“Williams F1 is one of the world’s leading
Formula One teams – and the Williams name has been synonymous with top-level
motor racing since the 1960s. After running teams on the sport’s nursery
slopes, patron Frank Williams entered the F1 arena in 1969 and soon earned a
reputation as one of the industry’s most determined individuals. Having sold
his controlling interest in the original team, Frank founded Williams Grand
Prix Engineering in 1977 and built his first eponymous car the following year. Since
then, Williams has won 16 FIA Formula One World Championships (nine for
constructors, in partnership with Cosworth, Honda and Renault, and seven for
drivers, with Alan Jones, Keke Rosberg, Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell, Alain
Prost, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve). Williams employs about 500 personnel
at its technology campus in Grove, Oxfordshire, where it designs and
manufactures Formula One racing cars that compete in every grand prix (19 races
in 2010). The team’s endeavours have earned Frank Williams a knighthood as well
as the French equivalent, the Légion d’honneur. The company also has two
Queen’s Awards for Export Achievement and is recognised as one of the most
enduring and successful organisations in sport. Williams’ Formula One business
model is unique. while many of the teams against which it competes are
extensions of multinational companies’ marketing departments, Williams is
wholly independent. That means commercial partnerships must work harder to
drive value back into its partners’ companies… it has no publicly funded
automotive giant to bail it out should things go wrong. It exists solely to go
racing. It is driven by a hunger to win. It is – unusually on the modern
Formula One grid – purely about racing. Frank Williams and Patrick Head’s
alliance began in 1977. With a staff of 17, the company’s first self-built car
was 1978’s FW06, designed by Patrick and financed by a portfolio of Saudi
Arabian sponsors recruited by Frank. In the hands of Australian ace Alan Jones
the FW06 proved to be a competitive proposition and finished second in the 1978
US GP East. Swiss driver Clay Regazzoni joined Alan for 1979 and the pair
showed very strongly in the new FW07 chassis. Alan was disappointed to retire
while leading the team’s home race at Silverstone, but Clay went on to win – it
was Williams’ maiden F1 success. Alan won four GPs during the remainder of the
’79 season and then took the drivers’ championship in 1980, helping the team to
its first constructors’ title in the process – an accolade it retained in 1981.
When Jones retired at the end of that season, the charismatic Keke Rosberg took
his place and became Finland’s
first F1 World Champion in 1982.
In 1983 Williams began working with a new engine partner
– Honda – and unveiled its first turbocharged car at the season-closing South
African GP (in which Rosberg finished fifth). Together, Williams and Honda
learned how to manage the pioneering turbocharger technology that was to change
the face of F1 during the 1980s. Rosberg scored the partnership’s first win on
8 July 1984, in
the Dallas Grand Prix. The following year Keke was joined by Nigel Mansell and
the duo raced Patrick Head’s first carbon fibre chassis, the FW10. They scored
two wins apiece and that put the team in an optimistic frame of mind for the
following season, when double world champion Nelson Piquet arrived to partner
Mansell. Before the season began, though, Frank Williams was involved in a road
accident while returning from a test session at the Paul Ricard circuit in France. He
suffered a broken neck and would henceforth be confined to a wheelchair. While
he convalesced, Piquet and Mansell notched up nine victories to clinch the
constructors’ championship, the team’s fifth F1 world title. Nelson won his
third drivers’ title in 1987 as Williams swept to another title double – but he
had to work hard to keep Nigel at bay. Their fantastic on-track battles evolved
into one of the sport’s most enduring rivalries, and Frank’s reluctance to
intervene or impose team orders reflected the purity of the team’s approach.
Having established itself as the decade’s most successful team, however,
Williams’ fortunes were about to dip as Honda defected to McLaren and Piquet
left to join Lotus. The 1988 season – the last in which turbochargers were
permitted – was one of consolidation, with experienced Italian Riccardo Patrese
joining Mansell and the team using naturally aspirated Judd V8 engines as it
waited to begin an exclusive three-year engine deal with Renault. Patrick
developed the FW13 chassis to accommodate Renault’s new V10 and Thierry Boutsen
signed up to replace the Ferrari-bound Mansell. Boutsen took Williams-Renault’s
first F1 victory in the 1989 Canadian GP and the team finished an encouraging
second in the constructors’ championship. They matched that result in 1990, and
enticed Mansell to return as Patrese’s team-mate in ’91. Between them they won
seven races and, for the third consecutive season, Williams finished second to
McLaren in the constructors’ championship. The balance of power, though, was
shifting in Williams’ favour. Nigel won the first five races of 1992, added
another four victories during the year, and qualified on pole position for 14
of the 16 races. He clinched the world title during the Hungarian GP, in
August, and Riccardo finished second as the team romped to another
constructors’ championship success. There was an all-new driver pairing in 1993
(Alain Prost and Damon Hill) but the team’s successful run continued
seamlessly. Prost scored seven victories en route to his fourth world title and
Hill won three. At the end of the campaign Prost brought his illustrious F1
career to an end and another multiple world champion, Ayrton Senna, took his
place. In only the third race of 1994, however, Senna crashed at high speed
while leading the San Marino GP at Imola. He suffered fatal injuries. Since
then, every Williams race chassis has borne Senna’s name. Thrust into the role
of team leader, and partnered by the team’s former test driver David Coulthard
(with four appearances from Nigel Mansell, when his commitments in the US-based
Champ Car series permitted), Damon battled Michael Schumacher for the world
title and lost out only after the pair collided during the seasonal finale in
Adelaide, Australia. His endeavours – and some mature performances from David –
helped the team to retain its status as the sport’s leading constructor, a
considerable source of pride given the tragic circumstances. Coulthard’s
performances earned him a full-time role with the team. Schumacher successfully
defended his title in 1995, but Williams-Renault scored five wins and Damon was
the German’s only credible challenger. At the end of that season the team moved
from its former base in Didcot to a new, purpose-built facility in Grove. Champ
Car star Jacques Villeneuve joined the team for 1996 and emerged as Damon’s
sternest title rival. Between them they won 12 of the 16 grands prix and the
team was F1’s champion constructor once more. The Hill-Villeneuve battle raged
until the last race, where Damon prevailed. Heinz-Harald Frentzen joined in
1997 and Jacques, who came so close to winning the title in his rookie year,
went one better this time. It was a landmark year because Williams scored its
100th grand prix victory (at Silverstone, scene of the team’s first F1 win 18
years earlier). The drivers’ title remained open until the final race, where
Villeneuve survived a clash with rival Michael Schumacher to become Canada’s first
F1 champion. There were wholesale changes to the F1 technical regulations in
1998 – and it was a time of significant change for Williams, too. Renault had
withdrawn from F1 although the team continued to use an engine – branded
Mecachrome – that was derived from the familiar French V10. It was to be a
difficult campaign, although the team was buoyed by confirmation of an engine
partnership with BMW. That, though, would come into force in 2000, so the team
marked time for another year with the old engine (rebranded as a Supertec). The
partnership with BMW got off to a promising start as Ralf Schumacher and rookie
Jenson Button brought Williams to third place in the constructors’
championship. In 2001 Jenson moved on to make way for Juan Pablo Montoya – one
of the team’s former test drivers – and Williams scored its first victories
since 1997, the Schumacher/Montoya partnership yielding four wins. Ferrari
utterly dominated 2002, leaving little space for anyone else. Juan Pablo had a
strong second season, though, qualifying on pole position seven times and
breaking Keke Rosberg’s record (set 17 years previously, in a FW10 at
Silverstone) for the fastest lap in F1 history. During qualifying for the
Italian GP at Monza
he averaged 161.449mph. Ralf won in Malaysia – one of only two
non-Ferrari successes during the campaign – and Williams finished second in the
constructors’ championship. After a disappointing start to 2003, Juan Pablo won
in Monaco
and Ralf followed that by leading his team-mate to consecutive one-twos at the
Nürburgring and Magny-Cours. Juan Pablo secured that season’s fourth and final
victory on BMW’s home soil, at Hockenheim. Both cars proved reliable – the
drivers scored in 12 of the 16 races – and Williams remained in contention for
the constructors’ title throughout, although Ferrari emerged on top. The 2004
campaign was beset with misfortunes. Both cars were excluded in Canada because of a minor technical infringement
and Montoya was disqualified for a procedural error at Indianapolis, where his team-mate was
hospitalised after a sizeable accident. But the year finished on a high as Juan
Pablo won in Brazil.
Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld formed an
all-new line-up in 2005, but although they recorded a handful of podium
finishes it was a turbulent campaign and proved to be the last with BMW. The
team finished fifth in the constructors’ standings. Williams returned to its
roots in 2006 as a fully independent entrant with a new Cosworth engine, Nico
Rosberg alongside Mark Webber in the race team and Alex Wurz and Narain
Karthikeyan taking on test and development roles. There was a new tyre deal,
too, as Bridgestone replaced Michelin. With so many different things to get
used to – including a new full-scale wind tunnel at Grove – Williams ended the
season without any wins, although Nico had the distinction of becoming the
youngest driver ever to set fastest lap during a world championship GP. Further
changes came in 2007 as the team entered partnerships with engine giant Toyota and title sponsor
AT&T, while Wurz was promoted from the test team to partner Nico Rosberg.
Karthikeyan continued testing duties alongside rising Japanese star Kazuki
Nakajima. After one of the closest seasons in recent F1 history, Williams
finished the year as fourth best constructor. Performances improved
dramatically in every domain: its points tally tripled from 11 in 2006 to 33, the cars
were 60 per cent more reliable and their race pace picked up noticeably towards
the season’s end. Following Alex’s decision to retire, Kazuki made his F1 race
debut at the final GP of the 2007 season and earned a full-time promotion to
the race team for 2008. Nico Hülkenberg joined as test driver. The
Williams-Toyota FW30 made an impressive debut at the season opener in Melbourne, taking Nico
Rosberg to a career-first podium and Kazuki to a commendable sixth place in
only his second GP. The 2008 season encompassed the team’s 500th grand prix and
Frank’s 600th. Some great performances, including Nico’s stunning second place
finish at Singapore,
were tempered by a car that struggled for pace on the faster circuits. This,
combined with several missed opportunities and one of the most competitive
battlefields the sport has ever seen (seven different drivers took victories
and all bar two scored points), meant that the team ended its 30th year in
Formula One a disappointing eighth place in the constructors’ championship. The
Rosberg/Nakajima partnership continued unchanged into 2009, with Hülkenberg
retained as test driver, and the team’s performances picked up significantly.
Although the FW31 was an obvious improvement on the previous year’s car,
circumstances dictated that results didn’t always reflect as much. Rosberg led
the opening stages of the Malaysian GP, before rain’s intervention compromised
his strategy, and he was unlucky to lose a certain podium finish in Singapore after
making a minor misjudgement in the pit lane. He scored points in 11 of the 17
races, though, and took seventh place in the final standings. Just a stone’s
throw away, meanwhile, Nico Hülkenberg stormed to the GP2 Series title and
earned himself a place in the Williams race team for 2010. With Rosberg and
Nakajima moving on, he partnered the sport’s elder statesman Rubens
Barrichello. The duo’s efforts in the Cosworth-powered FW32 were supported by
rising Finnish star Valtteri Bottas as the team's test driver. The team had a
difficult start to the 2010 season, but started to turn things around just
before the half way mark and concluded the year in sixth position in the
Constructors' Championship. Barrichello, already the most experienced racer on
the grid, celebrated his 300th Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps and scored his
best result of the season, fifth, at the British Grand Prix in July. Hülkenberg
provided one of the team's highlights of the year when he dominated qualifying
for the Brazilian Grand Prix to take pole position in variable conditions. For
2011, the team retain Rubens Barrichello's services and have a new recruit in
Venezuelan-born Pastor Maldonado, signed up fresh from winning the GP2 crown.
Stability with Cosworth remaining as engine partner means greater focus on car
development over the winter placing the team in a solid position entering
another new season of Formula One racing..”
