Technical boss Symonds leaves Williams - report

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Williams chief technical officer Pat Symonds has parted company with the team, according to a report.

Symonds has held the role at Williams since 2013, and oversaw consecutive third place finishes in the constructors' championship over the following two seasons. However, the team dropped to fifth place after losing out in a battle with Force India this year and Autosport reports the 63-year-old has now departed the team.

The move comes amid rumours Mercedes executive director (technical) Paddy Lowe is poised to switch to Williams in the near future. Lowe is understood to have been approached about a move but as of last week had yet to speak to Mercedes regarding his future.

Symonds was linked with a move away from Williams earlier this year, but played down reports he would be retiring at the end of the season, telling F1i he still had ambitions to win the world championship again.

The departure of Symonds comes as Williams looks to restructure its technical department, with head of vehicle performance Rob Smedley's position also under review to see if he can have more influence on the team with a factory-based role.

Williams could also see a change to its driver line-up this winter, with Valtteri Bottas a target of Mercedes. Symonds recently said "keeping Bottas will be crucial", but the team is understood to have approached Felipe Massa about coming out of retirement to replace the Finn should he leave.

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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.