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.
 
Latifi has been confirmed at Williams for 2020. As much I want to see the name Williams back to its glory days. I think Claire Williams needs to step down if Williams have another season like this year.
 
Frank is still the major share holder, I suspect nothing will change until he shuffles off this mortal coil.
 
Il_leone - the removal of Paddy Lowe may well have some (positive) impacts on the team. Williams are in the painful process of restructuring, and changing their overall policies - much like McLaren did two or three years ago. they probably need a different MD, but you can believe that Patrick Head will have been kicking butt!
 
Well, first they need money. F1 is pay to play. So of course, Stroll and Latifi makes perfect sense. That is not Williams' problem. Their problem is a lack of money. Williams was a back-marker team until Frank Williams suddenly found some Saudi money. Then it became a front running team. When BMW dropped them....they were again left without money...and their performance again dropped.

Look at the Haas team. Finished 9th in the championship. Gunther Steiner is certainly a proven and capable manager. Haas is a self-made multi-millionaire. Grosjean and Magnussen are not paying drivers. Yet...they are 9th in the championship. Why? Well, they are doing it on the cheap. If they want to do better they need more money.

I don't know if Claire Williams is a good, bad or mediocre manager. Her father, when he did not have any budget, was kind of considered a joke in F1. Then he got some money and suddenly became one of the 4 or 5 most successful team owners in F1 history. So.......replace Claire Williams? This is really only useful if it was for someone that can get lots of budget or someone like Lawrence Stroll.
 
Deliberately overtook cars under yellow to crash into a rival.

Dropped from his last team for not being good enough.

Makes you wonder how he managed to get a break like this?
 
on williams money with latifi yes not a good choice be because he seemingly had a purple patch in the 1st half then carried it through. but until the budget cap next season williams will always struggle very few have the funds for whats needed I think it was 2017 or 2018. when i worked out that just the top 3 alone (so excluding other 7) spent close to a billion dollars for just 1 season

what dan ticktum did was pretty bad but it was in 2015 & he had just turned 16. nobody is fully mature enough at that age. we dont judge verstappen on antics from 2016/17 so we should give a 2nd chance. dropped by red bull is no big deal cant forget these are the people who dropped Vergne & Buemi for not being good enough. but gave 2nd chances to Kyvat & Hartley. so that no big deal & also his age was a thing. you are asking alot of a 19yr old to go & live in japan different cars different culture. be on it from the 1st race

but on pace im unsure if he has pace needed because 1 hand he has won Macau Grand Prix twice beating a certain lando norris on debut. F3 looked quality season but mick Schumacher was so underwhelming in F2. if he can lose to guy not even in top 10 of F2
 
When will Williams learn that fattening their budgets (short-term) by taking on pay drivers for both racing and development are only costing them MORE money through lost prize money and greater sponsor interest?

If they continue the way they are going, I give them the 2 more years of existence, and that will mark the complete end of my interest in F1. They are the only reason I have followed F1 these last few years since both the WDC and WCC are determned before the year even starts, IMO.
 
i fancy russell to do very well at hungary

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