Ex-Formula 1 driver Jacques Villeneuve believes Williams’ deputy team principal Claire Williams is solely to blame for the team’s slump this season.

Williams is enduring its worst start to a season since 2013, with Lance Stroll’s eighth-place in Azerbaijan the only points finish the Grove outfit has been able to secure after 10 rounds.

The nine-time constructors’ champions sit rock-bottom of the standings, more than half the points off nearest challengers Sauber.

Villeneuve, who won his one and only world championship with Williams in 1997, says his former team lacks management – which he believes is down to the appointment of Claire Williams in early 2013.

“The team is dead,” Villeneuve told Motorsport-Total.com. “There is no management. There was a choice back then [in 2013], you either put the heiress or the heir [in charge].

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“And they put Claire instead of Jonathan [Williams, Claire’s brother]. Big mistake. Obviously, just look where the team is at now.”

Williams’ driver line-up received a lot of criticism pre-season, with former Renault reserve driver Sergey Sirotkin signed to partner 19-year-old Stroll, making it the youngest pairing on the grid, with a combined age of 41.

The loss of the experienced Felipe Massa has been pinpointed as one of the factors in Williams’ poor performances in 2018, and Villeneuve adds the team is “completely blind” to realise the problems it is creating.

“When it comes to a team like that you first have to look at the top of the pyramid,” he said. “They are completely blind when it’s all about realising where the team stands.

“You have to admit you’ve messed up, I do not see how the team is going to get out of it, I just do not see it. If you have two drivers without experience, that won’t help. Not in a team like this.”