The story
Founded by Frank Williams and Patrick Head in 1977.1
Origins
Frank Williams founded Williams in 1977 after his previous team, Frank Williams Racing Cars, failed to achieve the success he desired. Despite the promise of a new owner, Canadian millionaire Walter Wolf, and the team's rebranding as Wolf–Williams Racing in 1976, the cars still were not competitive. Eventually, Williams left the rechristened Walter Wolf Racing and moved to Didcot, Oxfordshire to rebuild his team as Williams Grand Prix Engineering. Frank recruited Patrick Head to work for the team, creating the Williams–Head partnership.
Racing history – Formula One
1977 season
Williams entered a March 761 for the 1977 season. Lone driver Patrick Nève competed in 11 races that year, starting with the Spanish Grand Prix. The new team failed to score a point, achieving a best finish of 7th at the Italian Grand Prix.
1978 season
For the 1978 season, Patrick Head designed the first Williams car: the FW06. Williams signed Alan Jones, who had won the Austrian Grand Prix the previous season for a devastated Shadow team following the death of their lead driver, Tom Pryce. Jones's first race for the team was the Argentine Grand Prix where he qualified in 14th position but retired after 36 laps due to a fuel system failure. The team scored its first championship points two races later at the South African Grand Prix when Jones finished in fourth. Williams earnt their first podium at the United States Grand Prix, where Jones came second, 20 seconds behind the Ferrari of Carlos Reutemann. Williams finished the season in ninth place in the Constructors' Championship, with a respectable 11 points, while Alan Jones finished 11th in the Drivers' Championship. Towards the end of 1978, Frank Williams recruited Frank Dernie to join Patrick Head in the design office.
1979 season
Head designed the FW07 chassis and gearbox for the 1979 season with Frank Dernie picking up the suspension, aerodynamic development and skirt design. This was the team's first ground effect car, a technology that was first introduced by Colin Chapman and Team Lotus. Williams also obtained membership of the Formula One Constructors' Association (FOCA) which expressed a preference for teams to run two cars, so Jones was joined at the team by Clay Regazzoni. It was not until the seventh round of the championship, the Monaco Grand Prix, that they finished in the points. Regazzoni came close to taking the team's first win but finished second, less than a second behind race winner Jody Scheckter. The next race, the French Grand Prix, is remembered for the final lap battle between René Arnoux and Gilles Villeneuve, but also saw both cars finish in the points for the first time; as Jones was fourth with Regazzoni in sixth. The team's first win came at the British Grand Prix (their home Grand Prix) when Regazzoni finished 25 seconds ahead of second place.
Greater success followed when Williams got a 1-2 finish at the next round in Germany, Jones in first with Regazzoni two seconds behind in second. Jones then made it three wins in a row at the Austrian Grand Prix, finishing half a minute ahead of Gilles Villeneuve's Ferrari. Three wins in a row became four two weeks later at the Dutch Grand Prix, with Alan Jones winning yet again by a comfortable margin over Jody Scheckter's Ferrari. Scheckter ended Williams's winning streak when he won the Italian Grand Prix; with Regazzoni finishing third behind Scheckter and Villeneuve. Alan Jones managed another win at the penultimate race in Canada to cap off a great season.
Williams had greatly improved their Constructors' Championship position, finishing seven places higher than the previous year and scoring 59 more points. Alan Jones was the closest driver to the Ferrari duo of Villeneuve and 1979 champion Jody Scheckter. Jones scored 43 points, 17 points behind Scheckter, while Regazzoni was two places behind him with 32 points.
1980 season
Before the start of the 1980 season, Regazzoni left the team and was replaced by Carlos Reutemann. Williams started strong in the championship, with Jones winning the first race of the season in Argentina. Jones won four more races: the French Grand Prix, the British Grand Prix, the Canadian Grand Prix and, the last race of the season, the United States Grand Prix. Jones became the first of seven Williams drivers to win the Drivers' Championship, 17 points ahead of Nelson Piquet's Brabham. Williams also won its first Constructors' Championship, scoring 120 points, almost twice as many as second-placed Ligier.
1981 season
Williams won four races in 1981. Alan Jones won the first race of the season, the United States West Grand Prix, and the final race of the season, the Caesars Palace Grand Prix. Meanwhile, Carlos Reutemann won the Brazilian Grand Prix and the Belgian Grand Prix. Williams won the Constructors' title for the second year in a row, scoring 95 points, 34 points more than second-placed Brabham.
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1982 season
This season, Alan Jones retired from Formula One (though he would come back a year later for a single race with the Arrows team). The Australian was replaced by Keke Rosberg, who had left Fittipaldi where he failed to score a point the previous season. He won the Drivers' title that year despite winning only one race, the Swiss Grand Prix. Rosberg's teammate, Reutemann, finished in 15th place having quit Formula One after just two races of the new season. His seat was filled by Mario Andretti for the United States Grand Prix West; before Derek Daly took over for the rest of the year. Williams finished fourth in the Constructors' Championship that year, 16 points behind first-place Ferrari.
1983 season
Frank Williams looked towards Honda, who was developing a turbocharged V6 engine with Spirit. A deal between Honda and Williams was settled early in 1983, with the team set to begin using the engines in 1984. Keke Rosberg won at Monaco Grand Prix, marking Williams' last victory with Ford. The team debuted its Honda engine at the series finale in South Africa, with Rosberg running fifth.
Rosberg was unable to defend his championship, which was won by Nelson Piquet for Brabham, and finished in fifth with 29 points. Williams signed Jacques Lafitte, who had previously raced for Frank Williams' original team, away from Ligier to replace Derek Daly. Laffite finished eleventh in the points with a best finish of fourth, achieved twice at Brazil and Long Beach. Because they did not contest the entire season with one manufacturer, Williams made two entries in the constructor's standings. The Fords garnered a total of 36 points, leaving the team a distant fourth behind champion Ferrari, Renault, and Brabham; the two points Rosberg earned in the Honda at South Africa was enough to place it eleventh in the constructor's standings, just ahead of Theodore and Lotus, which each garnered one point.
1984 season
For the 1984 season, the team ran an FW09. Keke Rosberg won the Dallas Grand Prix and finished in second at the opening race in Brazil, coming in eighth in the championship as Lafitte came in fourteenth with five total points and a best finish of fourth in Dallas. Williams again struggled in the constructor's championship, finishing with 25.5 points to place them sixth, 8.5 behind fifth place Renault. This was the last year that Williams raced with backing from Saudia Airlines.
1985 season
In 1985, Head designed the FW10, the team's first chassis to employ the carbon-fibre composite technology pioneered by McLaren. Nigel Mansell, who was pushed out of his ride at Lotus after they were able to convince Ayrton Senna to leave Toleman after his rookie year, joined the team to partner with Rosberg after Lafitte chose to return to Ligier after two seasons with Williams. Dernie produced another competitive aerodynamic package. The team scored four wins with Rosberg winning the Detroit and Australian Grands Prix, and Mansell won the European Grand Prix and the South African Grand Prix. Williams finished in third in the Constructors' Championship, scoring 71 points.
During qualifying for the British Grand Prix, Rosberg completed a lap of the circuit in 1:05.591. The lap's average speed was 160.938 mph (259.005 km/h). This was the fastest recorded lap in Formula One history to that point.
1985 was the first year of Williams' long term relationship with Canon Inc. as its backer; the relationship would continue for nine seasons.
1986 season
In March 1986, Frank Williams faced the most serious challenge of his life. While returning to the airport at Nice, France, after pre-season testing, he was involved in a road accident that left him paralysed. He did not return to the pit lane for almost a year.
Williams again found itself with a new driver for one of its Hondas as former world champion Keke Rosberg left to replace the retiring Niki Lauda at McLaren alongside defending world champion Alain Prost. Nelson Piquet, who was two years removed from his world championship with Brabham, came aboard to partner with a returning Nigel Mansell.
Despite the lack of Frank Williams' trackside presence, the team had one of its best seasons to date. Piquet won four times and Mansell five, propelling Williams to an easy constructors' championship win dethroning McLaren. Piquet and Mansell were two of three drivers that year to win at least four Grands Prix, with Prost being the other.
The driver's championship came down to the Australian Grand Prix at the end of the season. Both Mansell, the points leader, and Piquet had the chance to leave the circuit as world champion. If Mansell finished in fourth or higher, he would clinch the championship no matter what. Piquet's path was slightly more complicated. Entering the weekend, he was tied with Prost for second in the points, eight behind Mansell; if Mansell finished fifth or worse, Piquet would take the championship with a victory. Prost, meanwhile, would need to win and have Mansell finish sixth or worse as the first tiebreaker, wins, would go to Mansell as he had recorded two more victories to that point than Prost.
Running in third with nineteen laps left to be run, Mansell suffered a tyre failure on the main straight and was forced to retire. This left Piquet with an opportunity to win the championship as he was leading, but out of concern that he might also suffer the same fate, he was called into the pits. Prost took what would prove to be an insurmountable lead, winning the race and finishing with two more points than Mansell. Piquet finished in second place and third in the final standings, one point behind his teammate.
1987 season
The 1987 season brought the Williams-Honda partnership its first and only Drivers' Championship title in the hands of Nelson Piquet. Piquet won three races and scored 73 points in the Drivers' Championship. His teammate Mansell came in second place with six victories, but missed the final two races due to an injury suffered in Japan in the penultimate race. Williams won the Constructors' Championship for the second year in a row, scoring 137 points, 61 points ahead of their nearest rivals, McLaren. Despite this success, Honda ended their partnership with Williams at the end of the year.
1988 season
Unable to make a deal with another major engine manufacturer, Williams used naturally aspirated Judd engines for the 1988 season. This left them with a significant performance deficit compared with their turbo-powered rivals. Piquet left Williams to join Lotus to replace Ayrton Senna. Senna, meanwhile, was headed to McLaren to replace Stefan Johansson alongside Alain Prost. In addition, McLaren replaced its TAG-branded Porsche engines that had taken them to multiple world championships with the same Honda works engines Williams had been receiving. Furthermore, Piquet convinced Frank Dernie to join him at Lotus, which was also running Honda engines.
Williams brought in Riccardo Patrese from Brabham to replace Piquet. The team did not win a race that season and finished seventh in the Constructors' Championship, scoring 20 points. The highlights of the season for the team were two second-place finishes by Mansell. When Mansell was forced to miss two races due to illness, he was replaced by Martin Brundle for Belgium and Jean-Louis Schlesser for Italy. Schlesser's collision with Senna in that race would deny McLaren a clean sweep of race wins that season.
Renault engines (1989–1997)
The team secured Renault as their engine supplier in 1989. Renault engines subsequently powered Williams's drivers to another four Drivers' and five Constructors' Championships up until Renault's departure from Formula One at the end of 1997. The team brought in Adrian Newey to replace Frank Dernie. The combination of Renault's powerful engine and Adrian Newey's designing expertise led to the team dominating the sport in the mid-1990s alongside McLaren. Mansell had a record-breaking 1992 season, winning the title in record time and leading numerous races from pole to finish.
1989 season
The Renault era started in 1989, with the team signing Thierry Boutsen away from Benetton to pair with a returning Patrese as Mansell left to join Ferrari. The engine's first Grand Prix in Brazil was one that the team would prefer to forget: Boutsen retired with an engine failure and Patrese with an alternator failure. Williams managed to get back on track with Boutsen finishing in fourth at the next race in Italy; winning the team three points. Two races later at the Mexican Grand Prix, the team managed to achieve their first podium with the Renault engine, as Patrese finished second, 15 seconds behind Ayrton Senna in first. The next race saw Patrese finish second again, having started from 14th on the grid, with Boutsen finishing in 6th. At the sixth round in Canada, Williams not only scored their first win with the Renault engine but also their first one-two: with Boutsen finishing in first followed by Patrese in second. This won the team 15 points. Williams came second in the Constructors' Championship, scoring 77 points, 64 points behind McLaren. Patrese finished 3rd in the Drivers' Championship with 40 points, 41 points behind first-placed Alain Prost. Boutsen finished 5th in the championship with 37 points after also winning in Australia. Boutsen's win gave Williams the distinction of having won both the first and last Grand Prix of the 1980s.
1990 season
In the 1990 season, Williams kept Patrese and Boutsen as the team's drivers. The team scored 20 fewer points than the previous year and finished fourth in the Constructors' Championship two positions lower than in 1989. In the Drivers' Championship, Boutsen finished sixth with 34 points and Patrese in seventh with 23 points. After the season, Boutsen left to drive for Ligier.
1991 season
For 1991, Williams looked to a familiar face to fill the seat left by Boutsen. In fact, they were able to fill it with the man that Boutsen had been brought in to replace. After being personally selected by Enzo Ferrari to drive for the Italian team, and becoming the last driver to receive such an honor, Nigel Mansell's term at Ferrari had not gone particularly as well as he had hoped. After recording two wins in his first campaign, Mansell was paired alongside Alain Prost for 1990 after he had left his world championship winning ride at McLaren. Prost was immediately given the position of lead driver, which infuriated Mansell, and he had decided to retire from the sport altogether at the end of the season. Frank Williams appealed to Mansell to reconsider, and Mansell agreed to return to pilot one of the two Williams-Renaults. Patrese was retained to drive the other, and Damon Hill joined the team as its test driver.
Williams failed to finish the first Grand Prix of the season, the US Grand Prix, with both drivers retiring due to gearbox problems. Patrese got back on track for the team in the next Grand Prix at Interlagos, coming second behind McLaren's Ayrton Senna. The 1991 San Marino Grand Prix saw both cars retiring yet again: with Mansell crashing and Patrese suffering from an electrical failure. The Monaco Grand Prix saw Mansell finish in the points, coming in second. At the next race, the Canadian Grand Prix, Williams locked out the front row only for Patrese to drop back with gearbox problems and Mansell to retire from the lead on the final lap due to an electrical fault. At the following race in Mexico, Williams achieved a 1–2 finish, with Patrese finishing in first and Mansell finishing in second. Williams then ran a streak of victories, with Mansell winning the French Grand Prix, five seconds ahead of Prost's Ferrari. Mansell then won again at the British Grand Prix; it had been four years since a Briton had won the Grand Prix, Mansell having won it in 1987. Three consecutive victories became four when Mansell won again in Germany, with Patrese about 10 seconds behind him in second place. Senna ended Williams's run of victories by winning in Hungary, finishing five seconds ahead of Mansell. Mansell later won the Italian Grand Prix and the Spanish Grand Prix, while Patrese won the Portuguese Grand Prix after Mansell's race was ruined by a botched pitstop in which only three wheel nuts were fitted. Williams finished second in the Constructors' Championship, scoring 125 points in total, 14 points behind McLaren. Mansell finished second in the Drivers' Championship with 72 points, 24 points behind Senna.
1992 season
Williams took a step up for the 1992 season, keeping their 1991 driver line-up of Patrese and Mansell. Mansell dominated the first round in South Africa, qualifying in pole position and winning the race by 24 seconds from his teammate, Patrese. Nigel Mansell won the next four rounds for Williams, at Mexico City, Interlagos, Catalunya and Imola, Patrese coming second in all but one (the Spanish Grand Prix at Catalunya, where he retired after spinning off). Mansell's five victories in the opening five races was a new record in Formula One. Senna won the next race in Monaco, ahead of both Williams cars, which finished second and third. In the next race, in Canada, both Williams cars retired: Mansell spun off on entering the final corner (he claimed that Senna pushed him off) and Patrese had a gearbox failure. Mansell went on to record four more Grand Prix wins, including at the British Grand Prix. (In the final round, in Adelaide, the two Williams cars again retired, Mansell after Senna violently crashed into the back of him, and Patrese with electrical problems.) Williams won the Constructors' Championship with 164 points, 65 points more than second-place McLaren. Mansell became World Champion, scoring 108 points, with Patrese finishing second with 56 points. Placing first in nine races, Mansell had set a new record for the most wins by a single driver in one year. Despite this, there looked to be significant upheaval at Williams for 1993; what followed led to a domino effect that had not only effects on the World Championship, but also the CART-sanctioned PPG IndyCar Series.
1992 off-season
Perhaps the hottest free agent on the drivers' market for 1993 was the former world champion Alain Prost. After being sacked by Ferrari during the 1991 campaign, Prost took a sabbatical and did not race in 1992 at all. Now that he was looking to return to F1, Williams was looking to bring him in to drive one of its two Renault-powered cars. Although he had been driving for the team since 1987, Riccardo Patrese figured that he would have likely been the one driver sacked to make room for Prost at Williams, seeing as Mansell had just won the world championship. He decided to make a preemptive move and join Benetton, where he would replace Martin Brundle alongside Michael Schumacher in the team's Camel-backed Fords.
Mansell, meanwhile, was not pleased with the idea of having Prost at Williams after all that had happened between the two drivers at Ferrari when they were teammates. Rather than go through that again, Mansell left F1 for the CART IndyCar Series and joined Newman/Haas Racing, taking over the Kmart/Texaco-Havoline Lola-Ford that had been driven by Michael Andretti; Andretti, whose father Mario became Mansell's teammate, was leaving Indy racing to join up with McLaren, taking Gerhard Berger's place alongside Ayrton Senna.
Group B rallying (1985–1986)
The MG Metro 6R4 rally car was developed by Williams in 1984 on commission from Rover. The rally car was a MG Metro with a completely new V6 engine (mid-engined) and four-wheel drive, developed to the international Group B rallying regulations. Williams developed the car in just six months.
British Touring Car Championship (1995–1999)
Williams entered the British Touring Car Championship in 1995, taking over the works Renault programme. Alain Menu transferred from Renault Dealer Racing, with Will Hoy signed to partner him. Williams employed Ian Harrison, future director of Triple Eight Racing as team manager. While Menu was a championship contender, Hoy had constant failures and bad luck during the first half of the season. However, Hoy's luck changed and he won three races and scored several podium finishes in the second half of the year, eventually taking fourth in the championship while Menu finished second in the championship with seven wins. Renault won the manufacturers championship. 1996 was a more difficult year with the front-wheel-drive cars outclassed by the 4WD Audi A4s of Frank Biela and John Bintcliffe. Menu was second in the championship again, while Hoy finished a lowly ninth. 1997 was a breakthrough year for Williams, winning the drivers' championship with Menu, the manufacturers' trophy and teams' award. Other changes for the team saw Jason Plato replacing Hoy, taking third in the championship. The team won 15 races out of 24 in 1997. It also competed in the 1997 Bathurst 1000 with Menu and Plato leading for much of the early part of the race. Alan Jones drove the second car, his first appearance for Williams since 1981.
1998 saw few changes to the Williams team: the driver line-up was unchanged with Menu to defend his title alongside Plato, but the main sponsor for 1998 was Nescafé, with Renault still putting sponsorship in for the team. While the Renaults had a new look for 1998, the opposition had caught up after 1997, and both Menu and Plato had a more difficult season, finishing fourth and fifth in the championship. In the final round of 1998 at Silverstone, a third car was entered for Independents Champion Tommy Rustad. Renault ultimately finished third in the manufacturers trophy and second in the teams championship. 1999 was the most difficult season for Williams, as Menu left Renault after racing with the manufacturer since 1993. Plato was joined by Jean-Christophe Boullion. Nescafé were again the main sponsor for the Williams team in 1999. Renault did not have much luck in 1999 with engine failures haunting the team during the mid-part of the season. One win for Plato was the only success for the season, and Renault pulled out of the BTCC at the end of the season.
Le Mans 24 Hours and Sportscars (1998–2000)
Prior to their F1 partnership, Williams Motorsport built Le Mans Prototypes for BMW, known as the V12 LM and V12 LMR. The V12 LMR won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1999. The car was driven by Pierluigi Martini, Yannick Dalmas and Joachim Winkelhock, and operated by Schnitzer Motorsport under the name of BMW Motorsport.
From Wikipedia’s article on Williams Racing, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3