There is now ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ for Williams following a disastrous start to the 2019 Formula 1 season, according to Claire Williams.
The deputy team boss is optimistic that the team’s fortunes are set to improve as it works to deliver an upgrade kit to the FW42.
Williams is the only team yet to score a point in 2019, with three 15th places for rookie George Russell the highlights of what has been a difficult season which began even before pre-season testing.
Forced to sit out the opening days of testing through delays at the factory, the team has been playing catch up ever since.
However, Williams believes that the team can now see its way out of the doldrums as she looks ahead to the remainder of 2019 and into next year.
“We can see some light at the end of the tunnel now,” she admitted.
“It may be slow but we all know that it takes time to bring performance to your car.
“There’s definitely a lot of good work going on back at the factory that people may not necessarily be seeing yet.
“The aero team are doing a great job finding performance in the tunnel and we’re going to be bringing that to races over the coming weeks and months with a package coming midway through the season that we will hope will bring some significant performance to us.
“There are definitely signs of improvement.”
Williams scored just seven points last year, with its most recent points finish coming in the Italian Grand Prix last September, seven races from the end of 2018.
Six races into the current season, it makes for a run of 13 races without a point for either of its cars, the longest barren spell in the team’s history.
The team though is unwilling to write off the current campaign, with Williams insisting there’s progress being made.
“Nothing is a write-off at Williams, ever. It never has been and it never would be, regardless of where we are,” she said.
“It’s just not our mindset a Williams. We don’t write a season off just because we aren’t doing well. For us, at the moment, we’re really looking at ’19 and ’20 very much as almost two seasons (combined).
“It’s just evolution and development and we’ve just got to keep bringing performance at each and every race. We’ve definitely seen that we’ve done that, we’re closing the gap to the ninth-placed team and we’ve got to keep doing that as the season progresses.”
Formula 1 next weekend heads to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix (June 7-9).
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