Lowe seeking more consistency from 2018 Williams

Williams chief technical officer Paddy Lowe wants the team to deliver a more consistent car next season after admitting it is "very disappointed" with how 2017 is panning out.

Despite starting the season with a car capable of being fourth quickest on a number of tracks, Williams has failed to exploit that potential on a number of occasions. As a result it currently sits 60 points adrift of fourth-placed Force India in the constructors' standings, and is in a close battle for fifth with with likes of Toro Rosso, Haas, Renault and McLaren.

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However, Lowe is more concerned by the inconsistency of the FW40 having seen the team endure a number of uncompetitive weekends, including last time out in Budapest where it failed to score.

"Definitely at the half-term report stage we're not looking as good as we'd like," Lowe said. "We're very disappointed – the car is quicker than that points table would reflect. I think one of our biggest problems has been that we haven't been scoring the points we should have done at the track with our speed of car. That's for a number of different reasons.

"On top of that, we've seen a lot of variation from circuit to circuit. There are places that we significantly underperform and we really need to have a car that will perform more equally at different destinations, so that's a big focus for next year."

Asked if Williams knew the reasons why it has been underperforming at certain tracks, Lowe replied: "Some of those things we understand, some of them we don't. So there's a lot of work to do. But we're very much hoping we can have a better second half of the season and put some of that right."

While Williams suffered a challenging Hungarian Grand Prix weekend as Paul di Resta (pictured below) was required to deputize for the ill Felipe Massa from qualifying onward, Lowe says the Scot's feedback on the car's characteristics was a plus from the situation.

"[Di Resta gave] very interesting feedback in the race, yes; a fresh perspective. And Paul is a very experienced race driver.

"[He made] some great comments ... Just around the behavior of the cars through the corners, the variation in balance through the corners and around the lap. These are all critical bits of feedback. And it is the case sometimes, regular race drivers can get a bit bored telling you the same thing if you haven't yet fixed it."