Williams chief technical officer Paddy Lowe believes it is important the team starts to build positive momentum after slipping further back in the pecking order this season.

Having secured two consecutive third-place finishes in the constructors’ championship in 2014 and 2015, Williams lost out in a tight battle for fourth place against Force India a year ago. However, 2017 saw Force India achieve more than double Williams’ tally as it outscored it by over 100 points, and Lowe is keen to arrest the slide.

Asked if it is crucial that Williams starts to build momentum back toward the front of the grid, Lowe told RACER: “Yes, because otherwise the momentum will be going the other way and the way momentum behaves – it’s a good word – it makes it that much more difficult to attract better partners, attract better employees, even… and drivers.

“Getting a top driver is a two-way thing. It’s about being able to pay them, but it’s also about being attractive to them because good drivers don’t want to drive slow cars. You just have to work every sector of the business and keep improving yourself and be more efficient than the next guy with what you’ve got, and then you can build your way up with that positive momentum.

“It’s kind of a virtuous circle with the way it works. It can go the other way if you get it wrong, so it is very important to be building positive momentum.”

Williams said Friday it was delaying a decision on driver line-up for 2018 until January, with Robert Kubica having been close to signing a deal to partner Lance Stroll next season. However, the emergence of Sergey Sirotkin – who brings significant financial backing from Russia – in the Pirelli test in Abu Dhabi has led to the 22-year-old being seriously considered as Felipe Massa’s replacement instead.