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]

I bet that's painful

 

[Greenlantern101]

Hopefully the person that buys it will enter the Historic F1 series

http://www.mastershistoricracing.com/news/fia-masters-historic-formula-one-championship-swel/

I hate when people buy something like this and then don't race it. That's what its for.

I saw the historic F1 at Silverstone and it was flippin awesome.

 

[Il_leone]

that £42.5 m loss was related to the money paid out for their poor 2013 season plus they don't have Pastor's oil money to cover up the red

Finishing 3rd last year in constructors should give them about £50m more revenue

 

[RasputinLives]

I hate to get back on my high horse and bang the 'Williams are Mercedes B-team' drum again but I'm afriad Valterri Bottas (who I'm a fan of) has made me do it.

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/326388/optimistic-bottas-hopes-to-battle-ferrari/

'We hope to battle Ferrari' hmmm. Seeing as Ferrari are hoping to battle the Mercs surely the attitude should be 'we hope to get nearer to challenging the front' not we hope to help Merc's life easier by mixing it up with their main competition.

They know they are not allowed to beat the A team. Its a shame really. Merc are dominant enough without having the 3rd best team on the grid as their safety buffer.

 

[Titch]

Rubbish. Williams are not in a position to challenge the Mercs. They are in a position to challenge Ferrari. They should go for it.

 

[RasputinLives]

Well to be honest they are further away from the Ferrari's than the Ferrari's are from the Mercs. My point is that their aspirations from the start of the season appear to have been to 'challenge Ferrari' add that to the fact they went out of their way to not challenge Mercedes last year I just find it a bit dissapointing.

 

[Il_leone]

RasputinLives I think you were alluding to Austria when they qualified front row and ended up 3rd and 4th through a slow reaction to the Mercedes pit stops

Does Toto pass on messages to his missus on what Williams should do when they see the Silver Arrows on the same part of track as them?

Or is Bottas his mole in the Williams team?

Titch Williams have a 7 year contract with Mercedes which I am trying to remember no customer team with an engine from the factory team had such long contracts bar Sauber with Ferrari.

Plus

i) They have Bottas who is managed by Toto,

ii) Toto's missus who will never get a race drive but is there to sooth relations and good PR for both Williams and Mercedes

iii) Sutil was announced as the 3rd driver for the team - I can only think that was done to appease Mercedes when questions were asked who is the stand in driver for Massa or Bottas. Really Lynn should be given the 3rd driver seat but then that would be a slap in the face to Mercedes and especially Susie so the next best options is to put a German driver in

It just does not look like Williams can close the gap to Ferrari which surprises me given the regulations have not changed much since last year and they know where their strengths are and Ferrari have managed to leap frog them whilst Mercedes are further ahead

 

[Titch]

Williams do not have as much money to throw at their car as either the Mercedes or Ferrari, especially Ferrari. No wonder the Ferrari leap frogged them. It will always be the way, until all teams have equal funding, they will not be equal.

 

[Il_leone]

Titch - no they dont but Ferrari was in such disarray and Williams having looked like they found performance to be closest to Mercedes .. you would have expected them to be still there challenging not starting behind this season

I thought Monaco was very telling just how poor the Williams is this season when it failed to get out into Q3 and was the slowest of the Merc powered teams... it shows up that they rely far too much on the engine power of the Mercs

 

[Andyoak]

I don't remember Williams ever being that consistently good around Monaco over the years.
As a circuit, it's demands are very different from any other circuit on the calendar; poor performance there isn't an indicator of a poor car or chassis.

 

[Il_leone]

I said it is obvious they rely too much on engine power . This is what the BBC team believed that Williams will be good on circuits that rely on horsepower and probably will struggle at Hungary another slow circuit

 

[FB]

Congratulations Sir Patrick Head.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/sir-patrick-head-joins-frank-williams-with-knighthood

 

[F1Brits_90]

sound harsh but Williams were their worst enemy they say "we haven't forgotten how to winning strategy despite time In wilderness" I believe that after today if bottas hadnt signed for Ferrari before British gp weekend he might have now, because I dont think he can win a race at Williams because they always have a blunder of some kind when it matters & also when asked bottas said I havent be speaking to them implying his management includes mika Hakkinen has

 

[Andyoak]

Williams have never been that good at pit stop strategy... They won championships with great engineering; and before strategy became the only way you're allowed to win.

 

[Il_leone]

F1Brits_90 Its debatable if Bottas would have won or got a podium given how he actually struggled when it rained. The problem with Williams are

i) They have a Merc courtesy of Toto Wolff 's goodwill gesture who also manages Bottas
ii) Massa is backed by the Bank of Brazil which brings enough sponsorship money enough to allow them to race at the front at least
iii) Even with the backing from Bank of Brazil their budget is nowhere near Ferrari, Mercedes or Red Bull so they can only maximise on low downforce and power circuits
---------------

Having said that Bottas may well be inching a move to Ferrari if there is interest to be a serious race winner and championship but he failed to beat "Old Man" Massa again

I do have doubts about his credentials because he has not blown away Massa like he really needs to this season and I thought he did not show enough race craft to get past Massa. He was quicker down the Hangar Straight but he did not try and size Massa up or take different lines to unsettle him into a mistake around the other parts of the circuit.

Massa drove a solid race for 4th and full credit to him

I am baffled by Williams strategy from both Rob Smedley and Pat Symonds - both who have plenty of experience in race strategy and they are again cautious and it cost them a podium

 

[F1Brits_90]

F1Brits_90 Its debatable if Bottas would have won or got a podium given how he actually struggled when it rained.
-------------------------------------------------
I am baffled by Williams strategy from both Rob Smedley and Pat Symonds - both who have plenty of experience in race strategy and they are again cautious and it cost them a podium

Yeah Williams struggle on the wet but I would say bottas wouldve certainly stayed in lead after dry round of pitstops & I say as much above in last 3 yrs theyve had 3 huge chances to take a victory in all 3 canada Austria 2014 & last weekend blundered in all 3

 

[Il_leone]

I think Alonso or Button in the same circumstances would have gotten them a podium. Bottas needs to be a bit more decisive when racing against his own teammate

 

[FB]

Interesting opinion from Damon on his old team. What do others think?

Damon Hill feels Williams should swap Mercedes engines for Honda

 

[Bill Boddy]

Isn't that what McLaren did a year earlier?

 

[Titch]

He obviously has more faith in Honda engines than anyone else does at the moment. Either that or they paid him to say it.