What would happen if an engineer from Mercedes and one from Ferrari decide to work together? They would build the Williams-Mercedes FW41.

The bottom half is Mercedes; the upper half is Ferrari. The first Williams produced by Paddy Lowe and Dirk de Beer is visibly different from its predecessor: once one of the cleanest looks on the grid to maximise aero efficiency, i.e. as less drag as possible, the FW41 takes your mind back to a pre-2009 level of aero complexity.

Its main features should bring on paper enough downforce to beat Force India, by having a car that is strong on all tracks, instead of one that only works on the straights.

But as we know, seldom things work as they should. Paddy Lowe took some risks, which could hamper Williams’ 2018 campaign: to mix the best parts of the fastest cars do not necessarily work, otherwise everyone would do it all the time. What Lowe is good at, though, is to hold together a project, bringing harmony between different people.

It is hard to believe that such a team of engineers would fail to fix the rest in accordance with the new parts. However, even if the car works as intended, the main problem Williams has to face is approaching the new season with one-year-old ideas. To make it short and simple: this car feels already old!

As I said, there is no doubt Lowe & co. will find a way to make the package clicks, but testing has to go smoothly. Unfortunately, for the 2018 season, Claire Williams hired the worst pairing you can think of to fine-tune such a complex design.

Lance Stroll may be fast, but last year we learned he needs someone else to setup his cars. He is one to often make mistakes, something Williams does not need right now. Felipe Massa would have been perfect for the task. Even Robert Kubica. As for Sergei Sirotkin, he is a rookie: his knowledge of the 2017 spec is limited, so he has little feedback to give.

That the launch car will be different to the one racing in Melbourne is common knowledge. Nonetheless, to contrast the McLaren and Renault renaissances, and to jump ahead of Force India, Williams needs to plan not only their upgrades, but also it must bring bigger ideas on the table in case their drivers fail to meet the targets.