BARCELONA (Reuters) - Williams' chief designer Ed Wood has left for personal reasons, the struggling former Formula One world champions said on Thursday.
The team, who have not won a race since the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix, are last in the constructors' standings after four rounds despite using the same winning engines as champions Mercedes.
Wood, 50, helped create the FW36 and FW37 cars that took the British-based team to third place overall in the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
Williams thanked the Briton in a statement at the Spanish Grand Prix for his work over 12 years with them.
This year's FW41 car followed a different aerodynamic concept to its predecessor but has proved a disappointment in the hands of Canadian teenager Lance Stroll and Russian rookie Sergey Sirotkin.
Williams had drawn a blank until Stroll finished eighth in Azerbaijan at the end of April. Sirotkin retired from that race after a first lap collision and has a three place grid penalty for Sunday's race at the Circuit de Catalunya.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Toby Davis)
