Claire Williams: A spring in everybody's step

Following Paddy Lowe’s official departure it is business as usual for Williams’ design department, only these days there’s a “spring in everybody’s step”.

Lowe, who joined Williams in 2017, took a leave absence in March this year when he shouldered the blame for the team’s failure to be ready for pre-season testing.

Four months later it became permanent.

Lowe’s duties were handed over to others already a part of the team in Doug McKiernan and Adam Carter.

Together with Dave Robson they have been pushing updates out for the FW42 as Williams continue to chase their first point of this season.

But while neither driver has managed better than George Russell’s P15s in Azerbaijan and Canada, deputy team boss Claire Williams is adamant the team has taken strides forward.

“As you can all imagine, I can’t go into any detail about the situation with Paddy except to say that the situation is resolved and he has left the team, and we wish him well for the future,” she told Racer.com.

“We’ve got to focus on the here and now, and the future, and that’s what we’re doing back at Grove in earnest.

“A lot of work is going on behind the scenes to make sure that we put Williams in the best possible position moving forward, from everyday moving forwards – not for 2020, not for 2021, but for right now.

“We have a very capable technical management team in place that have been working since Paddy’s leave of absence started back in March.

“So our chief designer Doug McKiernan and Adam Carter, who’s our head of design, and Dave Robson who runs engineering trackside, they’re working really well together.

“I think as everybody has seen over the past few races, we’ve been able to bring new parts to the track, the majority of which have been adopted because they’ve shown greater levels of performance, and we’re slowly closing that gap.

“We’ve got more parts coming prior to shutdown [summer break] that will hopefully bring greater performance to the car as well.

“We’re making good steps in the right direction, and that’s really nice to see.

“It’s been incredibly difficult for everybody at Williams over the last many, many months now, and it finally feels like we’re heading in the right direction again.

“There’s more of a spring in everybody’s step, so to speak.”

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