It scarcely seems credible that these words belong in the same sentence, but in 2011, Williams scored just five world championship points. As a result of this nadir, some 15 years after it last achieved a world championship title, an all-new approach has been adopted for 2012.
Founded by the determined Sir Frank Williams in 1977, Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited built the fantastic FW07 car in 1979, winning the team’s first race and going on to claim the team’s first world championship in 1980 with Australia’s Alan Jones at the wheel.
A second drivers’ championship came in 1982 for Finnish star Keke Rosberg and then a partnership with Honda helped deliver titles in 1986 and ‘87. Partnering with Renault from 1989, Patrick Head’s innovative engineering combined with the aerodynamic brilliance of Adrian Newey’s designs, turning Williams into the most successful team of the 1990s with five constructors’ titles and four drivers’ titles for Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve.
After Renault departed in 1998, Williams was powered by a new series of mighty BMW power plants: producing some of the fastest cars of the early 2000s. Nevertheless the Ferrari team and Michael Schumacher was able to produce consistency and solidarity that Williams appeared to lack, and in 2005 BMW opted to become a constructor in its own right.
Without a primary engine deal, and without a driver of the calibre of Fernando Alonso or Kimi Räikkönen, Williams went into decline. A very different Williams’s team therefore begins the 2012 season, with sweeping changes to the technical and management teams have followed a float on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, investment from South America and Qatar plus a diversification of its business away from purely Formula One.
As a result, Williams is better funded and with two capable, albeit largely inexperienced, drivers. The early signs from this year’s campaign to date are encouraging for the team’s many fans.