Williams have sought permission from the FIA to overspend as they look to modernise infrastructure which is two decades out of date.
James Vowles admitted as much as he gave his verdict on the facilities he has to work with at Grove. He has been in the team principal job for several months now and has had time to conduct a proper audit of all the tools at his disposal.
And his verdict is that Williams are in desperate need of more up-to-date knowledge and equipment. "Some elements of the organisation are of a similar level to Mercedes, but there are some elements that are 20 years out of date," he told Motorsport.com.
"That makes sense if you think through the history of this team. The investment it had was zero for around about 20 years and then an investment firm came through.
"Fundamentally, we're in a situation where a lot of facilities were almost preserved from where they were 20 years ago. Composites is behind what I knew when I first joined the sport with a different team 20 years ago..."
Infrastructure is not the only issue, as Vowles made it clear improvements are required from a staffing perspective. He said: "f you took a group of people and hid them away, and another group of people hid them away, they evolve to different stages.
"That's what's happened, the view of what excellence is is completely different to what it really is today, and you have to move things forward. Internally, a lot of the work I've been asking them to do has been likened to asking us to do three years of development in six months. Yes, but that's the standard. In fact, the standard is higher than that.
"This is where I think we have to have a middle step. You have to show people the pathway, lead them down the pathway and make sure you support them and provide them with the equipment that allows them to do the same thing."
But there is a stumbling block in Williams' way in its bid to modernise all its facilities. Under current Formula 1 budget cap rules, teams have a £28m allowance in terms of capital expenditure over a period of four years, which would be nowhere near enough what Williams would need to catch up to their rivals.
Fortunately for them, the FIA has shown a willingness to grand specific exemptions – as was the case with Aston Martin in their desire to build a new wind tunnel. Vowles confirmed his team has been in touch to come to a similar arrangement.
He added: "Formula 1 and the FIA have been very supportive. Within the first week of being here, I showed them, 'This what I had a Mercedes, here's what I have at Williams. There's zero chance that we will be able to compete with this.'
"And I think where we are now is that by July that will be signed and teams like ourselves will be able to invest to catch back up."
