Williams
Nationality - British
Debut in F1 - 1975
Drivers' Titles - 7
Constructors' Titles - 9
Current Drivers - Juan
Pablo Montoya, Ralf
Schumacher
Team History
Williams was founded in 1968 and made an F1 debut in 1975, but to
little effect. It was in 1979 that Williams began to make an impact
on the F1 scene recording the first team win at Silverstone and
5 victories in total. Williams were also runners-up in the Constructor's
Title in that season.
This marked the beginning of a string of successes to follow. 1980
saw Williams win both the Constructor's Title and the team's first
Driver's Title with Alan Jones. Williams took the Constructor's
Title again in 1981. The run didn't end here with Keke Rosberg taking
the Driver's Title in 1982 with the William's team.
In 1985 Williams signed an association with Honda. There was immediate
success with the Williams-Honda model taking 3 GP wins. 1986 saw
greater success with the teams winning the Constructor's Title and
recording 9 Grand Prix wins. Williams again took the Constructor's
title in 1997 and the Williams drivers Piquet and Mansell came in
as winner and runner up of the Driver's Championship respectively.
1988-1989 was poor by Williams standard. The association with Honda
ended, but in 1989 Williams signed a new deal with Renault. The
new partnership did yield some immediate success with Patrese and
Bousten claiming a GP win each in 1990. Notably in 1990 Nigel Mansell
returned mid season.
1991 saw Williams recharged, Mansell took 5 race wins and Patrese
2 wins. At the end of the season the Williams team finished runner
up of both the Constructor's and Driver's Titles. 1992 proved to
be even better, Nigel Mansell had an incredible series winning 9
races and taking 14 poles and of course taking the Driver's Title.
The William's team also took the Constructors title again. 1993
saw Williams continuing to dominate, taking the Constructor's Title
and new driver Prost also claiming the Driver's Championship Title.
1994 saw Ayrton Senna join Williams, but was involved in the highly
published crash that led to his death. Williams continued courageously
through the season with Hill, Coulthard and temporarily Mansell.
Damon Hill missed out on the Driver’s Title by just 1 point,
but Williams did claim the Constructor's Title.
1995 was poor by Williams’s standards. However the team recovered
successfully in 1996 with team winning 12 out 16 races overall,
and Damon Hill much deservedly taking the Driver's Title. The 1997
season saw Williams take the Constructor's Title and achieve the
teams 100th Grand Prix win.
In 1998 the association with Renault came to an end and Williams
experienced two of the worst seasons in the teams history in 1998
and 1999.
The start of the new millennium saw mixed results. In 2000 Williams
formed a new deal with BMW, but the standard of the new cars was
not in league with McLaren or Ferrari. 2001 saw some success with
Montoya
and Ralf
Schumacher taking 4 wins between them. 2002 proved disappointing
with team only achieving 1 win all season. However 2003 saw a sudden
turnaround with the team taking 4 wins and a number of podium positions
and proved to be a real challenge to the Ferrari team.
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