Why solving a people problem should fix Williams

The week after Nico Hulkenberg stuck his Cosworth-powered Williams on pole in Brazil, 2010, Patrick Head held up his Blackberry and showed me hundreds of congratulatory emails.

"There are people here who Frank and I haven't heard from in years," he said.

"Nice they got in touch," I suggested.

"No," he replied. "Everyone's your friend when you are winning, otherwise there's nothing."

I thought about that recently. Kicking Williams has become a new pastime as assorted analysts and social media jockeys have trashed the team for tugging around, three to four seconds off the pace in qualifying.

Claire Williams told F1's official podcast: "It has been an enormous shock. I fully expected to come into this year in a much better place...with a much quicker race car. After testing we didn't even have to wait until Australia to realise that wasn't the case. I couldn't quite believe that Williams was finding itself repeatedly down at the bottom of the grid."

That quote was given in November and referred to last season. The realisation within the team that things have gone from bad to worse this year can only be imagined. No wonder Paddy Lowe slipped away.

Problems with leadership, technology, structure and culture can never be second-guessed by outsiders. Only those inside Grove really know where the problems lie. If they don't, the solutions will come from having tough conversations.

In his book, How to Build a Car, Adrian Newey describes how he identified a negative sub-culture that had existed within Jaguar Racing and continued under Red Bull. He realised it was holding the team back, took the difficult decision to sack three key figures who appeared to have their own agenda, and witnessed a remarkable change. Almost overnight, he said.

For all that we focus on the technology, F1 remains a people sport. So, when you have people problems, it can make already complex technical issues almost impossible to resolve.

Modern F1 cars that don't work are a nightmare. When you get it wrong the issues are not easily identified. Throw in a big regulation change from one season to the next and, when the next car is even worse, you not only don't know where you are, you don't even know where you were! You may as well try to un-bake a cake.

Williams has much to hold on to, however. And I don't mean past glories.

Financially it's a tight ship, still controlled by Frank. Former CEO Adam Parr, along with then-shareholder Toto Wolff, identified Claire as the future, and it was Bernie Ecclestone who told her in December 2012 what that future held as team leader.

The naysayers forget that, under Claire, Williams finished third in the constructors' championship in 2014 and '15. The early advantage of a Mercedes hybrid powertrain played a part, and fifth in '16 and '17 showed that competitiveness was being blunted, but no one was prepared for the past 18 months.

Tough conversations will have occurred, and likely continue. If there are factions, they need eradicating. If it's a complex engineering issue, authoritative and credible technical leadership is required. No wonder Patrick is being consulted.

None of this is easy, but then F1 has always been full of technical folk happy to tell you how good they are. For Frank, Claire and Williams, the solution will emerge from the way in which their people work together.