Lowe takes "leave of absence" from Williams due to personal reasons

With just 11 days until the first Grand Prix of the season, Williams has confirmed that Paddy Lowe "has taken a leave of absence for personal reasons". The leave will start immediately.

This year's Williams car is the second to be made under Lowe after joining from Mercedes two years ago. His first car, the FW41 scored just seven points across the season in what was a disastrous year.

Williams arrived at the test track in Barcelona late because the chassis wasn't finished in time. On Wednesday, Claire Williams blamed this on late regulation directives.

Williams also announced on Wednesday that they should have both cars ready for Melbourne. Both Robert Kubica and George Russell have big seasons ahead of them with Kubica making his much-anticipated return and the latter making his debut.

During the second week of testing, Williams managed to put in a respectable amount of mileage. But being two days behind, they've probably still got some catching up to do in the first couple of practice sessions in Australia.