Lowe Takes 'Leave of Absence' From Williams

[Paul Jeffrey]

Team chief Paddy Lowe has taken a leave of absence from the Williams team, according to a brief statement issued by the squad today.

Having re-joined the British outfit following a successful spell at multiple championship winning squad Mercedes, many believed the signing of Lowe as Chief Technical Officer for the once great team was something of a coup for Williams, and would mark the start of a long rebuilding process as the Grove based outfit looked to return to race winning form in Formula One.

Unfortunately, the first year of the 56-year-old engineers tenure at Williams would coincide with one of the least competitive seasons in the history of the team, made worse by what can only be described as a disastrous start to preparations for the upcoming campaign - leading to what Williams have described as a 'leave of absence' from the British outfit, effective immediately.

“Paddy is taking a leave of absence from the business for personal reasons.” said Williams on Wednesday, just over one week prior to the start of the racing season in Melbourne at the Albert Park street circuit.

The exact reasons for the departure of Lowe have yet to be revealed by the squad, and come just a few days after Lowe admitted to the media he has no concerns about his future with the multiple championship winning constructors, a team that he remains a shareholder of following his defection from Mercedes at the end of 2016.

How long Lowe is expected to be away from the pit wall remains to be seen. More news to follow when it becomes available...

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[PawelP]

He should stay away from pitwall forever C'mon Claire, hire him!

 

[Jan Larsen]

Entirely predictable something would happen. Although Claire should follow suit too.

 

[F_B]

RIP Williams

 

[samprince053]

Dont know if I should laugh or cry, please send help

 

[WallyTP]

Claire Williams should join him.

 

[Mr Latte]

Not a promising sign for Williams that this is going to be a year for improving.
I cant help but think what Sir Patrick Head makes of all this and the teams dismal downfall.

 

[AvGas]

Mr. Latte beat me to it. For the love of all things holy, get Mr. Head back in that shop STAT. I mean, come on.

What the heck is happening over there?

Smedley? Think he'd come back? I don't even know anymore with this outfit. I was really looking forward to Kubica hurtling around in a nice tidy car. Nothing fancy, just solid. Just like Patrick Head did with his first Williams car design.

 

[Will Mazeo]

The one that should leave is Claire. Dont know what is her goal really.. looks like she wants to finish the team completely.

 

[InsaneOzzie]

I think the writing's on the wall for Williams, sadly. Claire's done the best she could, but obviously it's not enough. This outfit has slowly waned to it's current state of rock bottom since Sir Frank took a backseat.
I give Williams 2yrs till it becomes part of F1 history.

 

[kondor999]

Doesn't Claire just handle the commercial side? It may be Frank that needs to retire at this point.

Something is seriously wrong if they can't get their act together with the best engine in F1.

 

[michelforest]

*Sigh*... Things keep getting better and better for Williams, don't they?

 

[theravenousbeast]

Can't blame the man for leaving a sinking ship

 

[InsaneOzzie]

Doesn't Claire just handle the commercial side?

No Claire is deputy team principle and Frank is the team principle, but I think Sir Frank has taken a more behind the scenes position due to his health
https://www.williamsf1.com/racing/about/our-people

 

[Durge Driven]

+1 I feel the same for F1 as a whole seems to get further removed by never ending changes

What other series these days does not use some form of bop / leveling ..........tractor pulls, mud races ?

More interesting to do caption for news picture ( I miss those )
Paddy with thought bubble ..................... " yabba dabba doo ! Here I come FE ! "

 

[CreamyCornCob]

Its looking like they'll get back to back dead last constructor championships in 2019.
They have had so little track time in 2019 testing and the Melbourne is a week away.

This SUCKS for Kubica, he deserves far far better then this heap of a team.

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

I hope for a buyer, this is beyond pathetic for this once fantastic team.

Too bad Toto jumped to Mercedes he was the guy that could've made things move forward.

 

[Stanislav Minakov]

Everybody is complaining about Claire but she's not a constructor, right? I've never seen CEO working at a production line at the factory. Williams' problem is much deeper, I think. Isn't that strange, that only Merc buyers didn't make much during last season? I guess Merc engines is pretty costly for the team at this level of financial struggle. Force India/Racing Point is kinda struggling too, not only because of bankruptcy; Mercedes team don't like too much competition from their clients, making some kind of LMP1-LMP2 stuff with factory/rich teams at the top. F1 is going to the biggest crisis since FISA-FOCA

 

[Koen Verlinde]

Could just be for a real personal reason, but it's all very inconvenient to say the least.

 

[F1Aussie]

Everybody is complaining about Claire but she's not a constructor, right? I've never seen CEO working at a production line at the factory. Williams' problem is much deeper, I think. Isn't that strange, that only Merc buyers didn't make much during last season? I guess Merc engines is pretty costly for the team at this level of financial struggle. Force India/Racing Point is kinda struggling too, not only because of bankruptcy; Mercedes team don't like too much competition from their clients, making some kind of LMP1-LMP2 stuff with factory/rich teams at the top. F1 is going to the biggest crisis since FISA-FOCA

There is a saying in business, the fish rots from the head down....