|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
History Frank Williams began his Formula 1 career in 1969 at the age of 27 with his close friend Piers Courage and a private Brabham. They finished 8th overall in the Driver's Championship. Courage died the next year at the Dutch GP driving a car Williams was running for the de Tomaso factory. After a disappointing partnership with Austro-Canadian oil man Walter Wolf in 1976, his new team, Williams Grand Prix Engineering, acquired a March for Patrick Neve to drive and Williams recruited a promising engineer named Patrick Head. Head's first GP design in 1978, the FW06, with Alan Jones at the wheel, was extremely competitive. Williams first GP victory came at the British GP in 1979 when Jones retired from the lead but Clay Regazzoni took the victory for Williams. Williams quickly became the team to beat taking the Constructor's championship with ease in 1980, 1981, 1986 and 1987. Williams missed out on the constructor's championship in 1982 but Keke Rosberg did take the Driver's championship. Williams responded slowly to the turbo era and struggled through 83 and 84. In 85 with Mansell joining Rosberg the team improved through the year with the Williams-Honda FW10 taking the last three races of the season. By 86 they were back on top with the FW11 and, with Piquet replacing Rosberg, the team won 9 GPs (Mansell 5, Piquet 4) giving Williams the constructor's championship with ease although they lost the drivers championship to Prost due to the in-team fighting. The modified FW11 continued its dominance in 87 and Williams took 1st and 2nd in the driver's championship and the constructor's championship. 1988 marked the end of the turbo era, Williams switched from Honda to Judd for the FW12 and Mansell became the #1 driver partnered by Ricardo Patrese. Williams suffered from mechanical problems and in July 88 a three year deal was signed with Renault for their new V10 engine. Thierry Boutsen replaced Mansell for the 89 season and won two GPs (Canada and Australia) in atrocious weather conditions. Patrese finished 3rd in the driver's championship helping the team to runner-up spot in the constructor's. Having retired from Ferrari and been talked out of it by Williams, Mansell returned to the team at the end of 1990. The Canon Williams FW14 was McLaren's only competition and with 7 victories they finished 2nd in the constructors and 2nd and 3rd in the driver's. The advent of the active FW14B put Williams in a class by themselves in 1992. Mansell won the first five races of the season on his way to a still unbeaten total of 9 wins and 14 poles. His win at the British GP was his 28th beating Jackie Stewart's record for a British driver. Mansell and Williams won their respective championships and Patrese finished 2nd in the driver's. In 93 Prost and Hill replaced Mansell and Patrese and retained both constructor's and driver's (Prost) championships. Hill also chalked up his first GP win in Hungary. Prost retired after the season and was replaced by Senna in '94. At the third GP of the year at Imola in Italy, Senna was killed when he crashed his FW16 while leading the race. It remains to be seen whether the Italian authorities are going to charge Williams personnel in connection with Senna's death. The team went on to retain the constructor's championship again but Hill missed out on the driver's championship by one point to Michael Schumacher. In 95, Williams lost both championships to Benetton. Williams was dominant again in 96 with Hill and Villeneuve finishing 1st and 2nd in the driver's championship and thereby securing the constructor's championship with ease. |
||||||||||
