began to show that there was some light at the end of the tunnel as upgrades first introduced in Germany began to come good.

Speaking to Autosport, Williams' chief engineer Dave Robson said: “The biggest challenge I would say, is that you can continue to turn the handle on the machine that you’ve got, or effectively you have to stop the machine and reconfigure the machine and set it going again. 

“In this industry things are constantly evolving, and you’re in competition, and you have to make a conscious decision to stop, rebuild and then start going again for the greater potential and opportunity afterwards.  That, for me, is one of the hardest things.”

Talking about the "big step" that was made in Hungary, he continued: “It’s like everything in this industry; you design, develop, correlate, design, develop, correlate, and that builds the confidence for you to set your path and direction. 

“It doesn’t matter how far we’ve gone down the path. It answers a few questions, raises a number of other questions. 

“You set down the path of a strategy and you constantly assess your progress along it, and change your strategy as the environment is changing.”