Sky Sports F1 Exclusive interview: Rob Smedley on the Williams revival in 2014

Certainly for British fans, Williams’ long-awaited return to the sharp-end of the grid has to be the ‘feelgood’ story of the 2014 F1 season.

Ninth in the constructors’ standings in 2013, the Grove outfit currently stand fourth, just ten points shy of Ferrari and in with a good chance of earning their best finish since the days of their works partnership with BMW a decade or so ago.

Knowing that good things are about to happen is always a pretty good place to be in life, of course, which may have explained the broad smile on Rob Smedley’s face when Sky Sports Online spoke to him at the Belgian GP. It’s long been apparent that, if not Spa, then certainly Monza will likely prove the happiest hunting ground of all for Williams’ FW36, which has regularly been fastest of all through the speed traps this season.

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More on that later; first things first: how to account for Williams’ sudden revival? The obvious explanation lies in their timely switch from Renault to Mercedes power. Smedley doesn’t deny its significance – how could he? - but nothing is that simple, especially in F1. The fact they’ve also had the measure of fellow Mercedes customers McLaren and Force India can’t be explained by hybrid power alone.

There’s also been plenty going on behind the scenes, starting in July last year when Pat Symonds was brought in as Chief Technical Officer. Williams have always prided themselves on engineering knowhow but at the time of Symonds’ appointment, CEO Mike O’Driscoll emphasised the former Renault man’s managerial skills as well as his technical ability.

Williams might not have the mega-budget that, say, Ferrari or Red Bull possess but they’re hardly lacking in resources either. By the sounds of it, it’s more the case that they haven’t been making best use of them.

In fact, listening to Smedley it almost sounds as if Williams – who won the last of their 16 world titles in 1997 – have been stuck in a bit of a timewarp these past few years.

“I think the reality of the situation is that this is a great team and it always was,” he says. “It perhaps just lost a little bit of momentum in the recent past and it just needed a bit of refreshment at the top end of the business, and a little bit of direction to eradicate some of the cultures that existed, to put in place some new cultures – modernise the business in terms of communications, in terms of what we’re trying to achieve, in terms of what’s important to the business as a whole.

“You can see the turnaround to get back to probably its rightful position, battling at the front end of the midfield; I think that’s a fairly decent reflection of where we should be. That’s been reasonably straightforward.

“Where the real hard work will come is to move it on to the next level – and also to maintain where we are now, because you have to have maximum respect for your competition.”

Moving it on to the next level is where Smedley comes in. One of the more recent additions to Williams’ revamped engineering roster, he’s has teamed up with Felipe Massa again – although his promotion to the role of Head of Vehicle Performance might disappoint anyone who enjoyed their frequently amusing radio chat when he race engineered Massa’s Ferrari.

Probably the finest – probably the only, let’s face it - sporting collaboration between Teessid