Williams Racing

Williams Grand Prix Engineering Ltd is founded by Frank Williams and an ambitious British engineer called Patrick Head. The company is based in an empty carpet warehouse in Didcot, Oxfordshire, and enters a purchased March chassis in order to compete in F1 during the latter half of the season. At the same time it sets about designing a car to contest the 1978 FIA Formula One WorldChampionship with a staff of just 17 people. Frank Williams finds a consortium of Middle Eastern backers to support the team’s efforts and the first car, the FW06, is shaken down at the end of the year with Australian ace Alan Jones behind the wheel. Williams has won 16 FIA Formula One World Championships (nine for constructors, in partnership with Cosworth, Honda and Renault, and seven for drivers, with Alan Jones, Keke Rosberg, Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve). The team has scored 114 victories, 308 podiums and 128 pole positions. The team’s endeavours have earned Frank Williams a knighthood, as well as the French equivalent, the Légion d’honneur. The company has two Queen’s Awards for Export Achievement and it’s recognised as one of the most enduring and successful organisations in sport. Over the years Williams has nurtured many great talents, both in the cockpit and in the design office. The team gave Ayrton Senna his first F1 test in 1983; it was with Williams that Nigel Mansell scored his first grand prix win, in 1985, and his only world title in 1992, and it was with Williams that Damon Hill took all but one of his 22 race victories and the ’96 world title. The list could go on. Some of F1’s cleverest technical brains also cut their teeth at Williams. The list of Williams’ design alumni includes Adrian Newey, Paddy Lowe, Ross Brawn, Neil Oatley and Frank Dernie, and we’re equally proud of our current technical team led by Pat Symonds - Chief Technical Officer. Engineering excellence is at the heart of Williams’ DNA. Whether it’s building the carbon fibre chassis of this year’s FW37, or our own eight-speed, seamless-shift, semi-automatic gearbox the team aims to obtain performance and reliability from every component on the car. As a result, it takes a lot of pride in the constructors’ trophies it has won because the constructors’ championship is the most accurate gauge of a team’s performance relative to its rivals. On nine occasions in its history, Williams has beaten everyone. The team’s business model is unique in the pit lane. While many of the other teams are extensions of multinational companies’ marketing departments, Williams is wholly independent; it exists solely to go racing. Its commercial partnerships must drive value back to its partners’ companies. To meet these expectations, the team has grown exponentially since 1977. What started out as a group of 17 people has mushroomed into a company that now employs more than 600 people at its technology campus in Grove, Oxfordshire. Williams Advanced Engineering is the technology and engineering services business of the Williams Group. Williams Advanced Engineering provides world class technical innovation, engineering, testing, and manufacturing services to deliver energy efficient performance to the automotive, motorsport, transport and energy sectors. Williams Advanced Engineering specialises in Advanced Lightweight Materials, Hybrid Power Systems and Electronics, Cutting Edge Aerodynamics, Vehicle Dynamics and Holistic Integration capabilities. Williams Advanced Engineering combines cutting edge technology and the industry’s best engineers with a precision and speed to market derived from four decades of success in the ultra competitive environment of Formula One. Working in close collaboration with their customers and partners, Williams Advanced Engineering creates energy efficient performance to meet the sustainability challenges of the 21st Century.

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