After months of speculation, Williams has confirmed that Rob Smedley has joined the team in the newly created role of Head of Vehicle Performance.

In the latest of a series of highly encouraging announcements the team this morning announced that it has bolstered its senior race operations line-up with the appointments of Smedley and Richard Lockwood.

The team welcomes Smedley as Head of Vehicle Performance, a newly created position which will strengthen the trackside team whilst also supporting the development work back at the factory to help bring more performance to the car throughout the season. His proven track record and experience stand him in good stead for the challenges that 2014 bring. He will join Williams prior to the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Smedley will be supported by Race Engineers Andrew Murdoch, who is engineer to Felipe Massa, and Jonathan Eddolls, who remains with Valtteri Bottas in 2014.

Richard Lockwood completes the trackside operation line-up, joining the team from Marussia as Head of Race Strategy. He will work with current Strategist Randeep Singh who remains with the team for the 2014 season.

"Williams is undergoing change and these new appointments reflect how high our ambitions are," said Pat Symonds, the Grove outfit's Chief Technical Officer. "We have a number of senior people joining us to assist us in the pursuit of those ambitions and I am extremely excited to welcome them on-board. 2014 gives us the biggest change to the technical regulations that I have seen in my career, and so it will be important to add further depth to the talent we already have here as we head into the new season. Williams has always prided itself on engineering excellence and this latest announcement is part of our continued goal to bring success back to the team."