Williams need to improve in every area - Smedley

Departing Williams engineer Rob Smedley believes that there is no quick fix to sort out the team's current Formula 1 struggles which have seen them down the bottom of the constructor rankings, saying numerous areas of organisation need to be improved upon.

Williams were third in the team standings in 2014, but will finish 2018 bottom of the pile. Rookie drivers Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll have struggled behind the wheel, claiming points in just two races out of 20 so far, with the last event of 2018 coming in Abu Dhabi this Sunday.

Smedley, who is set to leave the team after the season, reckons that there are multiple issues that need to be addressed

"There's never one magic bullet is there," said Smedley

"In all areas really, you can never stop learning and improving. I think it would be a mistake to pinpoint one area and say that has to be the sole concentration or that's the sole problem; it's not.

"As with anything that's not quite working as well as it should be, or as efficiently as it should be, with any business, with any organisation, it's never one thing.

"They've got strong leadership and Claire [Williams] is at the front of that leadership and I think at that leadership level they need a recovery plan and that has to attack all areas of the business.

"It has to be technical, but it has to be all the support structure of the business as well.

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"There are areas that need modernisation, there are areas that need change and there are areas you should recognise that are strong compared to other Formula 1 teams but are not supported in other ways.

"It's a long road, they're a talented bunch there, there are some really good technical people, some really good engineers and a good management group and the trick now is they have to pull together and start to go in one direction."

Smedley does not think the challenges to get back to competing are insurmountable for Williams, however, saying the team have made strides in certain areas since 2014.

"I joined Williams at a time when they were evolving from having a torrid time of it," he continued.

"[For] the new regulations in 2014, the part that I was going to play in the journey was to take on the vehicle science, the vehicle performance side of it, the race operations and to try to help out in that area.

"If you look back at 2012, 2013 and from that point on, from 2014, with the huge effort that all of the guys that work in that department, we have been able to grow it, we've been able to improve it, and hopefully I leave it in better shape than it was."

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