Smedley warns that 'it can get worse' at Williams

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Rob Smedley, Williams' former head of vehicle performance, says the Grove-based outfit's plight could actually get worse in 2020.

Williams has been fighting a depressed state of affairs since 2018, the former championship-winning team scoring 7 points that season and just a single top-ten finish in 2019.

Weighed down by engineering failures and organizational deficiencies, Formula 1's third most successful team hit "rock bottom" last season according to its deputy team principal Claire Williams.

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But Smedley, who left Williams at the end of 2018, knows from experience that a team's decline can be locked in a bottomless pit.

"There would always be a philosophy that it can’t get any worse," Smedley told Reuters' Alan Baldwin.

"Having been around the block a few times in motorsport, and Formula 1 in particular, (I know) the reality is it can get worse than this.

"We talk about how it can’t get much worse than 2019, but we said that about 2018. And we said that about 2017. The reality is that 2020 can actually be worse than 2019."

Claire Williams recently said that her team's wretched season was necessary for Williams to make the right decisions to enable a comeback.
But Smedley warns against entertaining such a mindset, although he would like nothing more than to his former employer succeed.

"Anyone who thinks that you can turn things around from where Williams are now to suddenly arrive back in the top five of the championship, they are very much mistaken. It is just incorrect," he said.

"Now I’m on the outside I can hope, but when I was on the inside I didn’t want to just hope.

"It’s a tragic case. I’m not of the generation that can’t remember when Williams won a world championship.

"To see the decline there, it’s heartbreaking really as a Formula One fan."

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Phillip van Osten

Motor racing was a backdrop from the outset in Phillip van Osten's life. Born in Southern California, Phillip grew up with the sights and sounds of fast cars thanks to his father, Dick van Osten, an editor and writer for Auto Speed and Sport and Motor Trend. Phillip's passion for racing grew even more when his family moved to Europe and he became acquainted with the extraordinary world of Grand Prix racing. He was an early contributor to the monthly French F1i Magazine, often providing a historic or business perspective on Formula 1's affairs. In 2012, he co-authored along with fellow journalist Pierre Van Vliet the English-language adaptation of a limited edition book devoted to the great Belgian driver Jacky Ickx. He also authored "The American Legacy in Formula 1", a book which recounts the trials and tribulations of American drivers in Grand Prix racing. Phillip is also a commentator for Belgian broadcaster Be.TV for the US Indycar series.