How did Williams Formula One team start up?
The Origins of Williams
Frank Williams racing cars came first and was the forerunner to Williams racing. First time in the championship was at the 1969 Spanish GP, running a Brabham BT26A with a 3.0 litre Ford Cosworth V8 Engine. This care was a Privateer Entries, this means the car was bought from a supplier rather than constructed, this is how Frank Williams first got a team onto the Formula One grid.
The driver for the 1969 Spanish GP was Piers Courage, who had a start-stop formula one career and also did some junior championship running in Frank' formula two and Tasman Series entries.
Although the Spanish GP ended with a engine failure on Lap 18, Piers Courage advanced 9 positions to take p2 in the 1969 Monaco GP two weeks later, proudly announcing the Frank Williams name into the sport.
After a lot of success at Watkins Glen in the US Grand Prix, the 1970s proved far less fruitful for Frank Williams Racing Cars.
A Fatal crash for Courage in the 1970 Dutch GP and chassis issues with regarding development, staffing Frank Williams eventually lost ownership to Canadian millionaire Walter Wolf by 1976.
Although the newly formed Wolf-Williams partnership deteriorated causing Frank to leave, his departure formed the groundwork for his future success.
Williams Grand Prix Engineering
In 1977 Frank formed Williams Grand Prix Engineering, partnered with Patrick Head, an astute and innovative engineer he hired as Chief designer at Wolf-Williams.
This partnership proved to be a turning point for Williams. Head's technical expertise and Williams' leadership and a vision combined to create a new force in Formula One.
After a partial campaign in 1977 using a bought March Chassis, Williams GP Engineering saw rapid development and significant progress, far surpassing what Frank Williams Racing Cars had achieved.
Frank and Patrick debuted their first in-house car, the FW06 in 1978. Proved a competitive and reliable machine, qualifying for every race and reaching the podium at the US GP with Alan Jones behind the wheel.
Clay Regazzoni won Williams their first race at Silverstone. Jones found his highest success at Williams, but the inevitable first F1 win for Williams was because of Clay Regazzoni. In 1979, the team has veteran racer Regazzoni join the team, entering two cars for the first time.
Patrick's ground effect on the FW07 replaced the FW06 partway through the season and after five GPs Jones took pole at the British GP. Jones was on course to take the win, Regazzoni taking the lead at the halfway point, but an engine failure saw Jones retire from the race and Clay to take the teams first win.
However, Jones took the FW07 to the front Winning the next five races and surging the team to the P2 position in the Constructors championship.
Where are Williams based?
Where are Williams based now?
Grove, Wantage OX12 0DQ, United Kingdom
Williams have a high tech Headquarters in the UK, this is where all the designing the cars and building the cars takes place.
This is a photo of outside the front doors of the Williams HQ.
At the HQ, this is where all the designing of the car and all the manufacturing takes place. While the teams are racing all the data is sent back to the HQ where a team will analyse the session and see where they can improve.
Frank Williams Racing Cars
Frank Racing Cars was Sir Frank Williams' first team in formula one. This teams first appearance was at the 1969 Spanish Grand Prix. The team used a Brabham Formula One car for one of their drivers, Courage, this angered Jack Brabham since he was made to believe the car would be used in the Tasman Series and be converted to Formula 500. Courage had a great year in that car, finishing second in the Monaco and US Grand Prix.
This team raced until the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix, when the team was bought by Canadian Oil Millionaire Walter Wolf. He bought 60% of Frank Williams Racing Cars and the team became Wolf-Williams Racing. However, Frank Retained as team manager. Soon afterwards, Harvey Polstlethwaite arrived as chief engineer. At the same time, Wolf bought the assets of the Hesketh team that had recently withdrawn from formula one. Both teams worked out of Williams Facility at Reading.
At the end of the 1975, Wolf restructured the team. Wolf bought 100% of the team and it became Walter Wolf Racing.
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