New Williams chief technical officer Pat Symonds says his main focus after joining the team will be ensuring they are ready for next year’s change in regulations.
Symonds said his focus “has to be much more towards 2014 as it’s an immensely difficult programme, the most difficult we have had to tackle for a long while”.
“The FW36 is well underway and I think it’s important I get my influence onto that,” he added. “However, my influence will be much more on process rather than detail, so I hope that pays off and leads to the sort of structure that can lead to on-going success for the team.”
As well as adapting to the new rules Williams will have a new engine supplier, switching from Renault to Mercedes.
The team will continue to bring performance upgrades for the current car, he added: “There are developments going on for the remainder of this season. We have new parts coming to races as far out as Korea and beyond.”
“They are not things I’ve had influence on but I can see them in the development programme. I hope we can look at some smaller details from the wind tunnel to improve things over the coming races and I’ll be looking at the operational side too.”
Williams have only scored a single point so far this year. Symonds says the team’s results “are not a reflection of the quality we have”.
“My primary aim is to bring success back to the team and I will be very singular in my focus to achieve that,” he said. “I want the people who are working with me to enjoy that success and be an integral part of bringing Williams back to where I think it should be.”
“It will take time to analyse what is happening and improve things but it’s up to me to facilitate this process.”
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Tomsk (@tomsk)
21st August 2013, 18:16
I hope they keep development going this year, particularly with a fresh pair of eyes on processes and whatever else an experienced boffin might find.
There’s usually good points to be scored late in the season, as other midfeld teams concentrate on the following year: Toro Rosso have done well out of this recently.