WilliamsF1

won the award. Most unsporting moment? news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 13 July 2006 Williams would end the season as contructors champions for the third consecutive year, scoring 118 points, while Hill finished second in the drivers championship with 91 points.

1995

Damon Hill driving the Williams FW17 at Montreal. Hill had qualified 2nd for the race but retired after completing 50 laps due to a gearbox problem

In 1995, Nigel Mansell left Williams again, this time he moved to McLaren to leave Williams with Hill and Coulthard. At the first round in Brazil, Schumacher start off with a win, with Coulthard coming second. However, both were disqualified from the race after it was found that their fuel supplier, Elf, supplied the teams with a type of fuel that was different than the ones they gave to the FIA as samples. So Gerhard Berger and Ferrari were declared winners, until Schumacher and Coulthard had their positions reinstated after appeal, though Benetton and Williams were not awarded their constructors points. Hill won the next two races in Argentina and San Marino and would later win two more races, which were at The Hungaroring and in Adelaide. Coulthard would also record his only win for the Williams team, at Estoril, before moving to McLaren. Benetton would end Williams 4 year dominance after they won the championship 29 points ahead Williams. Hill would come second for the second year running, 33 points behind Schumacher.

1996

Jacques Villeneuve driving the Williams FW18 at the 1996 Canadian Grand Prix. The Canadian qualified in 2nd for the race and finished second, finishing behind his team mate, Damon Hill

For 1996, Williams clearly had the quickest and most reliable car. GP.Com > Features > News Feature > Review of 1996 GrandPrix.com Coulthard had left Williams to join Mika Häkkinen at McLaren, Williams replaced the Scotsman with Canadian Jacques Villeneuve, while Hill remained with the team. Schumacher left Benetton to join Ferrari. Williams won the first five Grand Prix, Hill winning all but one of them. Olivier Panis would take victory at the sicth round in Monaco after seriously wet conditions forced both Williams cars to retire. Hill would retire for the second time in a row after he spun off in Spain, while his team mate, Villeneuve, took third place. Hill and Villeneuve dominated the next Grand Prix in Canada, with a 1-2 in qualifying and a 1-2 in the race. Williams made it a second 1-2 after Hill won the Frech Grand Prix. Villeneuve won his second race in F1 at Silverstone after Hill retired after lap one. The Brit would be victorious in the next Grand Prix in Germany while Villeneuve would win the race after that in Hungary. Schumacher's Ferrari would then take the next two Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps and Monza. Hill won the final race of the season in Japan to win the 1996 title.

1997

The final season of Williams-Renault saw the exit of world champion, Damon Hill, who left to join Arrows after his contract with the team expired. Frank Williams brought in German Heinz-Harald Frentzen, under the impression that he'd perform better then Hill. This move would turn out not be a good one as he only won one race in his two year spell at Williams, which was at 1997 San Marino Grand Prix. Jacques Villeneuve won seven races during the season, with his main rival, Michael Schumacher, winning five. Williams also achieved the 100 race win milstone at the Hungarian Grand Prix, many F1 fans and critics alike believe the victory was an undeserved one after the effort Damon Hill made in his Arrows. Grand Prix Results: Hungarian GP, 1997 [http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/rr608.html GrandPrix.com. Retrieved 24 July Coming to the final round of the season at Jerez, Schumacher lead the Canadian by 1 point, however on lap 48, Schumacher and Villeneuve collided. Schumacher was disqualified as the accident was deemed by the FIA as "avoidable", Review of 1997'' GrandPrix.com. Retrieved 14 July 2006 the German later admitted that he did try to take the Canadian out. Williams won the constructors title for the second time in a row, scoring 123 points, while Jacques Villeneuve won the driver's championship by three points to Michael Schumacher.

Mecachrome (1998-1999)

Related Article: Mecachrome

1998

After 1997, the team were unable to maintain their dominance in Formula 1 as Renault ended their full time involvement in Formula 1, and Adrian Newey moved to rival team McLaren. Williams then had to pay for Mecachrome engines, which were old; rebadged Renault engines. News Feature > Mecachrome GrandPrix.com. Retrieved 14 July 2006 From 1994 to 1997 the cars ran in the highly distinctive blue and white Rothmans livery, widely regarded as one of F1's most popular colour schemes. 1999 - Color In Sport ssur.org.. Retrieved 14 July 2006 There were changes on the sponsorship front however as Rothmans opted to promote their Winfield brand. Technical > FW20 GrandPrix.com. Retrieved 14 July 2006 For 1998, Williams kept the two drivers from the previous season. The team took 3 podiums during the season, with Frentzen finishing in third at the first round in Australia and Villeneuve finishing third in Germany and Hungary. Williams finished third in the constructors championship, scoring 38 points, while Villeneuve finished fifth in the driver's championship with 21 points and his German team mate, Frentzen, finished 4 points behind him in seventh.

1999

In 1999, Williams employed a completely new driver line up, Villeneuve moved to new team, BAR and Frentzen moved to Jordan. Williams brought in German Ralf Schumacher and Italian Alex Zanardi. The team managed three podiums, all scored by Ralf Schumacher, with third place in Australia and Britain, along with a second place in Italy. The team finished fifth in the constructor's championship, the lowest finish for Williams in the 1990s; the team finished behind Stewart and Jordan; scoring 35 points, 3 less then the previous season.

BMW (2000-2005)

Ralf Schumacher driving for the WilliamsF1 team at the 2003 United States Grand Prix. The German qualified in fifth position before he span off on after completing 21 laps.

Related Article: BMW

2000

Juan Pablo Montoya enjoyed a successful 2003 season, coming third in the Driver's championship

During 1998, the team signed a long term agreement with BMW, with the German manufacturer supplying engines and expertise for a period of 6 years. As part of the deal BMW expected at least one driver to be German and Ralf Schumacher was signed. In 1999, the team had a Williams car with a BMW engine testing at circuits, in preparation for a debut in 2000. Williams sought the services of Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya as a proven racer for the up coming season season but he was initially unavailable, so Britain's Jenson Button made his debut instead.

BMW Williams' first season didn't see a single victory during the season, they did however, manage to get on the podium three times, Ralf Schumacher responsible for all three. Williams finished third in the constructor's championship, with 36 points; one more then last year. Ralf Schumacher finished fifth in the driver's championship, while Button, in his debut season, finished three places behind in eigth.

2001

Juan Pablo Montoya driving the Williams with the "Walrus-Nose" design during the 2004 United States Grand Prix. Montoya had qualified in fifth for the race, but he was disqualified for Illegally using the spare car

In 2001 Button moved to Benetton-Renault due to Montoya's arrival at the team. The FW23 won four races, three by Ralf Schumacher at Imola; Montreal and his home Grand Prix in Germany. While his teammate, Montoya, was victorious at Monza. Williams' 2001 campaign finished with a third place in the constructor's championship for the second year running.

2002

The Team participated in a demonstration in London's Regent Street prior to the 2004 British Grand Prix

For 2002, Williams kept their 2001 driver line up for the upcoming season. The team only won one race, which was at Malaysia, in a year dominated by the Ferrari's of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello. Schumacher paints F1 red news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 13 July 2006 Williams did improve on their constructor's championship position, finishing in second. Montoya finished third in the driver's championship, eight points ahead of Ralf Schumacher, who finished fourth.

2003

2003 would see BMW William reach their peak of success, during pre-season, Frank Williams was very confident that the FW25 would challenge for the title. Williams launch new car news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 13 July 2006 The team won four races, Montoya winning twice at Monaco and Germany, while Ralf Schumacher won at the Nürburgring and the following race at Magny-Cours. Montoya stayed in contention for the driver's championship during the season, the Colombian finished third in the championship, 11 points behind Michael Schumacher, while the younger Schumacher finished 24 points behind Montoya in fifth. Williams finished second in the constructor's championship, two points ahead of McLaren.

2004

At the start of the 2004 season it was announced that Montoya would be moving to McLaren in 2005. The team began the season with a radical nose-cone design, known as the "Walrus-Nose", that proved un-competitive and was replaced by a more conventional assembly in the second half of the year. Ferrari for the third time running, dominated the season, winning 15 of the 18 races, Williams did however pick upa win during the season, which was at the final race in Brazil, Juan Pablo Montoya winning the race by a second to Kimi Räikkönen's McLaren. Another memorable part of the season was when both Williams and Toyota were diqualified from the Canadian Grand Prix after it was discovered that both cars had brake irregularities, the brake ducts seemingly not conforming to regulations. Williams finished the season in fourth, scoring 88 points and finishing on the podium six times. While Montoya was the highest placed Williams driver that year, finishing in fifth position; scoring 58 points.

2005

For the 2005 season, Schumacher moved to Toyota; while Montoya moved to McLaren. Taking their places were Australian Mark Webber and German Nick Heidfeld. Webber signs to BMW WilliamsF1 Castrol.com. Retrieved 13 July 2006BMW sign Heidfeld for new F1 team news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved July 13 2006 Initially Jenson Button was to have driven for Williams in 2005, Williams firm on Button news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 13 July 2006 but an FIA ruling forced Button to remain with his current team BAR. Williams: BAR can have Button but... Crash.Net. Retrieved 13 July 2006 Nick Heidfeld competed with Brazilian test driver Antônio Pizzonia for the remaining racing seat during December 2004 and January 2005, and Heidfeld was chosen, Williams give Heidfeld more time news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 13 July 2006 partly in preference to BMW's wishes for a German driver. Pizzonia served as the test driver for the team during the 2005 season. Meanwhile, Button signed a contract to drive for Williams in 2006.

During the course of the 2004 and 2005 F1 seasons, BMW Motorsport and director Mario Theissen increasingly became publicly critical of the WilliamsF1 team's inability to create a package capable of winning the constructors championship, or even multiple victories within a single season. BMW: Williams must improve news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 13 July 2006 Williams, on the other hand, blamed BMW for not producing a good enough engine. Williams criticises partner BMW news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 27 July 2006 Williams' failed attempt to prise Jenson Button out of his BAR contract may also have been an issue with Theissen, as his preference was to have at least one German driver in the team. Despite Frank Williams' rare decision to cave in to commercial demands by employing German driver Nick Heidfeld when he allegedly preferred Antônio Pizzonia, the fallout between BMW and Williams continued through the 2005 Formula One season. This public deterioration of the relationship between BMW and WilliamsF1 eventually resulted in the decision by BMW Motorsport to buy Sauber and rebrand that team to feature the BMW name. BMW buys Sauber to form own team news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 13 July 2006

Williams could have opted to continue with BMW engines in 2006, despite the fact that the engine manufacturer was about to set up its own team. In the end, though, WilliamsF1 opted for Cosworth V8 engines for 2006.

This period saw Williams depart from the standard livery scheme in motorsport, which consists of one colour scheme, either the teams' or the major sponsors', with smaller logos in their own scheme. BMW stipulated that, and paid for, the whole vehicle to be in blue and white, with other sponsors adopting this scheme. Also in 2000, Williams abandoned tobacco advertising in favour of companies, as the team's second major sponsor became Compaq. That sponsorship lasted until Compaq's acquisition by Hewlett-Packard. At the 2002 British Grand Prix, the team debuted the Hewlett-Packard sponsorship. After complaints about the HP logo on the rear wing it was replaced in 2003 with the sponsor's tag line, "Invent". One of the most memorable results of this technological partnership was a worldwide television commercial featured drivers Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya seemingly driving their BMW Williams cars around a track by radio control from a grandstand. Hewlett-Packard Corporate- HP Technology and BMW Williams F1 Team Visit4Info.com. Retrieved 19 July 2006

This "clean" image allowed Williams to sign a cigarette anti-craving brand, Niquitin, GlaxoSmithKline Gsk.com. Retrieved 19 July 2006 and Anheuser-Busch, alternating with the Budweiser beer brand Anheuser-Busch, Inc.: Budweiser sponsors BMW WilliamsF1 Team prnewswire.co.uk. Retrieved 19 July 2006 and Sea World Adventure Parks, SeaWorld Adventure Parks To Be Featured With BMW WilliamsF1 Team Anheuser-Busch.com. Retrieved 19 July 2006 in compliance with trademark disputes or alcohol bans.

Cosworth (2006)

Related Article: Cosworth

Williams FW28 and drivers (27 January 2006).

2006

In late 2005, WilliamsF1 and Cosworth announced a partnership agreement for the 2006 season where Cosworth will supply WilliamsF1 with engines, transmissions and associated electronics and software. Williams turn to Cosworth engines news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 13 July 2006 Cosworth have more experience in building V8 racing engines required by the 2006 Formula One regulations, than any other current F1 engine manufacturer and also have some history with Williams, being the engine suppler that the team started out with, and won the 1980 and 1982 championships with. On September 14, 2005 it was announced that the long running sponsorship agreement between WilliamsF1 and Hewlett Packard (HP) would be concluded one year before the official end of the contract.

Although neither Williams or HP offered any reason for the early termination some observers have speculated the loss of the title sponsor may be a result of continuing uncertainty over driver lineup for 2006. Despite having signed a contract to race for Williams, Jenson Button decided that he would prefer to stay with BAR for 2006 as it was to become a Honda works team. In September 2005 a deal was reached to allow Button to remain with BAR, with Williams receiving around £24m, some of it paid by Jenson himself, to cancel this contract.

Current Williams sponsors are Anheuser-Busch (with Budweiser or SeaWorld Adventure Parks, depending on the race, as some countries have trademark disputes over the Budweiser brand, or in Bahrain, Turkey, and France, a ban on alcohol advertising), Royal Bank of Scotland, or Allianz. Williams introduced a new interim livery for use during Winter testing - the car was predominantely midnight blue, and featured the white chevrons used as a logo on Frank Williams Racing cars in the late 1960s-early 1970s. Remaining Williams sponsors such as Petrobras and FedEx were all represented on the interim livery. Williams have also announced that Dutch giant Philips will join the team as a sponsor for 2006, although the amount for this deal has not been reported.TATA is also another sponsor of the team. The Indian car company signed a contract several hours after Narain Karthikeyan was announced as test driver.

Mark Webber is under contract to the team for 2006, and will remain. He will be partnered by Nico Rosberg (son of Keke), who said that his main goal was to win the world title with Williams one day. Rosberg lines up F1 world title news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 13 July 2006 Williams are entitled to use a third car on the Friday of a race weekend because they finished lower than 4th in the Constructor's Championship in 2005. On the 2nd of January, the team confirmed that Alexander Wurz became the team's official test and reserve driver for the 2006 season. Williams tried a number of drivers for that role during the winter testing in 2005 including Andy Priaulx and Narain Karthikeyan but opted for Wurz who brought a lot of experience having raced with Benetton for four years and filling the official test driver role for McLaren from 2001 until 2005. On the 27th of January, the team announced the signing of Narain Karthikeyan as the team's fourth driver for 2006. Karthikeyan given Williams role news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 14 July 2006

The Cosworth engines are running better than the team expected, Daily F1 News DailyF1News.com. Retrieved 14 July 2006 the team is proving more competitive than the new BMW Sauber team. Driver Nico Rosberg scored 2 points finishing 7th at the 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix, being his first Grand Prix, he also recorded the fastest lap. Just ahead of him Mark Webber scored 3 points finishing 6th. Alex Wurz, the third driver for Williams is also performing well, finishing in the first three positions in the free practice sessions. However, in recent races the BMW Sauber team has by far out-performed the Williams team, and the team has not managed a point finish in 8 races, it's longest point dry spell in it's history.

Toyota (2007 onwards)

Related Article: Toyota

On 27th July 2006, Williams and Toyota announced a deal for the Japanese car manufacturer to supply engines to Williams from 2007. Williams sign Toyota engine deal news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 27 July 2006 On 2nd August 2006, Williams announced that Alexander Wurz would join Nico Rosberg on the grid. Williams announce 2007 lineup [1]. Retrieved 02 August 2006

Other Motorsport

The Metro 6R4 was developed by Williams for the 1986 World Rally Championship

The BMW V12 was entered for the 1999 Le Mans 24 Hours. The car, driven by Pierluigi Martini; Yannick Dalmas and Joachim Winkelhock, won the race

Williams has been involved in a few motorsport activities outside Formula One.
*In 1980 Williams were commissioned by Rover to create a Rally car from the Metro hatchback. They shoe-horned a V6 engine (a completely new design, not at all based on the Rover V8 engine as is sometimes stated) to create the 4 wheel drive, mid-engined Metro 6R4, to the international Group B rallying regulations. Williams developed the car in just six months.
*Williams, under the name Williams Touring Car Engineering, also ran Renault's team for the British Touring Car Championship from 1995-1999. The Renault Laguna based cars were produced at Williams' Didcot factory (the Formula One team having recently moved to new premises at Grove). The touring car venture was very successful, Williams-Renault won the Manufacturers title in 1995 and 1997 and the BTCC drivers title with Alain Menu in 1997.
*Prior to their F1 partnership, Williams built a Le Mans racecar for BMW, the BMW V12. This won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1999. The car was driven by Pierluigi Martini; Yannick Dalmas and Joachim Winkelhock.
*As part of their partnership with Renault, several RenaultSport models of their Clio range have been branded with the "Williams" marque.

External links

*Official team website
*UnOfficial Team site - The Williams Database
*UnOfficial Team Fansite

Footnotes

References