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Williams's driver call exposes its flagging revival

It was not so long ago that Williams traded pure driver quality for money: and that didn't work out so great. Now its 2018 line-up is a reflection of that very tactic, is it time to accept that its revival has hit the skids?

Williams says it does not compete in Formula 1 merely to make up the numbers. Of course, there is little point participating in professional sport if you are not 'in it to win it', as they say, but although Williams has not won a world championship for 20 years, been an F1 title contender since 2003, or won a race in the last five seasons, we are repeatedly told this team is on a proper mission to get back to the top of the series it once dominated.

"One of the things Williams has been good at doing in the past few years is very quickly identifying its errors and weaknesses, and then resolving those, not letting the grass grow under our feet," Williams deputy team principal Claire Williams told Autosport last winter.

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