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.

 

[FB]

If Parr didn't want pay drivers then perhaps he should have upped his game in getting in bigger sponsors?

 

[Il_leone]

i did not expect Parr to resign suddenly but there is obvious upheaval behind the scenes ...that is another senior personnel gone . Does that mean Frank will resume total control of team duties??

 

[Brogan]

If Parr didn't want pay drivers then perhaps he should have upped his game in getting in bigger sponsors?

Would you have sponsored Williams based on their performance last season?

 

[FB]

Would you have sponsored Williams based on their performance last season?

Errr, no. That said, worse teams than Williams have managed to secure serious sponsorship but Frank has certain rules which prevent him from getting money in. Shame the rest of the grid doesn't have the same value system.

 

[GermanF1]

What kind of rules do you mean?

 

[FB]

Frank won't poach sponsors from other teams and prefers, if possible, to bring new companies into F1 as title sponsors at Williams. If you look back through their history, perhaps with the exception of Rothmans, all of Williams main title sponsors have be new to F1.

 

[sportsman]

i did not expect Parr to resign suddenly but there is obvious upheaval behind the scenes ...that is another senior personnel gone . Does that mean Frank will resume total control of team duties??

He has always had total control of he F1 team.He is team princpal.You are confusing Williams GP Holdings with the Williams F1 team..WGP is much more than just the F1 team.
http://www.williamsf1.com/portal#corporate

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&tkr=WGF1:GR&sid=aEU7osP5vO7o
"This is an opportune moment, also, for me to consider my own role in the
team. I turn 70 in April and I have decided to signal the next stage in the
gradual but inevitable process of handing over the reins to the next
generation by stepping down from the Board at the end of this month. This is
not as dramatic a move as it may appear: I shall continue to work full-time as Team Principal and I shall continue to attend all Board meetings as observer.
I also remain the majority shareholder of Williams Grand Prix Holdings PLC.
Nonetheless, I shall be looking to Claire to represent the Williams family on
the Board and I know that she will work tirelessly alongside Adam to make the
Group and the team just as successful as we can be."

 

[Il_leone]

traditional Williams colours over the years have been navy blue and white although they had periods of green and white due to middle east sponsors and red and white due to tobacco

So any brand that is navy blue and white usually fits the bill. Yes Rothmans were the ideal colours for them back in the 1990's



As for Parr resigning as chairman any ideas who is in charge then?

 

[sportsman]

traditional Williams colours over the years have been navy blue and white although they had periods of green and white due to middle east sponsors and red and white due to tobacco

So any brand that is navy blue and white usually fits the bill. Yes Rothmans were the ideal colours for them back in the 1990's



As for Parr resigning as chairman any ideas who is in charge then?

Didn't you read the press release.That tells you who replaces Parr as Chairman. As for whose in charge that is the Board of Directors of Williams GP Holdings.
Another thing you probably don't know.Williams GP Engineering build all the chassis for F2.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98402 he will be replaced by Nick Rose, ex-CFO of Diageo and currently a Non-Executive Director of WGPH, who will act as non-executive chairman.
Frank Williams will continue to oversee the company.

 

[FB]

I presume Williams Holdings is the parent company and Williams GPE and Williams F1 subsidiaries (amongst others)? Or is Williams F1 simply the name of the team which is entered in the F1 Championship?

 

[The Artist.....]

Wow!
Didn't see that coming.

That has to be something to do with a difference of philosophy or team direction.
Possibly related to pay drivers?

I suspect it's got more to do with the fact that he was suddenly in charge of the entire team, and needing to get a better "life balance" suggests that it was putting pressures on things other than just work - I would suspect that there were personal problems outside of his Williams life that caused him to make this decision....

 

[sportsman]

I presume Williams Holdings is the parent company and Williams GPE and Williams F1 subsidiaries (amongst others)? Or is Williams F1 simply the name of the team which is entered in the F1 Championship?

Just that.

http://www.williamsf1.com/investors/company-profileWilliams Grand Prix Holdings PLC is the holding company of the Williams group of companies (“Group”) which includes Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited and Williams Hybrid Power Limited. The Group has established the Williams Technology Centre in Qatar which is a branch of Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited.

 

[kristi]

Question for Williams fans:

How do we know Williams don't have a Grand Prix-winning car on their hands?

Yes, they had an atrocious 2011 but as recently as Singapore, 2009 Nico Rosberg was in with a shout for a win and the grid is now even tighter.

Going into 2012, no one was rating Maldonado and others were saying Senna wasn't even as good as Petrov!

Renault engines have won championships and Coughlan has penned winners at McLaren and Williams are a serious racing team with pedigree. So the question still stands: How do we know that Williams don't have a winner on their hands?

 

[Galahad]

Good question, kristi. I don't think its the quickest, that is clearly the McLaren at this point, but a point worth considering.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Question for Williams fans:

How do we know Williams don't have a Grand Prix-winning car on their hands?

Yes, they had an atrocious 2011 but as recently as Singapore, 2009 Nico Rosberg was in with a shout for a win and the grid is now even tighter.

Going into 2012, no one was rating Maldonado and others were saying Senna wasn't even as good as Petrov!

Renault engines have won championships and Coughlan has penned winners at McLaren and Williams are a serious racing team with pedigree. So the question still stands: How do we know that Williams don't have a winner on their hands?

I think Williams have really improved on last years effort and I'm quite shocked about how they have managed to do it given the amount of new faces at the team. It must be a Ray of light for them to be at the sharp end of the grid but if they have the pace to hit the podium let alone the top spot remains to be seen. It's going to send out a message to Ron to up his game at Mclaren (well all of the team bosses really). I reckon though if they haven't hit the top spot by the time the F1 band wagon arrives In Canada I reckon you'll have your answer.

 

[kristi]

I think Williams have really improved on last years effort and I'm quite shocked about how they have managed to do it given the amount of new faces at the team. It must be a Ray of light for them to be at the sharp end of the grid but if they have the pace to hit the podium let alone the top spot remains to be seen. It's going to send out a message to Ron to up his game at Mclaren (well all of the team bosses really). I reckon though if they haven't hit the top spot by the time the F1 band wagon arrives In Canada I reckon you'll have your answer.

That's a very astute post!

I wonder if Williams regret not getting Raikkonen's signature on a contract. I'm sure the Iceman would have scored more points for the Grove team already.

 

[RasputinLives]

I think Williams have really improved on last years effort and I'm quite shocked about how they have managed to do it given the amount of new faces at the team. It must be a Ray of light for them to be at the sharp end of the grid but if they have the pace to hit the podium let alone the top spot remains to be seen. It's going to send out a message to Ron to up his game at Mclaren (well all of the team bosses really). I reckon though if they haven't hit the top spot by the time the F1 band wagon arrives In Canada I reckon you'll have your answer.

See I was wondering why the 'banned' sign had come up. Now it becomes clear. Crafty.

Back to Williams - Both Maldonado and Senna are far more familiar with the European circuits than the fly aways due to their GP2 experience. Last year we saw Maldonado really hit form in quali as we came to tracks like Monaco with what is obviously a better car behind him now it'll be interesting to see what happens this season. Would love to see a Williams back on the podium again.

At risk of sounding like a stuck record I still think they should have Botas in.

 

[Il_leone]

the only concern with WIlliams is they tend to tail off as the teams with more resources improve moving forward

However in COughlan they have a very abled designer along with Renault engines who had a very healthy and fruitful relations with the team unlike the rather frosty and arrogance from BMW

Surely they will do better than 9th in the constructors which some are predicting for them this year

 

[FB]

I think there was a mutual arrogance between Williams and BMW wasn't there? That's why they went off and invested their money in Sauber. Very easy to stereotype BMW because they are German, both sides failed in the Williams BMW partnership.

 

[Il_leone]

I think there was a mutual arrogance between Williams and BMW wasn't there? That's why they went off and invested their money in Sauber. Very easy to stereotype BMW because they are German, both sides failed in the Williams BMW partnership.

Stubborness on Williams part but they did not go public but how they were being let down by their partners like BMW did
Williams were thinking they never had a problem with Honda (except for not making Piquet No 1) or Renault so could not understand BMW's constant bashing of the team towards the press