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.
 
https://www.planetf1.com/news/stroll-set-to-stay-at-williams-for-2019/

Just look at the comments below after this article pretty much everyone commented does not rate Stroll- think he is one of the worst drivers out there and denying other proven drivers and Williams are desperate for his Dad's money

The comment that amuses everyone is that " He has lived up to our expectations" by Claire Williams which is probably the most absurd statement given Williams were once a great team and should be setting the bar high. One front row start and one podium is not enough. If anything he should be starting to show how he can lead the team .. the last race he seems very immature and I keep saying this what expectations have Williams got this season?

They are last in the constructors ... I repeat LAST and it looks like both Sauber and Toro Rosso will improve because their engine partners have put the investment and are getting their act together.
 
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If anyone wants to watch EJ piece on how the mighty Williams and Mclaren have fallen that was shown at British Grand Prix today , its worth watching on the catch up

Unlike his take on Mclaren, he was not so brutal although apparently

Paddy Lowe might leave
Porsche apparently want to buy the Williams team
 
Claire Williams spoke to C4 afterwards and said the Williams family live and breed Formula One and they have nothing else to fall back on because its all they know for the past 40 years

I admire Williams for this because remember the time when BMW thought they were being held back by Williams and then decided to quit and buy out Sauber only to quit F1 within 4years. That is why teams like Williams do matter more to F1 than manufacturers like BMW

So who is to say Porsche will not do the same thing if they can;t beat Ferrari or Mercedes or Red Bull Honda ?

Claire Williams emphatically denied the team is for sale even though C4 joked that Lawrence Stroll might want to buy the team


Everyone can see their driver line up is a real problem aside and getting rid of Massa they should have at least replaced him with another experienced driver

Sorry but how does doing 1000's of miles of testing in an old F1 car prepare for F1 with the new regulations which is what Lance Stroll did . What does the guy know about setting up the car ?

Sirotkin for his part at least has done time in F2 to deserve a shot and can only be measured against what Stroll has done despite not scoring a point
 
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Its about family pride and they would take the team to the grave with them if it does go under.

Claire Williams mentioned they have clever engineers whose skills are not utilised which to me suggests that Paddy Lowe probably is thinking of leaving
 
Yes, that photo was but the quote was made by MRD.

If you've ever seen the film Absolute beginners, she plays the lead character's mum. She's in the bit where Ray Davies sings the song "quiet life"

Anyway, we digress :D
 
Frank Williams won't sell willingly. What happens after he's gone is anyone's guess. Notwithstanding this and, all logic aside, to wish away the last of the racer turned entrepreneur founded and controlled teams would be just one more (large) nail in the F1 shaped coffin and act only to provide us F1 sofa kings a further reason to bitch over everything we believe F1 is, should, or used to be.

What Williams need and should be doing to survive is probably not a question we can answer.
 
Don't get me wrong, I'd like nothing more than to see a young Damon / Jenson like driver come through and lead a rejuvenated Williams out of the doldrums and back onto the highest ground of F1 but how that's ever going to happen under their current leadership, plus the regulations and format of modern F1 is anyone's guess?

Sir Frank is no spring chicken and there will come a time in the not too distant future when he'll hang up his head set so one last taste of success would be awesome.

As you say Grizzly he's the last of a generation.
 
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I have just read a transcript of the article and to be honest JV is not far wrong. In fact he was more brutal than EJ in his review of Williams on the F1 show last week

He's been vocally critical of Lance Stroll as the worst rookie ever - who incidentally now is considering taking his Dad's money to Force India

Williams shot themselves in the foot with the driver line up appointment- how can you justify promoting Stroll on the basis he's been trying to learn how to drive an F1 car that is 3 years out of date for a start

JV has fallen out with the team and he is especially critical of Claire Williams whose background is PR being the team leader instead of Jonathan because Frank thought he was weak :thinking::unsure:. Now Williams need a strong man to lead them. He thinks the management is the problem because they lack direction. I have to say he is true if Williams - a legend of the sport starts to hire two pay per drivers these days then you can see how far they have sank

The article also mentions about Williams are trying to look at making better use of internal resources rather than look for someone from the outside. Paddy Lowe's position is not safe as he seems you know

Their other problem is Martini are leaving F1 so no title sponsor and plus the lost money from where they are languishing in the constructors will hurt as well along with Stroll's money
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Things look very bleak for Williams
 
What a load of wishy washy garbage. I miss a competitive Williams, as one of the last of the old guard teams, and that claptrap in the article does them no favours.
 
its garbage because everyone can see from the outset what the problems are which is all happening under the stewardship of Claire Williams. I have to say JV is right that Claire's stewardship is a problem and needs to addressed

It was always a considerably daft move putting accepting Stroll's money and risk sliding down the grid . It does not happen overnight and the Mercedes engine really masked a lot of problems.

Her role is a glorified PR officer but that aint going to help the team move back up the grid by saying nice things to the press all the time
 
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-m...chosen-on-talent-alone-idUKKCN1MT2QS?rpc=401&

Same spiel from Claire with a different driver . I remember she said the same things last year about her current drivers but lets hope Russell proves he is far more capable than the current two incumbents otherwise Claire needs to go

Currently Useless - Williams

Whilst he is on the shortlist - the only he has is to be racing competitively and show he still has the ability to do F1 but its getting harder for him to convince people at the moment. I feel if Mercedes can't get an agreement about Ocon with Williams then their next choice will be Sirotkin not Kubica
 
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RasputinLives C4 yesterday particularly Eddie Jordan was trying to egg out of Claire Williams that Ocon has signed for the team as well. She did not deny it either

They were chatting to force india new boss omar (far too complicated surname to spell) & talking about wearing sombreros for perezs re-signing. What will you be wearing for 2nd driver, he joked a canadian mountie sounded good
 
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