Head blames Senna crash for Williams' decline.

Patrick Head has said that Ayrton Senna's fatal crash at Imola in 1994 was partly to blame for the teams fall from grace.

He told the BBC: "The events of 1994 put conservatism in us and it was right and proper that it did. But now we are set up in a much more broader way."

It took the team five years to clear themselves in the Italian courts of manslaughter charges and it wasn't until 1999 that Head and former designer Adrian Newey were finally declared blameless.

Although Williams dominated most of the 1990s from 1998 they have struggled. Losing Adrian Newey to McLaren and at the end of 1997 losing official Renault power when the French car manufacturer pulled out of F1.

Referring to 2001 Head added: "There is a massive gulf between ourselves and McLaren and Ferrari and as technical director I suppose I bear responsibility."

"We were doing so much to win the championship in 1996 and 1997 that we didn't do enough research and development."

"Not winning for three years is pretty horrific. It's more than double our previous barren period. If we don't make up ground pretty soon, we'll never catch them. It will be very disappointing if we're not a lot closer this year."