Current Williams

Williams Grand Prix Engineering

FIA Entry: AT&T Williams
Car 11: Rubens Barrichello
Car 12: Pastor Maldonado
Engine: Cosworth V8
Team Principal: Frank Williams
Director of Engineering: Patrick Head
Technical Director: Sam Michael
Race Engineer Car 11: Tony Ross
Race Engineer Car 12: Tom McCullough

Stats as of end 2010

First Entered 1977
Races Entered 539
Race Wins 113
Pole Positions 126
Fastest Laps 130
Driver World Championships 7
Constructor World Championships 9

Team History

The Early Years

Like many team owners and principals Frank Williams started life as a driver and mechanic. Realising his ability as a driver wouldn't allow him to reach the levels he hoped Williams set up Frank Williams Racing Cars and in 1969 entered a Brabham chassis for Piers Courage. Through to 1976 Williams entered customer cars from other manufacturers before settings up Williams Grand Prix Engineering in 1977 with Patrick Head.

Williams Grand Prix Engineering

In 1977 Williams GPE entered a March 761 for Patrick Neve. In 1978 Patrick Head designed his first Williams car, the FW06, driven by Australian Alan Jones The car scored it's first points at the South African Grand Prix and Jones took Williams first podium at Long Beach, finishing 2nd behind Carlos Reutemann in a Ferrari.

In 1979 the FW07 chassis debuted and Williams had grown into a 2 car team with Clay Regazzoni joining Alan Jones. Regazzoni scored Williams first Grand Prix victory at Silverstone and Jones took another 4 victories that season. Continuing with the FW07(in A and B spec) in 1980 Jones, now partnered by Carlos Reutemann, won 6 races (5 for Jones and 1 for Reutemann) with Jones winning the drivers title and Williams the Constructors Championship.

With the FW07 in C & D spec Williams won 4 more races and again took the Constructors Championship in 1981 but missed out on the Drivers Title. Continuing with Cosworth power in 1982 Williams moved onto the FW08, a car originally designed as 6 wheeler, and Keke Rosberg joined Carlos Reutemann. Reutemann retired 2 races into the season and Mario Andretti stood in for a single race before Derek Daly permanently replaced Reutemann. Rosberg only managed a single win at the Swiss Grand Prix 1982 but it was enough for him to win the Drivers Championship.

Having driven for Frank Williams back in 1974 and 1975 Jacques Laffite partnered Keke Rosberg in 1983. Rosberg won the Monaco Grand Prix with Cosworth power and by the end of the season Williams had moved to Honda turbo power and the FW09 chassis. 1984 continued the pattern of 1 win per season for Rosberg and the Williams team with Keke taking first place in Dallas.

The Honda Era

Nigel Mansell joined Williams in 1985 and the team, still with Honda turbo engines, won 4 Grand Prix. Piquet replaced Rosberg for 1986 and between them Mansell and Piquet won 9 of the 16 races and Williams the Constructors Championship. 1987 saw another 9 victories for the team and another victory in the Constructors Championship as well as Piquet winning the Drivers Title

The departure of Honda as engine supplier and Piquet as a driver in 1989 saw Williams move temporarily to Judd engines and Mansell, now partnered by Riccardo Patrese, had a very lean season with their highest finish only 4th.

Renault Power

Williams secured Renault V10 power for 1989 and the next 9 season proved to be Williams most successful. They won 63 Grands Prix, 5 Constructors Championship (1992, 93, 94, 96 & 97) and 4 Drivers Titles (Mansell 92, Prost 93, Hill 96 and Villeneuve 97). Other winners for Williams in this period of dominance included Riccardo Patrese, Thierry Boutsen, Heinz Harald Frentzen and David Coulthard. This period was also touched by tragedy when Ayrton Senna lost his life in a Williams car at the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola in 1994

The withdrawal of Renault from F1 in 1998 moved Williams into another barren spell as the cars were powered by ageing Renault engines produced by Mecachrome (98) and Supetec (99).

BMW Williams

Williams changed to BMW V10 engines in 2000 and returned to the winners circle in 2001 with Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya at the wheel. The partnership with BMW continued until 2006 with Williams winning 10 Grands Prix and were runners up in the Constructors Championship in 2002 and 2003. Ralph Schumacher drove for Williams for 6 season and was partnered by Alex Zanardi, Jenson Button (debuting in F1 in 2000) and Montoya with Mark Gene and Antonio Pizzonia making occasional appearances as stand in drivers. BMW's final season with Williams saw Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld taking podiums but able to not challenge for wins.

Toyota Customer

A season of Cosworth power in 2006, with Mark Webber joined by F1 new boy Nico Rosberg, proved very unsuccessful and in 2007 Williams became customers of Toyota. As one of the few truly independent teams still competing in F1 Williams struggled to compete with the factory supported teams and were probably best categorised as "the best of the rest". Webber left at the end of 2007 and Rosberg, initially partnered by Alex Wurz and then by Toyota "works" driver Kazuki Nakajima, managed a highest finish of 2nd in Singapore 2008 with Williams finishing 4th, 8th and 7th in the Constructors Championship whilst using Toyota power.

In 2009 Williams sold a minority share in the company to an Austrian investment company led by Toto Wolff.

Williams Cosworth

In 2010 Williams returned to Cosworth engines and signed up Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg to drive for them. Hulkenberg took a surprising pole in changeable weather conditions in Brazil to give Williams their first such grid position since Nick Heidfeld in 2005. Although regular points finishers Williams weren't challenging for wins and finished the season 6th in Constructors Championship.

2011 sees Rubens Barrichello retain his seat at Williams with GP2 Champion Pastor Maldonado alongside him. They will continue with Cosworth engine power.
 
To be honest I think they need this far more than a change in driver line up even though that's what gets banged on about.

It's noticeable that Stroll seems to do well in the wet which, given we know the Williams is the worst car ever in the wet, shows the skill is in there.
 
I wonder how much the 2018 Williams will look like the Merc? I can remember when Williams used to set the design standard and others used to copy them :(
 
Who is designing the Williams car these days ? They got rid of Mike Coughlan too early after he designed a very competitive Williams Renault in 2012 only to be let down by an awful 2013 design. I thought Pat Symonds might have made things tick at Williams but since 2014 when they were able to fight with Mercs and Ferrari they have been going backwards ever since
 
Williams better sort out who they want as a driver pairing because I don't think Lance Stroll is ready to be team leader just yet because they are going to need as much time as possible to sort themselves out for next season especially the chassis

The car is just a dump truck at the moment - does not have good mechanical grip for slow and tight circuits like Hungary and Singapore and does not have downforce for power circuits like Spa
 
I think without the car being sorted the driver line up doesn't matter that much. We've seen from the wet races that the performance will come where Stroll is concerned but only of they have the car. Williams problem is that they've had an awful car for years now which has been saved by a Merc engine. Now Merc don't have the advantage they did we've seen the result.

Maybe Paddy Lowe will change that. Who knows. I'm not holding my breath.
 
Someone suggested Honda should team up with Williams which was immediately dismissed as silly rumours but I think that is the only Williams will ever get back to the front
 
I don't understand your logic Il Leone.

If Honda, McLaren and Alonso can't make it work; and you appear to lay the blame firmly on Honda: Then why should Honda be the missing link for Williams success?
 
Andyoak Williams are mired to the midfield and rather obedient to Mercedes and would not dare to race them

Honda with Williams might have been a better fit because Honda would get more involved with the team chassis design etc. Mclaren, Honda and Alonso did not work because there were too many big egos and the way both teams set up it just did not seem like it was going to be a fruitful partnership
 
Il_leone, the reason that combination has not worked is because Honda have consistently produced crap engines. Watching the McLarens being overtaken easily by car after car going up the hill at Spa this year even when there was no DRS was painful.
 
Shouldn't this thread have "Currently Useless" added to it? Massa only just held Alonso off despite Alonso having to start 12 places behind him.
 
Has Vladimir Putin been telling his friends to invest in Williams because first Kyvat was considered suddenly as top contender for the Williams seat and now they are going to test Sirotkin against Kubica after this weekend.

Hmmm is there a bit of Russian investment coming along then?
 
Kravitz believes the Williams is the 6th fastest car on the grid. I say put two decent drivers in there or only replace Stroll, who was off of Massa‘s time by 1 sec yet again, and the Williams wouldn’t look too bad.

Ohhh, and I’m not picking on Stroll again. The time sheets simply don’t lie.
 
stroll has proven enough times over the season. in tricky situations that this guy has talent Azerbaijan 3rd, monza front row in qualifying & Mexico 6th. he just struggled to come to terms with deserves time to develop. also to say massa has thrashed stroll this season drivers title says otherwise massa 42 stroll 40

for me i think williams chassis wise is 1 of the worst on the grid because massa with the mercedes engine was only 1 tenth quicker than mclaren honda with worst engine
 
One swallow doesn’t make a summer.

Massa retired from the Azerbaijan GP, in which he would have scored 25 or 18 points. Stroll hasn’t retired whilst being in a point scoring position this season.

There seems to be no progress judging by his qualifying times, he remains off by 0.7 secs on average. He’s in the wrong Formula to develop this is supposed to be the pinnacle of motor racing, not a junior category.
He’s had a full season and is just as far from Massa as he was at the beginning.

Williams is in a mess.
 
I am just trying to find myself why Sirotkin is suddenly being tested at the last minute at Williams and now supposedly a possible candidate given they could have organised more tests earlier

I am not sure how Williams are going to return to their glory days given they appear to be hamstrung by too many influences outside racing reasons

Massa seems to have gotten a second wind now he has stopped whining and let his driving do his talking


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How long is Lance Stroll contracted to the Williams team ? Would it be easy for Lawrence to take his money and move to another team with his son? Otherwise its another Maldonado situation at Williams. I mean would Ferrari ever consider signing Stroll if his dad was willing to throw extra sponsorship money ?
 
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