Williams F1 team says eliminating blame culture key to resurgence

Williams has made significant strides during the 2014 F1 season both in terms of results and operational strength.

Smedley believes that focusing on troubleshooting problems rather than trying to blame individuals has played a big part in that.

"Perhaps Williams was a bit guilty in the past, and it's not the only team, of having a bit of a blame culture on the technical side," Smedley told AUTOSPORT.

"Pat [Symonds, chief technical officer] and I both have the same core value that you absolutely must not have a blame culture.

"When you have a blame culture, people spend 60-90 per cent of their effort covering what they have done rather than doing anything positive and understanding the problem, making the car go quicker or making operations slicker.

"I know that because I've seen it many times before, but if you actually say to people 'look, that's my job, the buck stops with me, it's actually my fault' no matter who made the call the situation is diffused very quickly.

"We're not looking for someone to sack or looking for scapegoats, meaning people end up focusing on something positive.

"That's the culture we are trying to build up here and slowly it is working."

Smedley also believes that the race team and the factory are working together more effectively than before.

This has often been a weakness at Williams in the past, but the impressive hit-rate of the upgrades the team has introduced this season shows it is no longer the case.

While Symonds is focused on the work done at the factory as well as attending races, Smedley's role as head of vehicle performance means he is in day-to-day charge of the race team.

"I really like the way the axis is working," said Smedley.

"Pat is, far and away, the best boss I have had and there is a great deal of trust there between the two of us.

"I'm in constant contact with him when we're here at the track and when stuff needs doing he's the link back to the factory.

"We have these conversations and bounce ideas off each other and then that goes back, and it is a way to feed back ideas back to the factory."