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.

 

[Josh]

COME ON SENNA!!!

Why do you prefer Senna over Sutil, Barrichello or Petrov?

 

[racecub]

Why do you prefer Senna over Sutil, Barrichello or Petrov?

I like Barrichelo but Ive seen him lots and want to see someone different. He doesnt really set me on fire. Of the remaining three, all are capable of getting good results. Petrov's been a favourite of mine for some time(I thought he was out of the picture at Williams). Suthil, I think he's underestimated and i wanted him to keep the drive with Di Resta at Force India(again I thought he was pretty much out of the picture). So its not like I have a down on these drivers. But then we come to Senna, of all of them he has had less opportunity to show his capabilities, he's made mistakes but there have been flashes of brilliance. Of them all, I think he is the one that could be something special.He was late starting and id like to see him have a chance.

 

[Slyboogy]

The only "flashes of brilliance" I saw with Bruno Senna was his 2 qualifying performances.

When he's been in good positions he's thrown it away, Spa first corner collision pace wasn't that great. Monza where the car was at its best in the second half of the season and a good result should have been possible by both cars, but Petrov after a great qualifying got taken out, while was in a good position and then spun. Then there's Brazil, a silly collision and was going backwards after the start.

He had 3 chances this season to prove his worth, he failed each time.

However, race craft can be worked upon, qualifying speed can't, he has the latter at times, but not regularly. He's not young either...

This all just my opinion of course.

 

[racecub]

Bruno didnt start racing till later in life, a bit like Damon Hill. He's on a steep learning curve. He's had way less time in F1 than the others in the frame for that drive. I think we've seen what the other three are capable of...and what we've seen is good. But if you're looking for something special Bruno may have it, because we havent seen all he can do yet. He may not of course, so its a bit of a gamble but the way Williams are going they havent got a lot to lose.

 

[The Artist.....]

Bruno Senna is probably the quickest of the three - the only reason that Barrichello is still in F1 is because Honda pulled out in 2008, and when Brawn was being set up, they didn't want to risk running a rookie, and risk large repair bills! In testing for Honda, he was only 0.3 seconds adrift of Button (Although we don't know anything about fuel-loads etc.) Senna has had a raw deal of his time in F1, with Hispania not providing a decent car, and then only getting into the Renault late on in the season, once Renault had given up on 2011... I truly believe that Senna has the potential to be very good - certainly quicker than Sutil, Barrichello or Petrov. However, he does need the opportunity to learn and to grow... If he gets the Williams seat, it would be good to see him have 2 or 3 seasons there, and see where that leads.

 

[Galahad]

In racing for Honda, Rubens was 0.0s adrift of Button on average, but there you go. It would be good for Bruno to get a full season somewhere so we could make a proper assessment of him.

 

[canis]

Looks like it is Senna, apparently Williams posted a driver profile for him not that long ago, but the traffic generated to the site by the change has caused it to crash for now....

 

[Brogan]

Yup: https://twitter.com/#!/blogdoico/status/159243710889082880

 

[The Artist.....]

... and given Bruno's shirt, that would suggest that Williams have signed a large contract with Embratel... their replacement telecoms sponsor....

 

[siffert_fan]

I think this is just another indication of the downward spiral that Williams is on. TWO pay drivers on an established, indeed storied, team is a record not to be proud of.

 

[Andyoak]

Probably not something to be proud of but because they have been 'my team' since Alan Jones I'll still wish them the best of luck for 2012; knowing its just a case of blind optimism once again.

 

[Brogan]

If it wasn't for the fact that they replaced the Cosworth engine with a Renault, they would have struggled to stay ahead of Lotus Caterham this season.
As it is, this will firmly cement them in the bottom 4 teams.

I can't see them lasting much longer if this continues.

 

[teabagyokel]

Smells of Giovanna Amati or Pedro Lamy to me!

 

[RasputinLives]

Oh come on! Pedro Lamy was better than Bruno!

 

[landogeorgelewis1]

Really got a feeling that Frank Williams might sell the Williams name to a middle-east moneybags. To me that smacks of desperation and really could be bad for the Williams name. Williams has a British history and i feel that it might be taken away from us.

 

[Slyboogy]

I am not really into the Williams team and I haven't really noticed them since 2006 as they seem very anonymous.

This seems quite poor, two pay drivers in a transition year...

But I guess Bruno's money is a gain as whatever position Barrichello or Sutil would have gotten the team into next season they wouldn't get as much money. A 4-8 million loss because of constructors position is probably no biggy when he brings double or more.

 

[racecub]

Id say its something of a damning indictemnet of the sport that drivers of such quality have to pay to drive instead of being paid

 

[Josh]

He's not that special imo... I doubt he is a future WC.

 

[Slyboogy]

Id say its something of a damning indictemnet of the sport that drivers of such quality have to pay to drive instead of being paid

Maybe because there are drivers with more quality and experience out there?


It's something of a damning indictment of the sport that a team has to resolve two pay drivers for a crucial season.

 

[siffert_fan]

The worrisome thing for me is that I cannot think of a single team that was able to reverse the kind of slide that Williams is in. The legion of teams that could not, however is quite long, and includes such once-powerhouse teams as: the REAL Lotus team, BRM, Brabham and Tyrrell.

Can anyone think of a team that was able rise Phoenix-like?