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.

 

[Il_leone]

It's not because Claire Claire William's is a woman that is the issue . She is just not good at the job - I made that clear in a previous post a while back. She does not command the authority or respect within or outside the team.
Having Strolls money was just masking the problems and not dealing with it unless they were seriously think of selling the team to Lawrence Stroll so all they did was handicap themselves. Force India a teamof similar size and resources were in the same boat but could punch itself above weight, Williams a team with great tradition cannot

 

[F1Brits_90]

i dispute that lance stroll money masked the issues. if anything send them way behind was the dominant Mercedes engine. that realised 3yrs too late that aero & chassis was dreadful

 

[Il_leone]

i dispute that lance stroll money masked the issues. if anything send them way behind was the dominant Mercedes engine. that realised 3yrs too late that aero & chassis was dreadful

The Merc engines were bolted onto Williams 2014 each season they started going backwards - initial slow slide

2017 was when Stroll was announced as Massa's replacement . The team finished 5th in 2016, the constructors -the next 3 years they continued slide down the constructors with Stroll as one of the drivers. Williams try to justify he is there on talent but shows his inexperience throughout the season

 

[RasputinLives]

Youngest ever podium finisher. Youngest ever front row sitter. All in a shopping trolly with barely any testing time and little experience. If George Russell managed either of those right now you'd be throwing your underwear at him. But then he has the Merc PR team behind him.

 

[The Artist.....]

Il_leone - in 2014-2016, the Mercedes was so dominant an engine, that it masked massive chassis deficits for all of the Mercedes teams... (McLaren had two podiums in 2014(!))...

By the time we got to 2017, Williams were shocked by the advances other teams (and engines) had made, and they had gone so far down an aero blind alleys, that the team was struggling to catch up. They thought that employing Paddy Lowe would help, but in fact, he ended up leading Williams further down blind alleys! This year, they’ve finally got somewhere close to the midfield, but it is a long road back.

 

[RasputinLives]

That's a very good point The Artist..... on the chassis. I seem to remember every time it rained suddenly the Williams would become terrible.

 

[Il_leone]

Now that is what happened with Vettel and Verstappen they have the Red Bull PR machines behind them.

Stroll did not get credit because the race he did it was remembered more for
Vettel driving into Hamilton
Hamilton losing the race due to lose bodywork bizarrely
Force India hitting each other plus Massa retired ahead of him
So it was considered a fluke not based on outright pace


Stroll is the 2nd youngest podium finisher behind Mad Max

Youngest front row starter is forgotten because he finished down the order in race

Also because he does not have the records to back it up in GP3 and F2 the impression so far is a pay driver

Would there be fan fare about Russell if he did these
things
- the British press would hype him up about being the next world champion like they would do

 

[RasputinLives]

Lance Stroll won F3 and every catogry he has ever driven in. He was a Ferrari academy driver from a young age. He actually has a better junior career record than both Vettel and Verstappen. But no one cares because they want to not like him.

 

[Il_leone]

Lance Stroll won F3 and every catogry he has ever driven in. He was a Ferrari academy driver from a young age. He actually has a better junior career record than both Vettel and Verstappen. But no one cares because they want to not like him.

I should add no one remembers you if you are the 2nd youngest podium finisher they will always remember the first. That is why Alonso is jealous of Vettel taking his records and Vettel seems to have an issue with Verstappen breaking his

When he comes out saying he was practicing on playstation to learn how to drive an F1 car around Monaco. That does not paint a picture of a proper F1 driver. Nor does his panicky radio conversations when having to manage car issues

I will say Williams are partly blame for thrusting him into a race seat when he is clearly not ready unless they had a gun pointed at them by Lawrence Stroll who would walk away with his money if his son was not picked. I am trying to remember the last time a driver was picked in F1 due to possibly nepotism

 

[Il_leone]

Lance Stroll won F3 and every catogry he has ever driven in. He was a Ferrari academy driver from a young age. He actually has a better junior career record than both Vettel and Verstappen. But no one cares because they want to not like him.

Remember when Verstappen was controversially picked and Helmut said he had the talent to succeed

Stroll's promotion more controversial because he spent his time testing rather doing GP3 and F2 so people are going to say there drivers more capable than Stroll that deservesd it more. So Williams found a loophole that allowed him to obtain a super licence that no one thought of to be am F1 driver. Amazingly Red Bull have not gone down this route then with their drivers

 

[cider_and_toast]

I am trying to remember the last time a driver was picked in F1 due to possibly nepotism

Don't be daft, there's be nepotism in F1 for decades. Whether it's through sponsorship pressure or the family name of an F1 driver.

If I offered you as a team principal a 32 year old whose best championship finish in any formula was 3rd in the British F3 championship and that was 5 years ago, since then he'd spent 4 years in F3000, not won a race, finished on the podium twice and had just 3 other points finishes, you'd tell me to do one.

What if I told you that was Damon Hill's record prior to making his F1 debut?

 

[Il_leone]

Don't be daft, there's be nepotism in F1 for decades. Whether it's through sponsorship pressure or the family name of an F1 driver.

If I offered you as a team principal a 32 year old whose best championship finish in any formula was 3rd in the British F3 championship and that was 5 years ago, since then he'd spent 4 years in F3000, not won a race, finished on the podium twice and had just 3 other points finishes, you'd tell me to do one.

What if I told you that was Damon Hill's record prior to making his F1 debut?

Yes Damon did not have a great record before F1 but Wiliams particularly Newey were complimentary of his feedback skills. Also his record did not show it but he was in contention for wins and podium.

To pick Stroll over F2 and GP3 racers would be considered a slap in the face to drivers like Rowland , and Lynn so the only conclusion to that was his Dad's bankrolling the team so that must be why he's picked. If the results were there then it would be justified but they were not

As for other drivers picked because of their family name like Sainz, Rosberg to name a few but they did come with talent that was because the team or Bernie wanted to exploit the commercial opportunities. Now you have jolted the memory that De Cesaris was picked because his Dad sat on the Marlboro board.

The other issue I think Stroll has not been highly rated or has no PR machine to do this and the approach he chose to get into F1 is debatable if it works or not only when he retires we can judge

 

[F1Brits_90]

williams was a dreadful car. it took literally late 2017 when i think mclaren honda beat williams at spa on "power" circuit for them to finally realise the car was the issue despite in 2014 & 2015 that anytime they went to monaco hungary & singapore they were dreadful & is the designers fault not claire williams & she got rid of them including paddy lowe which is things have been on the up since he left. which is why they are 3 years behind everyone

Don't be daft, there's be nepotism in F1 for decades. Whether it's through sponsorship pressure or the family name of an F1 driver.

If I offered you as a team principal a 32 year old whose best championship finish in any formula was 3rd in the British F3 championship and that was 5 years ago, since then he'd spent 4 years in F3000, not won a race, finished on the podium twice and had just 3 other points finishes, you'd tell me to do one.

What if I told you that was Damon Hill's record prior to making his F1 debut?

yeah well Bruno senna made F1 on same principles & lets not forget mick schumacher. who might come back to prove me wrong & be decent in F1. but you look at winners of GP3 & F3 the last few years. Ocon went from GP3 to F1 impressed straight away Leclerc & Russell won GP3 & F2 in consective years. Shwartzmann won F3 last year leading F2 this year winning 2 races. but yet unlike the other 4 champions Mick schumacher needed a year to adjust

 

[F1Brits_90]

Il_leone if i said a 16yr old driver in 2nd year of car racing was in a F3 series included Rosenquist, Giovinazzi, Leclerc, Russell, Albon & Sette Camara. came 5th in the championship beating the latter 3. then in 2nd F3 yr he beat george russell again by 243pts winning 13 of remaining 21 races

 

[Il_leone]

F1Brits_90 I can't discredit what he achieved in F3. He does not have the PR machine and the fact he made it through to F1 by purely testing with nothing to compare in GP3 and F2 makes it all contentious if this a true route to F1 and makes a mockery of GP3 and F2 especially after closing off the Verstappen route

If Red Bull did this Helmut will be blowing the trumpet the kid is ready blah blah blah

 

[cider_and_toast]

He does not have the PR machine and the fact he made it through to F1 by purely testing with nothing to compare in GP3 and F2

But that's exactly how Vettel got his seat. He never raced any higher than Formula Renault 3.5.

Raikkonen and Alonso only spent 2 years in Junior Formula before making their F1 debuts.

 

[FB]

Not to wander more off topic but didn't Prost and Senna jump straight from F3 to F1? The usual wisdom was if you had to spend any time in F2 you weren't good enough.

 

[The Artist.....]

FB - times were different back then. British F3 used to be the strongest junior series (in the world?) - that’s changed in the last 25 years... (roughly when F3000 was put on the F1 schedule).

When Senna was racing F2, there was no expectation of drivers racing F2, and the series was a little isolated. There has been a paradigm shift though

 

[Il_leone]

The hu ha about Verstappen 's appointment to F1 was supposedly meant to make sure drivers completed Gp3 or F2 or equivalent to make it into F1 . In the past Kimi got promoted after doing Formula Renault but Bernie wavered it, Alonso did 1 season of F3000,Vettel was doing Formula 3.5 which was considered GP2 equivalent at the time.

I think also when the regulations changed in 2017 the drivers that were getting caught out where those who had little experience which included Stroll. This made his preparations for F1 in a car under old regulations questionable

 

[cider_and_toast]

The long and the short of it Il_leone is that you do not like Stroll and it doesn't matter what counter arguments people make in his defence, you will never change your mind and are convinced he doesn't deserve his place on the grid.

Now that we've clarified that, which is fine as its your point of view and you are more than entitled to have it, we can all move on.