Seasons in Formula 1: 47 Races contested: 783 Drivers championships: 7 Constructors championships: 9 Number of wins: 114 Number of pole positions: 128 Number of fastest laps: 133 Number of points: 3,590 2021 – number of wins: 0 2021 – number of poles: 0 2021 – number of fastest laps: 0 2021 – points: 23 2021 – position: 8
BIOGRAPHY
ace – or lack of it – that disappointed. Although popular with fans and fellow drivers, the Brazilian simply isn’t convincing.
Fact is, with no disrespect to either Pastor or Bruno, one wonders what Williams might have achieved had they retained Barrichello for another season.
The reality is that although the team scored 76 points, it finished 33 down on Force India which was itself embroiled in a fierce midfield battle with Sauber and Mercedes. Consequently, while 2012 was an improvement the team still had a long, long way to go.
For 2013, Maldonado was retained while Valtteri Bottas was promoted to a full race seat. However, on January 21, the team was rocked by the news that Executive Director Toto Wolff, a shareholder in the company and assistant Team Principal was leaving to join Mercedes. Though the Austrian retained his shareholding in the Grove team it was a body blow to Sir Frank and his men. Surely only a true cynic would suggest that the subsequent confirmation that Susie Wollf would remain with the team as ‘Development Driver’ had absolutely nothing to do with hubby leaving his shareholding in place.
Two weeks ahead of the launch of the 2013 car, the team announced a change to its technical department, with Xevi Pujolar, formerly Race Engineer for Maldonado, moving up to the newly created position of Chief Race Engineer.
Unveiling the FW35, Frank Williams, described it as a “step forward from last year’s car”, he was to be proved comprehensively wrong. Indeed, the FIA almost immediately declared the exhaust illegal, sending Mike Coughlan, scurrying back to the drawing board.
“The Coanda effect is going to be a big thing for us,” he’d said at the time. “There’s been no rule clarification concerning this area of the car, so we’ll work closely with Renault to maximise the available gains.”
Ahead of the season opener in Australia, the team was hit by two blows. Firstly the death of Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, whose state oil company was essentially funding Maldonado’s seat and without which the team’s finances would be far from rosy.
Then came news of the death of Lady Virginia Williams, “an integral part of Williams’ history and success” and Sir Frank’s ‘rock’.
While Maldonado and Bottas seemed happy with the car in pre-season testing – and where the rules are not so strictly applied – it was an entirely different matter in Melbourne where the Venezuelan described the car as “undriveable” and warned the team had set itself “back a couple of years”.
Days after Melbourne, it was announced that Claire Williams was to become Deputy Team Principal.
The fact that Maldonado’s average qualifying position was 16th and Bottas’ 15th – helped hugely after he placed his car 3rd on the grid in Canada – says all you need to know about the car’s single-lap pace. However, in race trim the FW35 was no better.
Though reliable, with only two retirements, one KERS and the other hydraulics, the car was a dog, the Venezuelan scoring just one point over the course of the season and his teammate leaving it until Austin before he opened his account.
So bad did things get that in Austin, one week after it was confirmed that he would not be staying with Williams in 2014, taking his PDVSA cash elsewhere, Maldonado accused the team of sabotaging his car.
Having announced in May that it was to switch to Mercedes powerplants for 2014, the relationship with Renault having spectacularly failed to reach anything like the heights of the previous golden era, the team subsequently announced the departure of Coughlan and the appointment of Pat Symonds as Chief Technical Officer.
At season end, with Maldonado heading off to Lotus, the team opted to partner Bottas with Ferrari veteran Felipe Massa, the Grove outfit, ahead of the all-important rule changes, going for a mixture of youth an experience.
The team subsequently announced a raft of major changes to its technical department. First off, Dave Wheater joined from Lotus to become Head of Aerodynamic Performance, while Shaun Whitehead, previously of Red Bull, was appointed Head of Aerodynamic Process.
In early January, a couple of weeks ahead of the opening pre-season test, the Grove outfit announced the appointment of Jakob Andreasen, previously Chief Engineer at Force India, as Head of Engineering Operations along with two further appointments in Craig Wilson, Head of Vehicle Dynamics, and Rod Nelson, Chief Test & Support Engineer. Wilson was returning to Williams from Mercedes, while Nelson had jumped ship from Lotus.
While its performance in 2013 was its worst in living memory, and talk of financial woe continued, it was clear that Sir Frank and the gang were not giving up without a fight. If nothing else the changes to its technical department indicated that at least the Grove outfit still believed in itself.
Nonetheless, on the back of such a poor season, we wrote: “There is an icy wind blowing down the pitlane, and one cannot help but feel that Williams could yet go the way of so many legends – names such as Brabham and Lotus – before it.”
How wrong we were.
Whilst many will claim 2014’s remarkable resurgence was mainly due to the (wise) decision to switch to Mercedes power units, a number of other factors were involved, not least those numerous changes to the team’s line-up, be it technical, management and drivers.
From the outset, it was clear that the FW36 was competitive – and not merely due to the Mercedes PU106A Hybrid in the back.
Having already secured a sponsorship deal with Petrobras, days after topping the timesheets in the final test (Bahrain), following weeks of speculation, the Grove outfit revealed the car in its 2014 livery, that of Martini & Rossi distillery, making it the first F1 car to compete in Martini Racing colours since 1979.
It was soon clear how much the sport had missed Pat Symonds, his creation one of the fastest on the 2014 grid.
Despite its package, in the early part of the season Lady Luck was clearly looking the other way, poor Felipe Massa being taken out of the season opener by Kobayashi at the very first corner. Then again, some of his other numerous incidents were more of his own doing.
Slowly the Grove outfit built up a head of steam however, and by Canada was being taken a lot more seriously, pundits now realising that the team’s pre-season test form was no fluke.
In Austria Massa led a 1-2 in qualifying, the Brazilian going on to finish fourth in the race. Meanwhile, Bottas was proving to be (along with Ricciardo) the revelation of 2014, regularly scoring points and only suffering one retirement in the first half of the season.
At Monza the team scored its first double podium finish since Monaco 2005 and by now – even though trailing Red Bull in third place in the championship – was seen as second best to the works Mercedes duo.
Whilst Bottas continued to impress, things started to fall into place for Massa also, the Brazilian scoring podium finishes in Italy, Brazil and Abu Dhabi.
Massa was not alone in encountering bad luck; Bottas’ encounter with the wall in Melbourne costing him a sure podium finish, though he was to (more than) make up for this with a stunning drive (from 16th to 2nd) at Silverstone.
His obvious talent, speed and consistency saw Bottas finish the season fourth overall, the Finn having made six visits to the podium, whilst his team finished third, ahead of Ferrari, having accumulated 320 points. Not bad when one considers the team score just 5 the previous year.
Both drivers were retained for 2015 and assuming Mercedes maintained its (power unit) advantage, and Massa picked up where he left off, Williams looked likely to build on 2014’s success.
Those who thought 2014 a fluke, were no doubt more than a little surprised to see the Grove outfit repeat the feat a year later.
Admittedly, the team wasn’t as convincing as in 2014, and in many ways must be considered merely the ‘best of the rest’ behind Mercedes and Ferrari.
Whilst the FW37, like its predecessor, starred on low downforce tracks, it struggled pitifully on slow corner circuits – such as Monaco – and in the wet.
In Hungary, one of the most notorious slow tracks on the calendar, the Grove outfit came away with nul points, whilst Red Bull, came away with its biggest haul of the season.
Silverstone looked to be the highlight of the season for the home team, Massa and Bottas leaving the Silvers Arrows duo for dust at the start. However, a rain shower twenty laps into the race put paid to that particular dream.
Despite the sterling job done by the technical team in 2014, in 2015 strategy was often questionable, and then there was the farcical pit stop in Belgium that saw Bottas return to the track sporting three soft tyres and one medium. The significant number of unsafe releases should be cause for concern also, if only for the Finance Department.
Both drivers did their best, Massa taking well-deserved podiums in Canada and Mexico. However, despite his experience, the Brazilian was constantly making poor starts, thereby leaving himself with much to do for the remainder of Sunday afternoon.
Bottas, whose early races were overshadowed by a back injury incurred in Melbourne, was wasn’t as impressive as we’d hoped, and perhaps this is why Ferrari opted to retain Kimi Raikkonen at a time most were tipping his countryman to partner Sebastian Vettel in 2016.
The Maranello snub – whatever the truth of the matter – didn’t exactly help Bottas, who not only dropped his shoulders from then on but also appeared to be locked in a personal feud with Raikkonen, the Ferrari star nicking fourth place in the championship in the final race. That said, seemingly on his way to fourth – or even third – in Russia, the Finn’s elimination by the Ferrari driver was totally unfair.
Mercedes decision not to supply its upgrade to customer teams no doubt accounted for Williams slight slump in the final stages of the season, though Force India, albeit with a B-spec car, was improving race by race.
No match for the Mercedes or Ferrari, around mid-season the Grove team shifted focus to 2016, clearly aware that if it was to maintain its position, far less improve, it must rectify the numerous issues thrown up in 2015.
While the 2016 slump was nowhere near as bad as that witnessed few year earlier – most notably 2013 when it scored just 5 points – it was worrying.
First off, and not for the first time, aero was the team’s weak point, while wet weather and slow corners were other areas where the team lost out.
Then there were the drivers. Though it wasn’t until September that Massa confirmed his retirement, there were times much earlier in the season when he appeared to have opted to call it a day.
Following a respectable start to the season, amassing 32 points from the first four races, from Spain to Abu Dhabi he contributed just 21, 6 of those coming in Austin. Over the same period teammate Bottas added 66 to the team’s tally, including the team’s only podium of the year (Canada).
Then there were the obvious distractions away from the track, most notably Frank Williams health. When the team was asked why Claire Williams had missed a number of races in the second half of the season it was revealed that her father had been hospitalised with pneumonia. Thankfully, his health improved, but by then it was his team that was clearly suffering.
Another area where the team suffered was its very early decision to switch focus to 2017, indeed it is understood to be among the very first. Though the team did eventually start introducing updates for the 2016 car, including a new floor and front wing, it was too little, too late for by now Force India was the best placed Mercedes customer team.
Further confusing the issue was that sometimes the team only had updates for one car, and even then they were mostly ineffective. Whether this was down to financing or the insistence on focussing on the 2017 car we shall never know.
And while some have put the team’s core issues down to money, are relative newcomers Force India any better off? We think not.
That said, money is clearly appears to an issue at Grove right now.
Despite the team’s assurances, many still view the recruitment of Lance Stroll as odd, effectively viewing him as a pay driver. Though Pat Symonds insists the $80m preparation programme – paid for by his father – is similar to that of Jacques Villeneuve, we cannot help but feel that there is a basic difference in talent between the two Canadians.
Talking of Pat Symonds, at the end of December, following weeks of speculation, the team announced his retirement. It is claimed that Paddy Lowe is leaving Brackley for Grove but in the meantime he will be working in his garden.
On January 16, Blue Monday – a mad flurry of activity saw Pascal Wehrlein head to Sauber, Bottas to Brackley and Massa return to partner Stroll.
“I always intended to race somewhere in 2017,” said the Brazilian, “but Williams is a team close to my heart and I have respect for everything it is trying to achieve. When I was offered the chance to help with their 2017 campaign, it felt like the right thing to do. I certainly have not lost any of my enthusiasm for racing and I’m extremely motivated to be coming back to drive the FW40.”
Looking at his overall performance in 2016, one had to wonder if Williams had done the right thing, for placing a veteran who appeared to have lost his drive alongside a total rookie isn’t the sort of move that suggested the Grove outfit was looking to move forward any time soon. Time would tell, but in truth none of this really inspired confidence.
Finishing fifth in the team standings, one would be forgiven for thinking that the team had continued to move on from the woeful performances of the early 2000s when the Grove outfit would regularly finish 8th or 9th in the constructor standings. However, look a little closer and one sees that not only was Williams over 100 points down on Force India, it was under pressure from Renault, Toro Rosso and Haas.
With no specific technical weaknesses, certainly in the Honda mould, in the car, at the heart of the team’s issues in 2017 appeared to be the driver pairing.
Massa, who had disappointed in 2016 was back in the fold alongside a driver widely regarded as having paid for his seat. Indeed, it was Mercedes cash that persuaded the Grove team to release Bottas and recall Massa back out of retirement, with some pointing to Bottas’ late departure as being at the heart of the team’s issues.
Fact is, it was a season of almost total nothingness, where there were a couple of bright moments – Azerbaijan being a good example – but mostly nothing.
With a private test programme still very much underway, whereby the Stroll family money allowed Lance to shun the simulator for the real tracks a week or so before most races – albeit in an old car – the youngster gradually found his feet. On circuits where he was unable to practice however he struggled, and for much of the year he was woeful in qualifying.
A strong outing in his home race was followed by a podium finish in Azerbaijan, but in all honesty it was the gung-ho attitude of his various rivals that left that particular result wide open.
Indeed, the Baku podium was a podium more than Force India achieved, while Stroll’s 4th in a wet qualifying at Monza was also better than anything the Silverstone-based outfit managed.
Massa was up and down, but on the whole a lot better than in 2016, even so, in truth, other than Bahrain, and even Brazil, there were too many weekends where the little Brazilian appeared to be MIA.
In two of the opening three races Massa was best of the rest, but in many ways that was as good as it got. His tailing off in the second half of the season wasn’t restricted to Sunday afternoons, his qualifying performances also suffering.
We wanted to think that things would get better in 2018, and while Paddy Lowe’s return promised some progress, the pairing of Sergey Sirotkin with Stroll did little to inspire confidence.
At the end of 2017 we opined: “While fifth in 2017 seems somewhat respectable, one fears that in 2018 it will be somewhat miraculous.”
Sadly, we were right.
Without making light of the situation, reflecting on Williams 2018 season, one is minded of the phrase, “there’s bad news and there’s bad news”.
Depending on who you believe, Williams knew how bad it was going to be just minutes into the first day of pre-season testing, and whether you believe that or not the fact is that by the end of the test it was clearly very bad.
Keen to produce something different to the FW40, it soon became obvious that the Grove outfit had gone the wrong way, to an almost alarming degree.
From the outset both drivers complained of poor stability, lack of downforce and excessive drag on the straights, despite having the same engine that Mercedes and Force India/Racing Point were using with dramatic effect.
Describing the issues as “multi-dimensional”, when Pat Symonds said there was no quick-fix, nobody actually thought that this meant that there was no fix.
While the lack of experience of its driver line-up didn’t exactly help matters, one cannot help but feel that even if Massa had been retained things would still have been as bad.
While the tracks where the FW41 might be competitive were few and far between, the drivers, Stroll in particular, did their best to take advantage, the Canadian scoring the team’s first points of the year at Baku, and Sirotkin making it a double-oints finish in Canada.
Those 7 points however, were as good as it got, in many ways as good as it was ever going to get.
While one envisaged Bruce McLaren spinning in his grave as his team went from bad to worse, one couldn’t help but feel for Frank Williams, as he watched his team drop down the grid like a stone… and remain there.
The team’s home race at Silverstone was surely the worst of the season, starting from 18th and 19th after an aero upgrade saw both drivers suffer DRS issues in qualifying. Next day the team, which scored its first ever win at the Northamptonshire track, could only manage 12th and 14th.
Ironically, other than having among the best reliability of all ten teams, suffering only 3 technical DNFs, the Grove team also led the way in terms of pit stop speed.
On the other hand, along with a couple of sponsors – including Martini who was never likely to renew – the team lost chief designer Ed Wood, head of aerodynamics Dirk De Beer and at season-end head of performance engineering Rob Smedley.
In addition to those sponsors, the team also lost much-needed funding in terms of Stroll, who leaves to join Force India/Racing Point which has been acquired by his father.
While Sirotkin and his roubles had gone, the team finally bit the bullet and brought Robert Kubica back to the grid, the Pole also bringing a certain amount of cash with him.
Meanwhile, though unable to accommodate Esteban Ocon, the Grove outfit was at least able to supply a berth for George Russell which meant a decent discount on the Mercedes engines.
2019 was going to be a watershed year for Williams, for it could either learn from the disaster of 2018 and climb straight back upon the horse, or continue to lose its way and possibly face the fate of numerous other championship winning teams that believed they were immune to the realities of failure.
While Pat Symonds had to pull the technical side of the team together, like McLaren, Williams needed a team manager who could lead and inspire from the front, and in all honesty that didn’t appear to be Claire Williams.
Anyone hoping that 2018 was a mere blip in the team’s fortunes was in for a major shock in 2019. For Williams, the most successful of constructors in terms of team titles, not only finished bottom of the pile again, it scored just one point from 21 outings.
It was clear that there was a problem when the Grove outfit didn’t reveal a date for its initial shakedown, those initial fears intensifying when the team missed the first two days of pre-season testing.
Though, courtesy of a Herculean effort by the crew, the car rolled out halfway through the third day of the test, ignoring its woeful pace, the big story going round the paddock was who was to blame. Days later it was announced that Paddy Lowe was on leave of absence, the former Mercedes technical boss finally cutting ties with the team in the summer.
Meanwhile, Kubica and Russell had to continue with a car that was a dud, exactly how much of a dud only becoming clear in Melbourne.
From the outset, both drivers complained of a serious lack of grip, the Briton subsequently admitting that the FW42 had a “fundamental” issue that would take months to resolve.
And thus began a season of absolute torture for all concerned, neither driver making it to Q2 over the course of the whole season, far less Q3. At season end, Russell’s average qualifying position was 18.43, while his teammate’s was 19.67.
It wasn’t as if things got any better on Sunday, for the pair were regularly two or three laps down on the winner.
In a season of unparalleled disasters for what is widely regarded as one of the sport’s true greats, the awfulness of it all was best summed up by events in Azerbaijan.
On his install lap in FP1, Russell ran over a loose manhole cover which badly damaged his car. Then, as if to rub the team’s nose in it, as the badly damaged FW42 was transported back to the pits, the low level truck that was carrying it struck a bridge, and subsequently covered the car in oil. To compound the team’s misery, Kubica subsequently crashed in Q1.
All this at a time the Grove outfit was already worryingly short on spares.
Once the team began to introduce updates, none of which appeared to have any significant effect, this kick-started behind the scenes shenanigans as Kubica complained that Russell was being given preference.
Later in the year, moments after Russell went off into the barriers after a wheel nut retainer failed in Sochi, the team called in Kubica to retire him. This prompted sponsor PKN Orlen to issue a statement citing a contractual breach, with Williams subsequently admitting that it retired the Pole due to “accident damage”… and also to save parts for future races.
On and on and on it went, the Grove legend a shadow of its former self, now almost an embarrassment to behold.
The team’s sole point came courtesy of Kubica, who was promoted to tenth after both Alfa Romeo drivers were handed time penalties for receiving outside aid before the start of the German Grand Prix.
While it was not quite the fairy-tale we had hoped for, given the equipment at his disposal the Pole gave a fairly good account of himself, though, it has to be said, was but a shadow of the man previously tipped as a future world champion.
While Russell, unlike fellow rookies Alexander Albon and Lando Norris, did not have the equipment needed to show what he could do, he still gave the sport a glimpse of his talent. Out-qualifying his teammate at all 21 races, he usually out-performed Kubica on race day also.
That said, so woeful was the team over the course of the year that it would be wholly wrong to judge either driver.
As expected, Kubica left Williams at season end, taking his sponsor with him (to Alfa Romeo), while Nicholas Latifi is promoted from his role as reserve driver to race driver alongside Russell.
While the signing of Latifi raised eyebrows, one only has to look at his father, Michael, who owns a £200m slice of McLaren, to see what might have influenced the team’s decision, for in the days following the youngster’s confirmation the team announced several new (Canadian) sponsors.
Though the team has announced a number of interesting changes to its technical team, the signing of Roy Nissany as “official test driver” does little to dispel the fear that Williams is a team in freefall, a team in line for extinction unless someone gets a firm grip.
MANAGEMENT
Chief Executive Officer: Jost Capito
Chief Financial Officer: Doug Lafferty
General Counsel: Mark Biddle
Chief Technical Director: Paddy Lowe
Chief Engineer: Doug McKiernan
Chief Performance & Operations Engineer: Jakob Andreasen
Head of Performance Engineering: Rob Smedley
Perf. Operations Support Group – Team Leader: Dave Robson
Team Manager: David Redding
Car Systems Team Leader: Paul Leeming
Chief Mechanic: Mark Pattinson
Race Team Coordinator: Brian Hart
Head of Race Strategy: Richard Lockwood
Race Engineer (Stroll): James Urwin Race Engineer (Stroll): Luca Baldisseri No 1 Mechanic (Stroll): James Hoodless
Race Engineer (Sirotkin): Paul Williams Race Engineer (Sirotkin): Andrew Murdoch No 1 Mechanic (Sirotkin): Ben Howard
Marketing Director: Chris Murray
Commercial Director: Richard Berry
Head of F1 Communications: Sophie Ogg
Head of Partner Management: Amanda McReynolds
Sr Partner Manager: Joanne Cooper
Press Officer: Jacques Heckstall-Smith
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
FW43
Chassis construction: Monocoque construction laminated from carbon epoxy and honeycomb surpassing FIA impact and strength requirements
Front suspension: Double wishbone, push-rod activated springs and anti-roll bar
Rear suspension: Double wishbone, pull-rod activated springs and anti-roll bar
Transmission: Williams eight speed seamless sequential semi-automatic shift plus reverse gear, gear selection electro-hydraulically actuated
Clutch: Carbon multi-plate
Dampers: Williams hydraulic
Wheels: AppTech Forged Magnesium
Brake system: AP 6 piston front and 4 piston rear calipers with carbon discs and pads
Steering: Williams power assisted rack and pinion
Fuel system: Kevlar-reinforced rubber bladder
Electronic systems: FIA SECU standard electronic control unit
Cooling system: Aluminium oil, water, charge air, ERS and gearbox radiators
Cockpit: Six-point driver safety harness with 75mm shoulder straps & HANS system, removable anatomically formed carbon fibre seat
Power Unit
Mercedes-AMG F1 M11 EQ Performance
Fuel injection: High-pressure direct injection (max 500 bar, one injector/cylinder), Pressure charging Single-stage compressor and exhaust turbine on a common shaft, Max rpm exhaust turbine 125,000 rpm
