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33-520: This was the first Williams car supplied with Michelin tyres since the FW07 in 1981. 2001 was Williams' second year with engine partners BMW and the promise shown in 2000 translated into raw speed and some good results throughout the year, including the team's first win since 1997 , at Imola . The powerful engine, well-designed chassis, the Michelin tyres' tendency to work well in hot conditions and

66-621: A strong challenger for the new season, but early reliability problems halted any serious threat for the title. While not the first to use ground effects in Formula One, an honour belonging to Colin Chapman and the Lotus 78 (the Lotus 79's predecessor), Dernie may have had a better grasp of the principles than even Chapman. While Head had been developing the Lotus 78's/79's basic principles in

99-540: The 1981 Indianapolis 500 on the third row in 9th, but finished only 17th. The car was later sold and turned into a Can-Am car in 1985, with the addition of a 5.0L Chevrolet engine and extensive bodywork, then sold again and raced in SCCA . ( key ) (results in bold indicate pole position) (results in italics indicate fastest lap) * 4 points in 1979 scored using the FW06 * 44 points in 1982 scored using

132-540: The FW08 1979 British Grand Prix The 1979 British Grand Prix (formally the XXXII Marlboro British Grand Prix ) was a Formula One motor race held at Silverstone on 14 July 1979. It was the ninth race of the 1979 World Championship of F1 Drivers and the 1979 International Cup for F1 Constructors. The 68-lap race was won by Clay Regazzoni , driving a Williams - Ford . It was

165-504: The Paul Ricard Circuit in the south of France , he suggested to Frank Williams that to compensate for the harsh ride and the pounding the driver gets while driving the car that he "put suspension on the seat", which Frank thought was a good idea. However, he then replied that Jones should sit on his wallet. 'Yeah,' drawled the tough Aussie , 'then give me something to put in it!' Jones temporarily left Formula One because of

198-573: The San Marino Grand Prix , Williams jokingly painted their rear wing with a text saying "Keep Your Distance!" after several rear-end shunts in the opening races, most notably by Jos Verstappen on Montoya whilst leading in Brazil. ( key ) (results in bold indicate pole position) Williams FW07 The Williams FW07 was a ground effect Formula One racing car designed by Patrick Head , Frank Dernie , and Neil Oatley for

231-482: The 1979 F1 season. It was closely based on the Lotus 79 , even being developed in the same wind tunnel at Imperial College London . Some observers, among them Lotus aerodynamicist Peter Wright felt the FW07 was little more than a re-engineered Lotus 79, just having a stiffer chassis. The car was small and simple and extremely light, powered by the ubiquitous Ford Cosworth DFV . It had very clean lines and seemed to be

264-560: The Alfa around 205 litres, effectively giving the 1980 Williams FW07 a superior power to weight ratio. The FW07B evolved into the FW07C for 1981, and further work was done to the suspension, especially after the FIA banned the moveable skirts needed for effective ground effect. The hydraulic suspension systems were developed by Jones, who hated the rock hard suspension. During a winter test session at

297-507: The BMW engines were more unreliable than their rivals, resulting in a finishing rate of less than 50%. Secondly, in contrast to the faster circuits, the chassis was not as competitive on high- downforce tracks such as Monaco and the Hungaroring . Thirdly, both drivers made several mistakes, Montoya in particular as he came to terms with F1. However, the team still finished a clear third in

330-492: The Constructors' Championship, with 80 points. A total of nine chassis were built. BMW Williams went into the 2001 season with renewed major sponsorships such as Allianz , Nortel Networks , Compaq , Reuters , Veltins , Petrobras and Castrol . The team received new sponsorship from WorldCom while 11880.com was discontinued. The livery was similar to the 2000 design with subtle changes. In free practice ahead of

363-447: The FW07 further, working especially on setup and suspension strengthening. The car was now so efficient in creating downforce from its ground effect design that the front wings were unnecessary. At the 1980 French Grand Prix , Alan Jones used for the first time (in a race) a specially prepared John Judd developed Cosworth DFV. Previously Williams had used "development" DFVs allocated by Cosworth to constructors who were judged to provide

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396-405: The FW07, Chapman's design team was attempting to take the ground effect idea further ahead of rivals on the Lotus 80 engaging the entire bottom of the chassis as an aerodynamic device for generating downforce without the necessity of external wings. Since the Lotus 80 solution had many drawbacks, Chapman devised the twin-chassis concept of Lotus 86 and 88 that should have solved the issues, but it

429-568: The FW07, which although it was now three years old, was still competitive. After 15 wins, 300 points, one drivers' and two constructors' titles the FW07 was replaced by the similarly engineered FW08 from early 1982. The Williams FW07 and its variants have been regular fixtures in historic racing. The FW07C won the FIA Masters Historic Formula One Championship in 2016, 2018 and 2021, while the FW07B won

462-597: The French GP onwards both Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann had a power deficit of just 10-15 BHP compared to the factory based Alfas and Renaults, which gave both Jones and Reutemann a fighting chance on power sensitive circuits such as Hockenheim, the Osterreichring, Zandvoort and Imola. The Williams had the advantage of only requiring a fuel tank size of 173 litres, where the Renault needed a 215 litre fuel tank and

495-554: The South African. Up at the front, Jones established a commanding lead over Jabouille, who was struggling on Michelin tyres that were wearing quickly. On lap 17, the Frenchman pitted for new tyres, promoting Regazzoni to second. However, disaster struck for Jabouille when, after a long stop, part of his front wing got caught in an air hose that had not been removed from under the car and was broken off as he accelerated. He

528-587: The USA to win his only world championship, while Reutemann won at a wet race in Monaco. Williams won also their first Constructors' Championship. The main challenge to the FW07 came from Nelson Piquet in Brabham 's neat BT49 . This time it was Reutemann who challenged Piquet for the championship, narrowly missing out in the final race, but Williams took home the constructors' championship after four more wins. The FW07C

561-628: The best potential to win races against Renault and Ferrari. Modified in John Judd's workshops in Rugby, the Judd-DFV featured an advanced camshaft/cylinder head design which allowed for greater revs than even a development DFV, producing 500-510 BHP at 11,400 RPM compared to 10,800 RPM of a standard DFV. Since both the Renault turbo V6 produced 520 BHP and the Alfa V12 around 525 BHP, it meant that from

594-601: The car's competitiveness came only at mid-season, Jones and Williams lost the driver's and constructor's championships to South African Jody Scheckter and Ferrari , respectively. But the FW07's competitiveness meant that Williams was a top contender for the 1980 season and beyond. Regazzoni was replaced by Carlos Reutemann . While the latter and Williams's other driver, Alan Jones, formed a successful partnership, they were not comfortable with each other. Jones won five races in Argentina, France, Britain, Canada and Watkins Glen in

627-676: The car. Nelson Piquet took third in the Brabham with the second Williams of Clay Regazzoni alongside him on the second row, while René Arnoux in the second Renault and Niki Lauda in the second Brabham made up the third row. Completing the top ten were John Watson in the McLaren , the Lotuses of Carlos Reutemann and Mario Andretti , and Jacques Laffite in the Ligier . The Ferraris disappointed, with championship leader Jody Scheckter only managing 11th and Gilles Villeneuve 13th. At

660-454: The championship in 2017. Rights to the FW07's design were acquired by Bobby Hillin, owner of the IndyCar team Longhorn Racing. Longhorn Racing built a Williams FW07 copy named Longhorn LR02 , with minor adjustments to comply with CART and Indianapolis 500 rules. The car ran in 1981 with Al Unser at the wheel. It achieved a best result of 2nd at the 1981 CART Mexico round. It started

693-487: The chequered flag 24 seconds ahead of Arnoux, giving Williams their first Formula One victory. It was also Regazzoni's fifth and final win and, as of 2024, the last win in F1 for a Swiss driver. After Jarier, Watson and Scheckter came Jacky Ickx , taking the final point in the second Ligier. This was the first Grand Prix on which James Hunt , who had retired from racing the previous month, commentated alongside Murray Walker for

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726-408: The efforts of two quick drivers resulted in a haul of four victories and the team's re-emergence at the top of the sport, alongside Ferrari and McLaren . The car was especially strong on faster circuits such as Hockenheim and Monza , where the BMW engine put Williams at a distinct advantage over their rivals. However, Williams was not able to mount a title challenge, for several reasons. Firstly,

759-478: The extremely unpleasant ride the FW07C gave, he later described driving the car as "wrecking the internals". BBC 's Horizon series followed the team during winter testing, and later produced the film Gentlemen, Lift Your Skirts which was broadcast during 1981. The film featured extensive behind the scenes footage of the team at work and interviews with the drivers, Frank Williams and Patrick Head. The FW07D

792-640: The first Formula One victory for the Williams team and Regazzoni's final victory in Formula One. René Arnoux finished second in a Renault , with Jean-Pierre Jarier third in a Tyrrell -Ford. Qualifying saw Alan Jones take his and the Williams team's first pole position by 0.6 seconds from Jean-Pierre Jabouille in the Renault ; the Williams FW07 had been modified by engineers Patrick Head and Frank Dernie to correct some aerodynamic problems on

825-445: The lead lap - Regazzoni, Arnoux, Scheckter and Villeneuve - with Jean-Pierre Jarier up to fifth in his Tyrrell and Watson sixth. The Ferraris were also struggling on Michelins, and Villeneuve pitted for new tyres on lap 50, before stopping with fuel vaporization problems five laps from the end. Scheckter, meanwhile, was lapped by Regazzoni on lap 56, before Jarier and Watson passed him in the closing laps. Regazzoni eventually took

858-463: The next fastest car. The car served to make Team Williams a contender for the first time; Jones retired with fuel pump failure and his Swiss teammate Clay Regazzoni won his last Grand Prix and first since 1976. Jones then won 4 of the next 5 Grand Prix in Germany, Austria, Holland and Canada in a car that was so much quicker than any of the others, particularly around high-speed circuits. But because

891-599: The non-ground effect FW06 was used for the first four rounds in the Americas and South Africa. The car proved to be reasonably competitive; Australian Alan Jones put the car 13th at Jarama and then 4th for the next round in Belgium; he even led 16 laps of the race before retiring with electrical failure. At the British Grand Prix , Jones stuck the revised Williams on pole and was immediately 2 seconds faster than

924-587: The start of the race, Regazzoni charged into the lead, but was repassed by team-mate Jones and Jabouille before the end of the first lap. Andretti and the Ferraris also made fast starts, running close to Piquet, Lauda and Arnoux. At the end of lap 2, Piquet made a mistake at Woodcote and spun off, before Andretti dropped out with a broken wheel bearing on lap 4. Then Lauda encountered brake problems which eventually led to his retirement on lap 13, leaving Arnoux fourth with Scheckter fifth and Villeneuve dutifully following

957-565: The venturi derived ground effects which caused the fuel in the tank to slosh about so violently that the fuel pump was unable to provide the fuel lines with adequate supply. Carlos Reuetemann also had a similar problem in the French Grand Prix in 1981 when he was in a strong position to finish in the points, and this misfire might also have cost Williams the 1981 Drivers Championship as well. After Jones retired, Williams took on Keke Rosberg in 1982. His mercurial driving seemed to suit

990-595: Was an experimental six-wheeled test car (four driven rear wheels, and two undriven front wheels) tested by Alan Jones on a single occasion at the Donington Park circuit. With the FW07D proving the concept, its unique design was incorporated into the six-wheeled FW08B . The car made its debut at the Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama in 1979, the fifth round of the season and the first European round after

1023-447: Was forced to return to the pits for repairs, during which his turbo overheated. At half-distance, Jones still led comfortably, with Regazzoni still second and well clear of Arnoux, and Laffite moving ahead of the Ferraris into fourth. Then, approaching Woodcote at the end of lap 39, Jones's engine failed, a water pump problem causing it to overheat. Six laps later, Laffite also retired with engine trouble. This left only four drivers on

Williams FW23 - Misplaced Pages Continue

1056-551: Was never allowed to race due to failure to comply with existing technical rules. When the British Grand Prix at Silverstone came around, chief designer Frank Dernie had designed and implemented a system that ensured that the car's all-important skirts touched the ground at all times and had also corrected some aerodynamic leakage at the back of the chassis between the French and British Grand Prix. The FW07 became FW07B in 1980, and Alan Jones , now with Carlos Reutemann , developed

1089-663: Was the second fastest car of 1981, behind the Renault RE30 , but the Williams was more reliable. Alan Jones lost two potential victories at Monaco and Hockenheim when fuel pressure "hunting" caused the Cosworth DFV to misfire badly, costing the Australian not just wins but also possibly the 1981 World Drivers Championship. The misfiring which afflicted Jones was caused by the high G forces and acceleration generated by

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