In its determination to end its performance slump, Williams admits to going back to basics, in some cases starting all over again, concentrating on creating the much-needed solid foundation on which it can build for the future.

Hopefully, the first fruits of this were witnessed in Hungary, just before the summer break, where, courtesy of the team's first significant upgrade package of the season, George Russell, in particular, showed a marked improvement, actually challenging for a spot in Q2.

"The biggest challenge I would say, is that you can continue to turn the handle on the machine that you've got, or effectively you have to stop the machine and reconfigure the machine and set it going again," the Grove outfit's chief engineer of vehicle programmes, Adam Carter told Motorsport.com.

"In this industry things are constantly evolving, you're in competition, and you have to make a conscious decision to stop, rebuild and then start going again for the greater potential and opportunity afterwards.

"That, for me, is one of the hardest things," he admits.

"I wouldn't say everything was completely vindicated yet," said senior race engineer, Dave Robson. "We'll have to see what happens at Spa and beyond, but I think the progress is there."

"This is a data point on the journey," adds Carter, "there's still an awful lot of work to do to get to where we want to be.

"It's like everything in this industry; you design, develop, correlate, design, develop, correlate, and that builds the confidence for you to set your path and direction. It doesn't matter how far we've gone down the path. It answers a few questions, raises a number of other questions.

"You set down the path of a strategy and you constantly assess your progress along it, and change your strategy as the environment is changing."