The good, bad and ugly of Williams in F1

In its long history, Williams has produced cars that figured at both ends of the Formula 1 grid. As its fortunes have waxed and waned, the cars carrying the FW prefix of team founder Frank Williams have ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous.

From world championship winners to bold innovators and total duds, the Grove-based team currently seventh in the world championship thanks to the 11 points Alex Albon has scored in the FW45 sits third on the all-time list of F1 race starts - behind only Ferrari and McLaren.

GP Racing digs into its back catalogue of machines to pick out its best, worst and weirdest creations, all of which in their own way contributed to the team’s storied history as an F1 survivor.

The Good

FW07

The FW07 gave Williams its maiden F1 win, but its first world titles would have to wait for the FW07B

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The car that made the Williams name. It could hardly have been otherwise when an underbody tweak suddenly had the FW07 lapping Silverstone more than 1.5 seconds faster than anyone else – and on its way to the team’s maiden win with Clay Regazzoni in the 1979 British Grand Prix.

Ground effect might have been pioneered by Lotus in 1977 but Patrick Head advanced the principle even further. The Williams technical director produced the neat and light FW07 for 1979 but teething problems affected the first few races. The car’s potential was suddenly released when, along with aerodynamicist Frank Dernie, Head tidied up the airflow around the base of the Ford-Cosworth V8. It was something they had been meaning to do for a while – but never quite got round to it.

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The performance improvement would be massively disproportionate to the simplicity of sealing a low-pressure area with metal panels. Four more wins would follow – too late to secure the 1979 championship – but the modified FW07B was on its way to giving Alan Jones the title the following year with five victories for the Australian, and a win for Carlos Reutemann in Belgium contributing to the first constructors’ championship for Williams.

FW11

In 1986 Williams was the class of the field but its squabbling drivers saw both miss out on the world title

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The Williams-Honda FW11 might have been a superb car but 1986 was fraught with drama, worry and, ultimately, a failure to win the drivers’ championship despite nine wins between Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet in 16 races. By allowing the drivers to fight among themselves, Williams saw the drivers’ title slip through its fingers even though the constructors’ championship had been won by a comfortable margin.

A season of huge promise had got off to a shocking start in March when Frank Williams almost lost his life in a road accident. The racing ended eight months later with Honda disgruntled because its 1.5-litre turbo had been the class of the field, the V6 developing more than 1,300bhp. The combination of impressive power and an associated healthy use of downforce caught the team out during the final race in Adelaide when a massive rear tyre failure lost Mansell the championship and led to a precautionary (and costly) pitstop for Piquet.

In 1987, the modified FW11B (running to a regulatory lower boost level) scored on excellent fuel consumption thanks to running less drag. Amid continuing animosity between the drivers, Mansell took a brilliant win at Silverstone but greater consistency meant Piquet went on to the title despite winning fewer races (three to Mansell’s six).

FW14B

In Mansell's hands the FW14B was almost unbeatable in 1992

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The game-changing car that drove the development war of the early 1990s. In its on-going quest for technical advantage Williams had tried active suspension on the FW11B and FW12 in 1987 and ‘88. It wasn’t considered race-ready until 1992, when it became an integral part of the FW14B.

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The team had already mastered its electronically controlled and hydraulically activated gearbox on the FW14, which, significantly, was a joint operation between Patrick Head and his new chief aerodynamicist and designer, Adrian Newey. With everything working as it should, active suspension controlled the ride height, allowing optimisation of the aerodynamics and the production of more downforce.

This was before power steering – and Mansell proved better than Riccardo Patrese at not only dealing with the high steering loads but also the unnerving ability of the FW14B to move around on corner entry before settling down and delivering massive grip. Mansell’s incredible self-belief and upper body strength allowed him to keep his right foot buried and produce exceptional lap times with the Renault V10 on full noise. He won the first five races of 1992 and wrapped up the championship by Hungary in August, going on to score nine wins in total.

FW18

Hill delivered a fitting double world title for the FW18

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In statistical terms the Renault-powered FW18 was exceptional, winning 12 of the 16 races in 1996. From a driver’s point of view it was a dream machine, particularly for Damon Hill who, finally, had a cockpit to fit his lanky body and large feet. Adrian Newey also gave Hill a car that was perfectly balanced and imbued confidence. It incorporated lessons from the FW17; a good car but made better by Newey maximising a loophole in the regulations thanks to a step-up gear in the transverse gearbox helping give a huge increase in downforce.

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Hill showed strength of character by bouncing back from a dismal 1995 when he turned a losing psychology (exacerbated by the team’s poor operational decisions) into a winning one. Hill’s biggest rival would be his new team-mate and F1 debutant, Jacques Villeneuve. The 1995 Indy winner claimed pole for his first race and almost won it but for a leaking oil pipe. Villeneuve would close Hill’s championship lead to nine points going into the final round in Japan, but nothing was going to stop the Englishman in what he described as “the most delightful car to drive”.

FW25

The FW25 perhaps should have been a world title winner with Montoya

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

Juan Pablo Montoya described the Williams-BMW FW25 as “the best-driving car I ever had”. Quick it might have been, but the FW25 represented an opportunity lost in 2003.

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Williams was into its fourth season with BMW, a relationship that never truly gelled. By 2003, Patrick Head felt Williams had got its act together and was able to make the most of the BMW V10, based on a design laid down by the nascent genius of Andy Cowell (later to spearhead the all-conquering Mercedes power units) and developing close to 900bhp at 19,000rpm.

Williams was eight points ahead of Ferrari in the constructors’ race, with Montoya one point behind Michael Schumacher, going into the final three races. Williams was then distracted by what Head described as “Ferrari throwing in a curved ball” by challenging the width of the front Michelins (used by Williams and others; Ferrari was on Bridgestones). The subsequent testing and checking added to a sense of frustration caused by Montoya leading and then retiring with hydraulics failure at the final race in Japan.

The Bad

FW12

Losing its Honda engine deal was a powerful blow to the FW12

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After dominating the previous two seasons 1988 turned out to be a disaster, thanks to Honda pulling the plug and leaving Williams in the non-turbo lurch. The FW12 wasn’t a truly terrible chassis; it was the on-board equipment that compromised performance.

A win for Nelson Piquet with active ride on the FW11B at Monza in 1987 prompted the trick suspension system to be fitted to the FW12 in the hope of compensating for the loss of power. It would be a major handicap. The on-board computer not only added weight but also drew power from a Judd V8 that was already short of breath compared with the turbos.

Losing 15mph on the straights was one thing; having inconsistent hydraulics make cornering scary and unpredictable, quite another. Seven consecutive DNFs for Nigel Mansell (and a sole point for Riccardo Patrese at Monaco) prompted desperate measures on the eve of the British GP. In what Patrick Head described as a necessary “bodge job”, the FW12 was converted to passive suspension overnight, Mansell repaying the beleaguered team with a typically gritty second place in the wet on race day. That was as good as it would ever get for the Williams FW12.

FW35

The 2013 Williams was a car that Maldonado called undrivable

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

The FW35 runs neck-and-neck with the FW33 for the dubious honour of scraping a couple of points each season to finish at, or embarrassingly close, to the bottom of the championship.

The FW35, designed by Mike Coughlan, Ed Wood and Jason Somerville, perhaps edged it straight away when Pastor Maldonado (qualified 17th for the first race of 2013 in Australia; spun off after 24 laps) described the Renault-powered car as “undrivable”.

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The Venezuelan’s disappointment came after winning the previous year’s Spanish Grand Prix with the FW34, a car he loved. The FW35 was closely based on the previous design, and all might have been well but for the incorporation of another version of the Coanda exhaust system that hadn’t worked on FW34 – and was promptly declared illegal in Melbourne.

Williams would never recover from such a bad start to the season and became further destabilised in July when Coughlan was replaced by Pat Symonds. The experienced engineer gradually brought some order to a team struggling regularly to get out of Q1. There was an exception in Canada when Valtteri Bottas made the most of slippery conditions to qualify a superb third – only to sink like a stone to 14th, one lap behind.

FW42

Russell's altercation with a drain cover in Baku summed up a disastrous 2019 for Williams

Photo by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images

A disastrous 2019 was summed up in Baku when, though no fault of his own, the bottom of George Russell’s FW42 was smashed by a manhole cover sucked from its frame. The unexpected call for a replacement floor was the last thing an already over-stretched production department needed just four races into the season.

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Williams had been on the back foot from the moment chief technical officer Paddy Lowe left under acrimonious circumstances, when the Mercedes-powered car wasn’t completed in time for winter testing. Doug McKiernan, the chief engineer and former head of aero, initiated a programme of aero change that allowed Russell and Robert Kubica to favourably report on FW42’s balance – if not a serious absence of downforce.

The parts shortage continued until at least mid-season, forcing the drivers to avoid kerb-hopping during practice and qualifying for fear of damaging parts that couldn’t be replaced for the race. Such a handicap called upon the Williams tradition of mechanics performing miracles by fixing and rebuilding in record time. But it was never enough to help add to the forlorn point scored at Hockenheim when Kubica, never far from the back, happened to find himself in 10th place.

The Ugly

FW09

It was unreliable and not a looker but the FW09 paved the way for greater things at Williams

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Meant to be practical rather than pretty. The FW09 was used for the necessary switch from normally aspirated Ford-Cosworth engines – which had been Frank’s perennial favourite – to turbo power. Having done a deal with Honda in February 1983, Williams put together FW09 in time to make its debut in the final race of the season in South Africa. When Keke Rosberg finished a surprising fifth at Kyalami, it proved to be a false dawn.

Running at altitude on a reasonably quick track would be nothing like what was to come in 1984 as Rosberg and Jacques Laffite retired repeatedly as turbo hoses were blown off, piston pieces sprayed from the exhausts and the car regularly caught alight. In the midst of this mechanical mayhem, however, Rosberg scored a remarkable win by more or less being the last man standing on a crumbling racetrack in the searing July heat of Dallas, the doughty Finn staying away from the walls thanks to literally keeping a cool head with the aid of a refrigerated skull cap. The bull-nosed machine had more than served its purpose as a test bed for great success to come.

FW26

The 'Walrus Tusk' FW26 marked the end of an era for Williams

Photo by: James Moy

FW26
Forever remembered as the ‘Walrus Tusk’, the FW26 was troublesome from the start in areas other than the unusual feature at the front. At a time when the regulations seemed to be discouraging innovation, chief aerodynamicist Antonia Terzi and head of design, Gavin Fisher, came up with a short, broad nose sporting two pillars descending to hold the front wing; an arrangement Patrick Head would much later refer to as “the rather stupid tusk car we produced in 2004”.

To be fair, Head was the first to recognise that the time had come to hand over the reins: Sam Michael became technical director after seven races. The Australian had a lot on his plate as he addressed several wrong decisions taken throughout the design process, ranging from aero to gearbox. Added to which, the BMW V10 was no longer the powerhouse it had been, and Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher both knew they would be leaving at the end of the season.

Williams might not have been a fully coordinated team working with a frontline product – but it wasn’t for want of trying. By August the walrus tusks had gone and Montoya signed off two months later with a brilliant win in Brazil.

With the 'Walrus Tusk' gone and solid development, the car became an F1 race winner on its final outing

Photo by: James Moy