The two F1 fallen giants that must adapt or die

It seems hard to believe that once mighty powerhouses Williams and McLaren have fallen so hard this year. Both teams, with 296 Formula 1 wins and 17 constructors' titles collectively amassed between them, had come into 2018 expecting some form of resurrection.

McLaren's switch to Renault engines, and Williams's first car under ex-Mercedes technical chief Paddy Lowe, were expected to re-establish these teams towards the front of the grid.

Yet as the season has worn on, and both organisations realised they are heading in the wrong direction, there has been little to celebrate. In Russia last weekend, they were again propping up the bottom of the timesheets.

As Williams deputy team principal Claire Williams told Autosport recently: "We have to be realistic. Going from P5 to P10 doesn't come about because you have got a couple of issues. It comes about because you have a handful of them, if not more than that."

The questions are whether that collective pain is part of a bigger picture - namely a link to two organisations that dominated F1 in the 1980s and '90s being left behind as the championship carries on and evolves. Both, for example, have talked about a culture problem that has been allowed to fester over recent years as performances on track had hidden wider underlying problems.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown says: "I think our problems date back to five, six years ago. I think it is lack of consistent leadership. We've had since 2012, in no particular order, Martin [Whitmarsh], Ron [Dennis], Martin, Ron, Eric [Boullier], Jost [Capito], Eric.

"Lob in there an ownership change with Mercedes. Lob in there a shareholder board room battle. Lob in there an uncompetitive Honda - and you have five or six years of a bad situation because it then lacked overall leadership.

"I don't think it is any one person's fault, it was just a revolving door. I don't think you've had enough consistent eyes and leadership on the racing team, and therefore the output of that is a poorly produced race car."

What a contemporary F1 team needs to do to be successful is an increasingly changing art

Williams also hints at entrenched issues that went unaddressed during a process of restructuring in 2013 in her team.

"I think one of the key things we missed, and as a result of probably not having the time to do it, was addressing some cultural issues that we have within Williams," she says.

"Probably we were somewhat blindsided by the success that we managed to achieve very quickly in 2014 from doing the work in '13, and that was a big turnaround going from ninth to eighth. We didn't do that, and I think the subsequent years of success blinded us to that issue that we probably had, so now we are addressing it."

What a contemporary F1 team needs to do to be successful is an increasingly changing art, and this is exploiting Williams and McLaren's weaknesses. It is no longer essential to be an engineering and manufacturing giant that excels in all areas of car production.

Now, a blank chequebook, the backing of a major car manufacturer, or an energy drinks billionaire behind a team is needed. Look at the impact Renault has had since taking over the Lotus outfit when that was previously in the doldrums.

The other option is a close partnership with a bigger team to shortcut your car production.

Sauber has realised that 100% of its focus needs to be on aerodynamic performance and the mechanical bits can come from someone else. Teams such as McLaren and Williams have found themselves on the wrong side of the fence. They are huge organisations that are a legacy of what it took to be successful a decade ago.

Without the mega money of a manufacturer behind them to keep throwing finance at problems, the duo have become oil tankers that cannot change direction compared to the new wave of leaner operations that includes Haas, which is able to adapt its business model to the exact needs of the present.

"I think that is the problem," says Brown. "While Haas as an example has done an outstanding job, and they are working the rules as they allow, they have 250 people. They are a third of the size and half the budget, and they just should not be beating us.

"Now credit to them, but I think that is not what F1 is. F1 has always been about everyone producing their own car and what started as, 'I will buy engines, I will buy gearboxes', has now just gone to the extreme. That is not what McLaren and Williams are about."

Williams echoes those thoughts too, arguing that trends in business - such as Tesla taking on the established car manufacturers or Uber versus taxis - have been mirrored in F1. It can be hard for established entities to respond to a threat from a start-up that is more agile and can adapt quickly to change.

"It has suddenly come full frontal in everyone's faces this year, the collaborations that are going on in the paddock," says Williams. "Personally, I don't like it. I feel very much that it goes against the spirit of the sport. However, the collaborations that are going on are within the regulations so what can we do?

"For me it is a real shame because I don't understand the concept of collaborating with your competitors and then competing against them on the racetrack. It makes no sense to me.

"For the fans, it is probably a benefit to them because we have seen the grid this year close up and we have seen teams that were once at the back fighting high up in the midfield.

"But I want to personally keep Williams as an independent team. We've always fought for the value that we feel that we find in being a constructor. And if you are an F1 team you should be a constructor and an independent constructor and compete independently.

"That to me is really important. But if this is the way we are going then that is the way it is and we will just have to fight even harder."

But that determination - and perhaps romanticism - could now be outdated.

"We have to adapt and change with the times. Otherwise you become dinosaurs" Claire Williams

The desire to stick to the old business model of an F1 team that creates everything itself could be like the pride that drove Kodak to bankruptcy when it failed to respond to the threat from digital photography.

If both McLaren and Williams had completely refused to accept that change in F1, it would be clear that it was the championship that had taken the wrong option.

But there are hints from both teams that the time has come for a change. In the past, McLaren would never have considered dramatic cost control under previous regimes. Now not only is Brown banking on the budget cap from 2021 being able to peg back the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari, but he is keen for standard parts.

Williams has already looked into taking a different path as early as 2019, when it pondered using the Mercedes transmission as part of a move to closer collaboration.

While it chose not to do so it is is clear that Williams cannot just plough on irrespective of what a modern F1 team needs. For both teams, what worked to make a successful team in the 1980s and '90s just does not cut it now.

"Of course we have evaluated whether we want to do something like that [team collaboration] this year," says Williams.

"It didn't work out for us for whatever reason right here and right now, but that is not to say that we have closed the door on it completely. I would much rather the regulations changed to close the door on the whole thing completely. But if it transpires that next year we have to do something then we may have to do something.

"It wouldn't be the end of the world, although it wouldn't be ideal. But we have to adapt and change with the times. Otherwise you become dinosaurs."

For Williams and McLaren, extinction is not an option.