Williams Sack Two Design Team Members

Williams-BMW's technical chief Patrick Head missed the Malaysian Grand Prix to concentrate on work in the factory because two of the team's design staff have been sacked, team boss Frank Williams has said.

Head preferred to stay at the team's Grove headquarters and concentrate on making design improvements to the team's new FW25 model. His decision to miss Sunday's race coincided with Williams' dismissal of two of their design personnel, Jason Somerville and Nick Allcock, as part of what the team boss described as a "substantial structure change".

"Jason and Nick were 'let go', as the Americans kindly say," said Williams. "There's been a substantial structure change and it's still going on."

On Head's absence, he replied: "Patrick said he won't be coming to this race because he needs to put more effort of his own into making our car quicker. Clearly, when he's away for four or five days, he then has no direct input into the creativity at Grove."

While the team's FW25 almost took victory on its debut in Melbourne's Australian Grand Prix a fortnight ago, the car is not yet the leap forward in pace the team had hoped for.

Williams are conscious of the need for improvement to ensure the FW25 can keep pace with new cars from Ferrari and McLaren, yet to be introduced.

"We expected our new car to be mega quick when it came out and it is quicker than last year's, but it's not that much quicker," said Juan Pablo Montoya. "The design, everything, is much better, but the performance hasn't come yet."