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“We looked like idiots from outside.” That was the harsh but unfortunately true assessment of the Williams F1 team’s poor performance at the Bahrain Grand Prix, from their rookie driver Sergey Sirotkin.
Having qualified a lowly 11th and 20th, Sirotkin led his teammate Lance Stroll to only 16th and 17th for the prestigious team – far from the midfield and points-scoring positions.
The optimism that Paddy Lowe’s radically designed FW41 would keep Williams as a midfield contender has quickly dissipated, with lacklustre results in the opening two races of the season.
Hope of making progress up the grid this season looks unlikely too, regardless of whatever upgrades the team brings to their car. That is largely to do with the fact that latent teams such as Renault, McLaren, Haas and Toro Rosso have made significant gains and have the budgets to sustain their development.
Despite having the best power-units equipped in the Mercedes-Benz, a top designer in Lowe and two drivers paying hefty sums to drive the cars, Williams still lack the finances and resources to be competitive.
Their success in the early portion of the hybrid-era was aided by the fact that the aforementioned teams were on the back foot and Williams had one of the best cars behind the works Mercedes AMG squad.
But as they all developed their way back to competitiveness, Williams’ progress stagnated and now the illustrious Grove-based team sit at the bottom of the constructor’s standings, as the only team yet to score points in 2018.
It’s unlikely that the nine-time constructor’s champions will see out the season without scoring, though finishing higher than eighth seems a stretch at present.
Williams copped criticism for their choice of drivers and at the drivers themselves, though it only seems fair to direct this negative assessment at the car itself, as young Sirotkin had done, following the outcome in Bahrain.
Not even Robert Kubica, who was the popular choice for the seat which Sirotkin occupies, would be able to extract results any better than the Russian or Stroll, now in his sophomore season.
The question is now: what lies ahead for Williams? It seems bleak for the remainder of the season and their fate unknown for next year.
Title sponsor Martini will strip their iconic colours off Williams’ machinery at the conclusion of 2018, ending a five-year association which yielded multiple podiums in the early stages of the partnership.
Stroll and Sirotkin could develop with the team, though it is believed their presence will be as finite as the funds that have them there is.
Williams are just as important to Formula One as Ferrari are, being that embodiment of the ‘garagista’ having come from the blood, sweat and tears of Sirs Frank Williams and Patrick Head.
Though, as with Ferrari, Formula One cannot live off their former glories, the expectation to be successful in the present is far more crucial.
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