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.

 

[Fenderman]

Well as Maldo and Bottas have both been helping develop the car since 2011 I would suggest they have more experience than you think

That's not the same as having a driver with years of experiencing racing an F1 car though is it? Punching laps round one or two designated test tracks (and simulations of others)* is somewhat more limited experience than being in the thick of it on the many other varied circuits across the globe. We often hear remarks from engineers and drivers about their cars being better suited to some tracks than others. A more experienced driver can highlight potential issues based on their real life experience of those other tracks and, I suggest, provide a lot of important information based on that. When just one tenth of a second can be the difference between three or four grid slots that knowledge gap could be quite significant. I don't doubt that Bottas and Maldonado are doing as good a job as their experience and ability allows but their couple of years testing and one or two seasons racing is as much about them learning how to drive in F1 as it is about aiding development of the car. Bear in mind also that testing time is also very limited compared to previous years so even their testing experience is more limited than someone who has been in the sport for many more years.

*Edit: Obviously the limited running Bottas and Maldonado may have got in on Friday Practices will have mitigated somewhat with regard to my point about testing on other circuits - but not by very much.

 

[RasputinLives]

I take your point Fenders but I still think its too early to be pointing fingers at the drivers.

I will also point out that with the exception of Force India, Williams have the driver line up with the most experience outside of the top teams.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

RasputinLives. When you say top teams, do you mean Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull, Lotus, Force India and Sauber? Because that is more than half of the grid. Torro Rosso are carrying a similar level of driver experience in thier team, too.

It is only really Marussia and Caterham who are carrying teams with less experienced drivers to any significant degree.

 

[FB]

I can only put the decline at Williams down to their redesigned website...

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Ha ha. I so wish I could get my hands on it and finish it off as it was supposed to be.

 

[Fenderman]

My fingers are not pointing at the drivers. I mentioned financial constraints and the testing/car development issues as just two of the issues I could think of that may be part of the teams problem. Knowing that Bottas has a significantly better record in lower formulae than Maldonado, I believe he is their best hope for consistent results this season. The question is will the package be enough. I'm not sure it will be but my nostalgic side would like to see them come back. They've been in the doldrums for far too long.

 

[Slyboogy]

The team also had extra time to work on their car as they took the 2012 spec car into the first test.

Maybe that's hampered them as they haven't understood the car fully?

 

[RasputinLives]

RasputinLives. When you say top teams, do you mean Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull, Lotus, Force India and Sauber? Because that is more than half of the grid. Torro Rosso are carrying a similar level of driver experience in thier team, too.

It is only really Marussia and Caterham who are carrying teams with less experienced drivers to any significant degree.

The top five teams. Sauber have less experience than Williams as Maldo has the same number of races under his belt as Hulk and Bottas has had far more track time than Gutierrez.

The point was that a tenth could cost in the midfield. Out if Williams midfield competitors only Force India has more experience and one of those guys has just had a year out. I hear what you say about older drivers this that and the other but the fact is Williams have two guys who have been part of the team working with the guys day in day out for over two years now and are the only team that can say that other than Ferrari and Red Bull. Force India can possibley argue that Sutils break doesn't count.

The reason I defend the drivers on this point is that what they lack in race experience they make up for in famaliarity with personnel and knowledge of working with.

In your current jobs who's feedback do you act on and react to better, The guy you know and who you've been working with for two years or the guy who's just come in and has been billy big pants elsewhere?

 

[ExtremeNinja]

I don't act on either of their feedback. If I am struggling to produce a competitive car then I employ at least one drive with proven experience of input into developing competitive cars. I am not blaming the drivers. The buck would stop with me for making the driver selection. Driver selection is an integral part to the success of a racing team, both in terms of racing and in terms of developing a package with which to compete. So.... my point is that Williams lack depth of experience in thier drivers and that it is a mistake that they have put themselves in this position. I don't single this out as the sole factor for thier underperformance, though. There are many other factors to consider and analyse but this one is weighty, IMO.

[Edit]...of course, Sir Frank would argue that the drivers are as interchangeable as lightbulbs.

 

[Fenderman]

Williams should not be a mid-field team. They should be right up there with McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull and (dare I say it? Yes, I do dare) Mercedes. Therefore something has gone wrong for them. There will be more than a few different issues in the mix. All I suggested was that there may be a weakness in not having a more experienced driver on the development side.

That does not take anything away from or disparage the drivers whom they do have​

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What it does say is that they lack an element of diversity and experience on the driver side of the team. Add that small factor to financial constraints, possible weaknesses in areas of design and maybe management and it is easy to lose the edge. Nobody cures a problem by sticking one's head in the sand and pretending everything is okay in every department. A sound management will examine every area and will question it. They are unlikely to fob off a doubt with a dose of blind faith.​

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Edit: ExtremeNinja typed his similar points quicker than me but I'll leave this in anyway!​

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Bloomin' deja vu, again, again.​

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Great minds, Fenderman. I think we'd run a bloody marvelous F1 team together, don't you?

 

[Fenderman]

ExtremeNinja It's a shame I'm only about thirty years too late! C'est la vie!

Edit: If it wasn't for the fact that I've got zero track record in the industry I guess I would be about fit enough to be a consultant. Oh, of course I am a skilled conciliator, mentor, counsellor and all round nice guy

 

[RasputinLives]

Whilst we all like to play fantasy F1 manager we can do that without having to worry about budgets. Whilst I'm sure they'd love to have the best of the best they can't but they have manuvered into a position where they finally have a line up they want to work with in order to get themselves in a position where maybe they can get the best of the best. That includes the engine supplier so to dam the drivers for the poor car and suggest if they weren't so inexperienced things might be better seems odd to me. Especially when they had Rubens Barrichello for years and did nothing but go backwards. If there still in this situation in 8 races time then come talk to me.

Could the simple fact be that like Mclaren they misunderstood the car and were surprised at its performace in Australia and have not had time in 7 days to figure it out?

All those teams you mentioned Fenders have a lot bigger budget than Williams and an engine supplier behind them. Williams aren't back there yet.

I might have to go whisper in Bernies ear that team Afro/Ninja needs a 'large Italian gentlemen' to take over.

 

[Fenderman]

RasputinLives You seem to be so concerned with defending the drivers that you have ignored the fact that I am not having a pop at the drivers. I am not blaming the drivers. I am not holding the drivers responsible for Williams' woes.However, lacking someone of Ruben's experience can be no good thing - notwithstanding the expense, I agree. He certainly proved his worth to Brawn helping them to clinch the 2009 WDC and WCC titles.

You mention the budgets. I also referred to their tight finances in my earliest post on the subject as well as alluding to the fact that there are other issues that may be part of the mix.

Stuff the plump Italian geezer. Would someone please find a new Adrian Newey for Frank!!

 

[RasputinLives]

My point about the drivers was in reference to the original subject matter. After 2 races I think its a bit early to judge that its a driver issue. There have been far more fundamental issues with the Williams and I still debate that they are inexperienced.

There has to be a line between expirence and youth otherwise Pedro De La Rosa would be everyones catch. Williams tried the experienced line and it didn't work so now they've gone down the young and potentially fast root after bedding them into the team. I'd much prefer they did that than had Rubens and Webber going round and round until their late 40s

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Clare Williams lined up for the top job.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21954920

 

[Fenderman]

RasputinLives That's what I thought you said, albeit in a slightly different way.

 

[gethinceri]

With different words and punctuation.

 

[Slyboogy]

Maldonado's compared from this year to last year, was 9 tenths slower, what a difference a year makes.

They haven't looked like stealing a point once this season.

 

[FB]

I know I might be a bit biased but Claire Williams sounds like the tea girl whenever they interview her. Really not sure she has the qualities to drive the team forward but I sincerely hope I'm wrong.