Williams worst F1 season. Claire Williams says 'It can't happen again'

Williams

'It can't happen again' says Claire Williams after worst ever season

Claire Williams admits 'You've got to sometimes hit rock bottom to know what your issues are'

Sam Hall

Saturday 4 January 2020 17:00

Claire Williams is determined that her team will improve in 2020 following the worst year in the history of the team.

Deputy team principal Claire Williams has overseen the slow decline of the once championship winning Williams team. A strong campaign in 2014 with the introduction of the V6 turbo-hybrid power units, saw the team finish third in the constructors' standings, an achievement equaled in 2015, but the decline in performance reached an all-time low in 2019 - Williams at the foot of the table and with only a single-point scored.

Williams told Autosport: "It can't happen again. You've got to sometimes hit rock bottom to know what your issues are because otherwise you just... sometimes you just go through these situations and you can get to where you need to get to by the skin of your teeth.

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"But you actually need to understand what's going on in your system to make sure that you're not just getting somewhere by the skin of your teeth and you've got to have a plan and a proper process."

Across the winter, Williams have been going through all aspects of the team, analysing weaknesses and finding how they can improve. Williams says her team have reacted positively to the probing.

"I would say that the team responded really well to that because it can be quite difficult for people to be very open and honest in those situations, but we encouraged honesty within it," continued Williams.

"In any situation like that it can always be difficult for people to put their hands up and be honest and open.

"But our team was incredibly receptive to the process that we asked them to go through, which allowed us to put in place a load of plans in order to address the areas of weakness that were causing the issues in the first place."