How F1's most sophisticated car claimed an era-ending sweep

Racing folk are impatient as a breed. The protracted development of the 1993 Formula 1 championship-winning car began in the summer of 1991, its racing debut was delayed nine months, and there were those within the Williams team who quietly feared it might be found wanting as rivals finally got their acts together. And yet delayed gratification, a concept seldom entertained in F1, would ultimately prevail in the form of 15 consecutive pole positions, 10 fastest laps and 10 race wins.

As Adrian Newey sketched the first outlines of what would become the FW15 on his drawing board, its predecessor was belatedly beginning to pay out on its potential. The FW14 had been quick in the hands of Nigel Mansell and Riccardo Patrese since the beginning of the ’91 season – surprisingly, perhaps, the Italian veteran often enjoyed the upper hand over his team-mate – but reliability was poor. Failures of the new semi-automatic gearbox handed McLaren’s Ayrton Senna what would prove to be a title-winning advantage as he won the first four races of the season, followed by a self-inflicted wound in Montreal as Mansell missed a downshift while waving to the crowd on the final lap.