Paddy Lowe says it is possible Williams could win a world championship with customer engine power.
Lowe’s former McLaren boss Ron Dennis said not too long ago that title success is actually only possible by collaborating with a carmaker.
Technical boss Lowe subsequently moved to Mercedes and presided over the team’s three consecutive world championships, but he has now switched to Williams.
The Grove team is powered by customer Mercedes power.
"The engines are the same for all the Mercedes teams," said Lowe, "so it is absolutely possible to win a world championship as a customer."
He said the best example of that is Red Bull.
"They did a very good job with the Renault engine but were never a works team," Lowe said.
The bigger issue for a customer team, Lowe explained, is money.
"It is, of course, more difficult to be ahead with a smaller budget. There’s no doubt about that.
"The challenge is to make the best of the resources you have available and generate more resources at the same time," said Lowe.