Paddy Lowe's career has seen him work with the best of the best at McLaren and Mercedes before his appointment to galvanise Williams into winning entity once again, but the team's technical chief admits that being at the wrong end of the Formula 1 grid is unfamiliar territory for him.
The 56-year-old Englishman began his career with Williams starting in 1987 and was part of the team for the next seven years in which they won five F1 world titles. He then moved to McLaren in 1993 during which he collected three world titles.
In 2014 he was hired by Mercedes to replace Ross Brawn and thus was part of what must be called the Mercedes 'superteam' that has dominated the sport for the past five years. He departed to join Williams in early 2017.
Lowe explained in an interview, "I’ve been fortunate in my career not to work in a team that wasn’t at or within reach of the front, performance wise. That’s where we were always playing. In the top ten, towards the front end of the top ten or at the very front."
"So it’s a new experience for me which has a lot of work to do to get back to where we want to be. So that creates some new challenges for me personally. I’m learning all the time."
This time around Lowe headed the technical team which included the once revered Dirk de Beer and much was expected of the new era at Grove, but the FW41 has been a huge disappointment and has sunk the team to the lowest level in memory.
It's been a disaster of a season for the team with only one point finish for either of their cars, which by all accounts are the worst to drive on the grid and described by Claire Williams as "evil" to drive.
"Some things you get right. Some things, if I looked back, I could do differently. But that’s the nature of life, you face challenges and you learn from them. And, you hope that builds your experience to do a better job next time,” reasoned Lowe.
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