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Lowe has Claire Williams full backing

By Andrew Hooper
August 20 2018

 
 Lowe has Claire Williams full backing
 
Claire Williams
 

The 2018 Formula One season has seen the Williams Martini team suffer one of their worst seasons in recent memory. The main person who has had to answer the criticism and questions as to what went wrong and how the team aims to turn things around has been team’s Chief Technical Officer, Paddy Lowe.

It has been a very difficult season for Lowe with every race been a very public showing of how bad the Williams team season is going. For Lowe he has been required to provide answers and his view point of this difficult season. His position was made even more difficult by the fact that the FW41 was the first car designed and built under his leadership.

Despite the lack of success and the apparent difficulties in turning things around Claire Williams, Deputy Team Principal of Williams Martini Racing, has publicly spoken of her continued support for Lowe.

In an interview with Formula 1.com Claire said" “Paddy is our CTO and I back him 100%. Paddy is a triple world championship-winning Technical Director. He’s inherited a team with some issues and weaknesses and it’s his responsibility to fix these issues as our CTO.”

Williams also acknowledges the fact that the process of turning things around is not going to happen overnight  but she is confident that the issues will be addressed and the performance of the FW41 will improve.

Claire added: “Giving someone a short time to do that and expect miracles is naïve. He needs more time to fix these issues. At the end of the day, we’re all relying on Paddy and his team of engineers.

“It’s those guys who make the car go faster. We need to make sure we give them everything we can resources-wise to do what they can to give us a good race car. I trust Paddy and his team will deliver.”

Despite a extensive list of departures from the design staff at the Williams team Lowe is confident that the team’s engineering’s department can make forward progress.

Lowe said: “We’ve done a lot of very good work, but when you go and look and the numbers, we’ve probably stood still relative to our competitors.”

“We’re not going to give up, but if we’re realistic, the idea of getting back towards the front of the midfield at this stage in the season is maybe not going to happen.

“So naturally, which happens anyway, a lot more focus moves to the following year.”

 

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Lowe has Claire Williams full backing
Discussion started by Williams F1 , 20/08/2018 08:53
Williams F1
20/08/2018 08:53
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Stu69
20/08/2018 10:27
Game set and match! Williams have no choice than to believe Paddy can sort it. He has good pedigree and Williams are fresh out of time. Fingers crossed!

j-s
20/08/2018 17:15
I foresee a conservative design in 2019. If the team couldn't get any kind of pace in a season with a very mature set of aero regs, I doubt they'll risk it with the new ones.

Last season I thought Paddy would bring some helpful understanding of what made the Mercs so quick. Some mechanical, suspension or aero bit that gave a handful of tenths. Nope.

Mikef1
20/08/2018 22:01
Quote:
j-s
I foresee a conservative design in 2019. If the team couldn't get any kind of pace in a season with a very mature set of aero regs, I doubt they'll risk it with the new ones.
Last season I thought Paddy would bring some helpful understanding of what made the Mercs so quick. Some mechanical, suspension or aero bit that gave a handful of tenths. Nope.

I agree in a roundabout way.

I think we will have a very similar car to this year but with the built in solutions for stuff like cooling. The merc gearbox will have a pretty big impact on our cooling and diffuser design so I'd imagine the sidepods and rear are where the most change would be.

SehnKhan
21/08/2018 06:50
Quote:
Ozzy Osbone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUc62jD-G0o

240p be still my beating heart!

T-800 Model 101
21/08/2018 09:00
Quote:
Ozzy Osbone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUc62jD-G0o

Awesome...Full Metal Jacket...thumbs down

T-800 Model 101
21/08/2018 09:18
I like the title of this story "Lowe has Claire Williams full backing"

You would hope he had Claire Williams full backing because if he didn't the Williams team would be in a bad place.

ihme
21/08/2018 10:00
Quote:
Mikef1
Quote:
j-s
I foresee a conservative design in 2019. If the team couldn't get any kind of pace in a season with a very mature set of aero regs, I doubt they'll risk it with the new ones.
Last season I thought Paddy would bring some helpful understanding of what made the Mercs so quick. Some mechanical, suspension or aero bit that gave a handful of tenths. Nope.

I agree in a roundabout way.

I think we will have a very similar car to this year but with the built in solutions for stuff like cooling. The merc gearbox will have a pretty big impact on our cooling and diffuser design so I'd imagine the sidepods and rear are where the most change would be.

I just hope we can keep with its development during the season with a ~70m loss this year otherwise we could finish near the end of the table. Especially if we wont get the new aero rules right.

Paddy needs to deliver with the FW42.

GPL
21/08/2018 10:50
I start to wonder why Paddy could not see the design faults being made in this car.
He should know what it takes for things to gel and work by now.

Jury is still out with this guy, in my book.

Mikef1
21/08/2018 11:00
Quote:
gpl
I start to wonder why Paddy could not see the design faults being made in this car.
He should know what it takes for things to gel and work by now.

Jury is still out with this guy, in my book.

He's not an aerodynamicist and that's where the issues are.

His key thing since he came in was our gearbox and he's successfully persuaded the big dogs to take the Mercedes unit. This saves money and will only boost performance. That's the kind of thing he can control. He needs to bring in people who understand aerodynamic testing from better functioning teams to resolve those issues. I feel like he's probably done that, not all jobs have had big announcement but some pretty high profile jobs have come and gone from the Williams website in the aero department.

IanSmithISA
21/08/2018 12:01
Good morning,

[quote Mikef1][quote gpl]....His key thing since he came in was our gearbox and he's successfully persuaded the big dogs to take the Mercedes unit.[/quote]

Is that confirmed?

I've seen lots of "in discussions" but no confirmation yet.

Bye

Ian

GPL
21/08/2018 12:08
When was the last time we had a good aero team??



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2018:08:21:12:19:07 by gpl.

T-800 Model 101
21/08/2018 12:18
Bump

Mikef1
21/08/2018 14:39
With aero, never. And whether it's been confirmed, no publication has but the sources those people are quoting are all reputable. I'd be confident the deal is done. It's not the kind of thing a team would "announce" anyway. In secret it's not even a Mercedes gearbox it's xtrac but most people don't mention that either

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