SWOT analyses pays off for Williams

(Williams Martini Racing)

The revival of the Williams Martini Racing Team in 2014 has been remarkable in such a short space of time. The Grove based outfit have gone from finishing the 2013 season in 9th place to a position of fourth place so far in the Constructors championship. Last season the Grove outfit scored just five points however this season they have scored 135 points and are currently in 4th place in the championship just 7 points adrift of Ferrari who are in third place.

Williams chief technical officer Pat Symonds who joined the outfit midway through last season has put the turnaround down to strengthening the weaknesses within the team and instilling a new philosophy within the race team. Symonds said that at one stage last season he was approached by a race team member inquiring why the team were practicing pit-stops as the car was so slow they weren't necessary.

The Englishman now believes however that thanks to new procedures in place at the race team and constant practice stops that it has helped the team to achieve the results they have in 2014 as they have managed to turn the cars around extremely quickly during pit-stops this season.

Symonds also believes that it was not necessary for the team to go out into the market and spend huge amounts of money to bring new engineering and technical staff.

The new partnership that the team have with Mercedes is just one aspect as to why the team have turned things around so quickly but they have also put together a fantastic overall package and that is why they are in the strong position this season.

For Williams to be the leading Mercedes customer team behind the 'works' outfit after such a difficult 2013 campaign is an absolutely huge accomplishment.

© Ben Johnston 2014