2018 nearly a write off - What's gone wrong at Williams?

Williams' woeful form hit a new low at the Monaco Grand Prix, and as Rob Watts explains, the team are facing a huge task to turn their season around in the coming races after being left behind by their rivals in 2018.

At the end of last year, Williams knew some big changes were needed to reclaim the fourth place they'd lost to Force India, but already the team appear close to crisis as they sit last in the constructors' championship with just four points on the board.

Lance Stroll's eighth-place finish at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix is the only positive note to speak of as the team has endured their worst start to a season for five years.

The team's aerodynamic shortcomings were badly exposed at the next race in Barcelona as Stroll and new teammate Sergey Sirotkin qualified slowest of all, before finishing two and three laps down respectively in the race.

During practice two days earlier, test driver Robert Kubica gave a brutal assessment of the team's FW41 car saying he was "embarrassed" to be driving so slowly due to its poor balance and handling.

If the team were hoping Barcelona was just a blip, then their performance in Monaco will have been a cause for great concern.

Williams once again were lapped and finished the race last of the classified runners, with two punctures, and a stop-go penalty adding to their woes.

Deputy team principal Claire Williams insists the team are not in a "spiral of decline" but there have been enough signs of late that their issues extend far beyond the racetrack.

The team's decision to partner the inexperienced Stroll with F1 rookie Sirotkin raised a few eyebrows ahead of the start of this season, with Kubica expected by many to secure an emotional F1 return after seven years away.

Following Stroll's up and down debut season, the smart move for Williams might have been to pair the young Canadian with a more experienced teammate after veteran Felipe Massa called it quits at the end of 2017.

Besides Kubica, the team's former reserve driver Paul Di Resta was strongly considered, along with Pascal Wehrlein and Daniil Kvyat - who each offered recent race experience.

The team opted for Sirotkin though, citing his strong pace during the end of year Abu Dhabi test as being key to their decision. In hindsight, what Williams have badly needed is an experienced hand to help steer development of a car Kubica described during pre-season as handling "like a bus".

The experienced Kubica may just be the man to do that, but with only a few free practice appearances scheduled for this season, and strict limits on testing, it's hard to see how much direct influence he can have in the short term.

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On the personnel side, Williams have made some key hires over the past 18 months in an attempt to move up the grid, with the highly respected Paddy Lowe joining from Mercedes, along with ex-Ferrari aerodynamicist Dirk de Beer.

But with the announcement this week that De Beer, who steered the design of the team's current car, has left the team with immediate effect, it raises the suggestion that Williams have realised this current season may already be a write off.

The arrival of De Beer from Ferrari was seen as a strong hire for Williams, and it will be a major blow to senior figures within the team that his signing has failed to deliver the impact they expected.

With long-serving chief engineer Ed Wood departing prior to the Spanish Grand Prix, it leaves the team now needing to replace two senior members part way through the season.

To her credit, Williams has hastily dismissed talk of the team's decline and is keen to put a brave face on the situation - and rightly so.

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As the team struggles on track, she faces the unenviable task of finding a replacement for title sponsor Martini who have chosen to end their involvement at the end of this season.

And there begins the spiral that Williams find themselves in.

A lack results makes it more difficult to attract a big-name sponsor for next season and beyond, which in turn places a greater strain on the resources of a team believed to operate on a third of the budget of Mercedes and Ferrari.

To make matters worse, recruiting senior engineering staff becomes a hard sell when Williams can neither offer a financial or performance incentive to switch from rival teams.

Williams do at least have a plan to deliver that much needed performance incentive, as a significant upgrade is scheduled to arrive before the mid-season break.

Technical chief Paddy Lowe has referred to it as their "recovery programme", but if Williams fall further into remission, there may be more than championship points at stake in the coming months.