Williams Grand Prix Team - Unofficial Page

History & Background to the Williams GP Team.......

Early Days

• The Williams is now ranked as one of the elite 'first division' teams in F1, but this has only been achieved by hard, dedicated work from relatively humble beginings

• Frank Williams only enjoyed limited personal success as a racing driver but in 1969 he entered F1 racing with little money and a burning desire for success

• Williams bought a Brabham BT26A and privately entered it under the name of Frank Williams (Racing Cars) Limited. The driver was his friend Piers Courage (a member of the wealthy brewing family) and he achieved second placings at the Monaco and US GPs. Unfortunately Courage was killed at the 1970 Dutch Grand Prix.

• Williams carried on with privately entered March racing cars but with little success during the early 1970s and in 1976 Williams entered a partnership with the Canadian businessman Walter Wolf but this was short lived.

• In 1977, the foundations of the present successful team were established by Williams setting up a new company Williams Grand Prix Engineering. Initally the new team raced a March 761, but Williams had started to build up his own design and engineering team and recruited the young and talented Patrick Head.

• With sponsorship from Saudi Airlines, Head designed his first GP car in 1978 - the FW06 powered by Cosworth engine. Williams achieved his first win with Clay Regazzoni at the 1979 British GP, but it was the Australian Alan Jones who was to take the 1980 Drivers World championship. Williams was now an established team.

Alan Jones - 1980 World Champion

1980s ......the glory years and personal disaster

• In the 1980s Williams became one of the elite teams. Keke Rosberg driving for Williams took the Drivers World Championship in 1982. Williams won the Constructors Championship in 1986 and 1987, with Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell winning 18 races between them, and Piquet taking the 1987 Drivers World Champioship.

Keke Rosberg - 1982 World Champion and later a successful driver in the German Touring Car Series

• In March 1986, Frank Williams was returning from the Paul Ricard circuit, France (after a testing session), when his car left the road and overturned badly injuring Frank Williams, who broke his back, leaving him paralysed from the shoulders down and confining him to a wheel chair. It is a testament to Frank Williams personal strength that despite these problems he has continued to be very much the head of his team and to be present at nearly all GPs to direct his team.

• The success in the 1980s was a combination of the design skills of Patrick Head, the sponsorship deals and business acumen of Williams himself and excellent engine suppliers - particularly Honda which made Williams cars invincible in 1986 and 1987, but after disagreements Honda withdrew as engine supplier at the end of 1987, and for the 1988 season Williams used John Judd's engines. In 1989, Williams joined Renault in a powerful partnership which was once more to give Williams dominance on the race track.

1990s ........highs and lows

• Williams partnership with Renault provided the means for Nigel Mansell to take his World Championship in 1992, followed by Alain Prost's Championship in 1993 but the following season, Ayrton Senna (one of the outstanding drivers of his generation) who had taken over as Williams number 1 driver was killed at Imola. The shock of Senna's death had great impact on the Williams team and GP racing generally. The threat of legal action arising from the accident continued to hang over Williams for nearly 3.5 years until the cases against Frank Williams, Patrick Head and Adrian Newey were finally dismissed by the judge. Damon Hill having taken over as lead driver, took the 1996 Drivers World Championship, with his partner Jacques Villeneuve finishing second in the Championship. Villeneuve took over as no1 driver and took the 1997 Drivers Championship.

Damon Hill - 1996 World Champion

Jacques Villeneuve - 1997 World Championship

• Renault withdrew as an engine supplier from the end of the 1997 season and to 'bridge the gap' until a new long term engine supplier could be found, Williams secured a 2 year agreement for the Renault V10 to be suppled on a commercial basis. Williams then secured a 5 year agreement with BMW which includes the supply of F1 engines. Frank Williams is well aware there is no sentiment in F1 and 'a team is only good as its last season's results or even its last race'...... many illustrious F1 names have started a downward spiral and disappeared - for example Brabham and Lotus.

• The 1998 and 1999 seasons by Williams high standards were poor. In 1998 the Team finished third in the Constructors Championship. For 1999 the driver 'line up' was the double CART champion driver Alex Zanardi and Ralf Schumacher. Schumacher managed to gain a number of top six positions in the race results and for many obervers was the 'most improved driver' for 1999 but Zanardi, for what ever reason, had a very disappointing season. Williams finished a 4th in the Contstructors Championsip behind Jordan and Frank Williams terminated Zanardi's contract.

Rebuilding the Team

• In year 2000 the Williams Team changed to the blue and white colours of BMW and used the new BMW engine. The new driver line was Ralf Schmacher and Jenson Button. Year 2000 was expected to be a development season particularly since BMW had been out for F1 racing since the mid 1980s but the team soon demonstrated potential. Jenson Button although a 'novice' soon exhibited his natural driving talents.

• For 2001 Sir Frank will be looking to build on last years successes, with a new lighter and more powerful engine from BMW and controversial changes to his driver line up. Jenson Button (still under personal contract to Sir Frank) goes off to drive for Benneton and in comes another of Sir Frank's proteges - Juan Montoya from a successful career in CART racing in the USA. Montoya soon settled and demonstrated similar lap times to Ralf Schumacher and there is already evidence of strong competition between the two drivers. 2001 should be an interesting season.

Grand Prix Racing is big business

Sir Frank Williams - Team Principal

• Frank Williams has built up his business interests in Williams Grand Prix Engineering and the Financial Times reported that after talks with the City Of London Institutions about a possible floation on the London Stock Exchange, the Williams F1 Team was valued at about £125M (about US$185M). In 1998 the business made just under £10M (about US $15M)profit on £67.7M (About US$105M) sales. The Sunday Times 2000 Rich List (a survey of Britain's Richest 1,000) calculates Frank Williams personal assets which includes 70% ownership of Williams GP Engineering to be worth about £97M (US$150M) ranking him joint 327th in the top 1,000.

• The Sunday Times survey, also estimates Patrick Head (Frank Williams partner and Technical Director of Williams Grand Prix Engineering with a 30% stake) to have personal assets of about £42M making him equal 735th

• Williams Grand Prix Engineering a few years ago moved from their original premises in Didcot to a new purpose built head quarters at Grove, Oxfordshire UK, which includes first class conference facilities, a museum of Williams GP cars, as well as 'high tech' engineering facilities.

• In the 1999 Queen's New Years Honours, Frank Williams received a knighthood in recognition of his services to motor sport.

  

  Three outstanding drivers who raced for Williams - Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet and won the World Championship in a Williams car. Relations between the three were not always so cordial as this!!

  Williams Drivers who have won the Drivers World Championship....

  1980 Alan Jones (Australia) - Williams Ford Cosworth

  1982 Keke Rosberg (Finland) - Williams Ford Cosworth

  1987 Nelson Piquet (Brazil) - Williams Honda

  1992 Nigel Mansell (GB) - Williams Renault

  1993 Alain Prost (France) - Williams Renault

  1996 Damon Hill (GB) - Williams Renault

  1997 Jacques Villeneuve (Canada) - Williams Renault

  It is interesting to note that both Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost both left Williams after gaining their Championship, and Damon Hill was told by Williams that his contract would not be renewed for 1997, even though he had a clear lead in the 1996 World Championship points and was to take the Championship. Jacques Villeneuve in his second year in F1 took over as lead driver from Hill and gained the 1997 Drivers Championship, but left in 1999 to join the BAR team. Alex Zanardi who joined the Williams team as double holder of thee CART Drivers' Championship had his contract terminated after one disappointing season. Frank Williams is at times prepared to make controversial decisions concerning his drivers' contracts and seems to be determined to retain control of his team and not give in to 'Driver power' demands for more money and status.

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