Williams won't recruit more engineering talent to fix problems

Paddy Lowe says Williams will better exploit the engineering expertise it has to improve the form of its troubled FW41.

The Grove-based outfit has endured a difficult start to its 2018 campaign, its drivers lingering towards the back of the grid with a car whose performance has clearly fallen short of expectations.

Lowe admits the British outfit has been forced to contend with "several problems" impacting the pace of its car.

"We're not making them public but there's a major operation inside Williams to fix them," Lowe said in Baku.

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The Williams technical director and team partner made clear that its depressed performance was due to factors linked to its car, not its drivers.

"To fight for the title, ok, the driver needs that experience. When you talk about that final half tenth, only the great champions are able to find it," added Lowe.

"But we do not expect our two very young drivers to be part of that group now.

"We're really satisfied with them. I think they both have the potential to grow in F1 and today, within our limitations, they're demonstrating that.

"Williams' lack of results today is a problem with the car, not the drivers. It's up to us to solve them."

Lowe also ruled out fixing Williams' problems by bringing hiring additional outside engineering expertise, such as the newly departed McLaren technical boss Tim Goss.

"No," said Lowe. "We hired Doug McKiernan in February, but I have no plans to get more people. The challenge is to coordinate the people we have in the right way.

"Sometimes things don't work -- problems arise that nobody expects and it's not necessarily related to the way the engineers are working.

"F1 teams always go through good times and difficult times -- look at the grid and you'll see it happens everywhere," he added.

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