Research into Williams Formula One Team

 Research of Williams Formula One Team

 https://www.williamsf1.com/posts/f88ae464-433f-4ea1-8471-a7a8d5b9fd51/williams-racing-formula-1-journey-the-origins?srsltid=AfmBOorZR_B2R1h5xv1nqKcxHXdOIkiV5NfGIbREoz-W_t_v5WdSQ-qx

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCiwg9QJywU video link.

What did I learn from this video?

 Frank Williams was 19 when he first started racing with his own car at Mallory Park.
Set up his own team in 1969 and entered in Formula One
Following in the footsteps of lotus and Cooper. Teams formed by Motorsport Enthusiasts and raced in Formula One series.
Teams created by Motorsport Enthusiasts "grew odds" with factory teams like Ferrari, "prompting" the likes of Enzo Ferrari to call them "Garagistes".

 
At one point Frank Williams ran the team from a Phone Box, calling suppliers and sponsorships,  after the phones at the factory were cut due to unpaid bills.
In 1976 Frank Sold his team to Canadian Businessman Walter Wolf and Frank was sacked as Team Principle. The new team Wolf Racing won on their debut in 1977 at the Argentine Grand Prix.
The news of Wolf racing winning a race hit Frank Williams.

Frank Williams then went into Business with young engineer Patrick Head.
Frank and Patrick both had the same view point of a no nonsense approach.
They used the money from the sale of the Wolf F1 team to fund and start up a new team, Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited. They started with only 17 staff and set up in a old Carpet Warehouse in Oxfordshire. The team had to break into their own factory because they didn't have the door keys just to start work ready for the upcoming season.

It was labelled as a perfect partnership as Frank Williams organised the team and secured new sponsorship deals from the middle east, where Patrick Head was the "Creative Force behind Williams" and secured success in their first race car, The Cosworth-powered FW06. Under Patricks leadership, the team brought a Wind Tunnel as he and Frank Durney developed their understanding of ground effect aerodynamics.

At the 1979 British Grand Prix, the brand new Williams FW07 stunned the Paddock with its incredible grip, aerodynamics and speed achieved through modifications to the cars underside. During that weekend they secured their first Pole with Allen Jones and  Clay Regatzoni drove the at to victory on race day. On this day "all of a sudden the team from a carpet factory were genuine title contenders".
In 1980 Jones won Five Grand Prix and also won the drivers championship. This also secured the teams maiden formula one constructors championship. According to Frank Williams, he quoted it as "the best feeling in the world".

 
Frank Williams and Patrick Head won a second constructors Championship in 1981and Keke Rosberg took the drivers championship in 1982.

Ahead of the 1986 season disaster struck. Frank Williams, in his forties, still drove the same way he did as a teenager, "Fast and right on the limit" . As he headed from Pre-Season Testing in Paul Ricard to Nice Airport, Frank lost control behind the wheel. His injuries from the accident were life-threatening and his wife Ginny fought to keep him alive, at one point convincing doctors not to turn off his life support machine. Now paralyzed from the neck down, Frank focused on his recovery as Patrick Head lead Williams into that years season. Frank returned to the paddock at the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch. After Nigel Mansell led Nelson Piquet to a perfect Williams 1-2, Ginny herself stepped up to the podium to Collect the Constructors trophy on behalf of  the Team.

Under the leadership of Patrick Head, Williams often lead the grid in engineering creativity, the cutting edge work of chief designer Frank Durney in the Wind Tunnel alongside a young Ross Braun helped propel the now Honda Powered Williams to Back-to-Back constructors Crowns in the mid 80s and Nelson Piquet won the title in 1987. In 1990, head hired prodigious aerodynamicist Adrian Newey and Frank Durney designed the ground-breaking FW14b

How will I use this research? What else do I need to know?

This research has allowed me to develop my knowledge on this specific side of formula one, how the teams operate as a business and the fact that there is a lot of money involved. This research will be used in my dissertation to explain the history of Williams and compare to any future chance of another team under similar circumstances could find success in the sport.

To further develop my research, I could do with researching about how other big teams like Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes to compare how different teams started and made ground in the sport.

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.

Williams' old HQ used to be at Didcot, beneath the cooling towers of Didcot power station. The factory was purpose built and was less than a mile away from their previous HQ.  After Williams moved out and into their new HQ, it was left empty. This was until recently where a new Williams company, Williams Motorsport Limited, moved in and made it home to the development of a Le Mans BMW car.

https://www.williamsdb.com/info/williams-grove-hq/

After the HQ being at Didcot, they moved to a new HQ in Grove, around 7 miles from their previous HQ in Didcot. Williams paid £5m for the 32 acre site.

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. 

Touring Cars

Williams entered a team in BTCC in 1995 with Renault. They had 1991 Touring Car world Champion.  Will Hoy and Alain Menu from the original Renault dealer racing team.

During Williams and Renault entering a team in the BTCC, they created a iconic car, the Renault Clio Williams.

In 1993, Renault launched the Clio Williams as a limited addition of 3,800. Each car was sold with a plaque on the dash. These sold out quickly so Renault ended up building 1,600 more. It featured a naturally aspirated 2.0L engine, producing 145hp. Renault later released the Williams 2 and Williams 3 special additions.

Williams entered a 1994 Laguna Hybrid race car into the 1995 BTCC season. After 5 races in their debut season, they secured a Pole position and a win. Alan Menu was rarely off the podium throughout the whole season. The team ended up winning the final 5 races. Will Hoy winning 2 and Alan Menu winning 3.

The team ended up winning the manufactures championship in their debut year.

The Renault Clio Williams in its iconic blue featured as the safety car in the 1996 Formula One Season. Featuring in the 1996 Argentine Grand Prix, the little 1.8L hatchback lead a queue containing the likes of Damon Hill, Jos Verstappen and even Michael Schumacher.

SIR FRANK WILLIAMS

https://www.salracing.com/story/2019/7/the-sir-frank-williams-story

Sir Frank Williams was the owner and Co-founder of Williams Grand Prix Engineering. In 2019, he celebrated a record braking 50 years as a Formula One Team Principle.
Sir Frank Williams had a love for motorsport since a young age. Having a short racing career in Formula 3 and in Salon Cars.
After his short racing career, he set up Frank Williams Racing Cars. He then proceeded to buy a Brabham F1 Chassis and enter in the 1969 Formula One Campaign.

Williams and the 2019 season

During the 2019 formula one season Williams formula one team ended up only scoring 1 point in 21 races, finishing last in the constructors championship. At the beginning of 2019 season Williams looked promising with Kubica getting to grips with his return to formula one and having one of Mercedes and F2 Champion George Russell in their driver line up. At the beginning of the season, if you went up to any F1 fan and asked them about Williams, they would have responded with the answer that they expect the team to bounce back after the poor 2018 season where they finished with 7 points. During the 2017 season, Williams was a forward midfield team challenging for the odd podium, scrapping the points from the front runners.

F1 Academy

Williams have recruited Lia Block, Daughter of legendary Rally Driver Ken Block, to race in F1 Academy.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.williams-recruit-lia-block-for-2024-f1-academy-season.2eHtC1cTjoi0BLdYrFqVGD.html

F1 Academy has replaced the old W Series racing series. These leagues are for Women at the pinacol of motorsport.
The Cars are slower than normal F1 cars, they are closer to F2 and F3 cars.
Williams Racing have entered a team into F1 Academy

Now vs Then Budget

Since 2021, there has now been a cost cap in formula one. A budget each team must follow when developing their car and limit team spending, aiming to bring the grid closer together. Since 2021, the cost cap budget is getting lesser and lesser each year. In 2021 the teams were allowed to spend £114 million, in 2022 the cap was £110 million and in 2023 its now £106 million . The cap given in 2023 to sick for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. 

When comparing this to a team in 1973, the only one I can find is on a forum and its Tyrrell. The budget for the year being £600,000. Tyrrell was a team that ran a two cars and won the 1973 drivers world championship.

When comparing this to 2016, where the was no budget or cost cap. The top four teams were reported to have spend over £350 million.

In the 2016 season, Williams reportedly spent £103 million for their 138 points, that worked out as £740,537.85 per point.

Then in 2017, Williams' budget was raised to a reported £120 million. They finished 6th that season. When comparing to Mercedes Formula One team and how much they spent, in 2017 the team reportedly £309.7 million.

In 2000, Williams had a reported budget of $143.05 million. 

In 2001, this was raised to $192.95 million.

In 2002, raised again to $230.00 million.

In 2003, raised again to $230.10 million.

When comparing this to Ferrari in 2003, they were spending almost $300 million, to be exact $298.75 million.

This source is the Business F1, from March and April in 2003. Reported by the Official Formula One office. I found this off a Forum, where it was reported to have been given by 'Suisee Formula 1 Office'.

https://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47466

According to some other forum groups, Williams reportedly spent £4.882 Million in 1985 according to company records. In 1990 they spent £15.335 million, £36.311 million in 1995. 

https://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7017