Lowe: Williams 'pushing to the limit' for big step forward

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Williams chief technical officer Paddy Lowe says that he's fired up by the opportunities in store for the team in 2018.

“It’s going to be an exciting year," predicted Lowe. "The FW41 is the product of some great teamwork."

"All Formula 1 cars are an evolution of what has gone before to some extent, but the FW41 does involve a number of departures from the directions that have been pursued in the past.

"[It's] a great opportunity for the team to get closer to the front, we believe.

In particular, he said a new approach to aerodynamics on the car had led to a big step forward in performance.

"The car has many new features, most of which are not all that obvious," he explained.

"But externally the team has pursued a very different aerodynamic concept which has allowed us some significant progress in aerodynamic performance.

Ex-McLaren aero man McKiernan joins Williams

Lowe added that the new car represented "a new approach to collaboration between aerodynamics and design to achieve the optimum working result."

He said that new developments around the barge board has been a particular focus of the team's off-season work.

"In common with our competitors, this area presented new opportunities in the 2017 regulations and has been considerably further developed for 2018.

"There are also a number of radical changes to the car’s packaging to incorporate further power unit developments from Mercedes.

Overall, Lowe is hoping to see real and tangible improvements on-track right from the start of the season.

"We had an aggressive programme but this was a decision we made to ensure we have the quickest car we possibly can," he said. "[It's] ready for the start of the season and we are pushing everything to the limit.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.