Williams Racing Has a Winning Track Record, But Talent Is Stuck In Neutral

When one examines the history of F1 Williams have taken 9 Constructor crowns and 7 Drivers’ championships.  Whether the team is a team established in 1977, which started with a customer March 761, or a big time constructor, that is an impressive record.

Along with Ferrari, McLaren, and Renault (formerly Benetton), Williams is one of the "Big Four" teams that have won every constructors' championship since 1979 and every driver's championship since 1984. Williams remains the only one independently owned, as the other three "factory teams" have been set up by or bought out by major automobile manufacturers.

In 1992, 1993, 1996, and 1997 Williams took crowns, the drivers and the constructors. They were the winners of the constructors' championship only in 1994.  Easy to say the 90s were good for Williams.  Not only were they winning crowns, but their cars were some of the most advanced on the grid. 

Active suspension and traction control systems may have been beyond anything available to the other teams, but to Williams they were normal features on their cars.

Cars were not the only thing that other teams could envy Williams. Many famous racing drivers have driven for Williams, including Australia's Alan Jones; Finland's Keke Rosberg; Britain's Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill; France's Alain Prost; Brazil's Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna, and Canada's Jacques Villeneuve, each of whom, with the exception of Senna, have captured one Drivers' title with the team.

Williams Grand Prix has also employed some of the greatest minds in Racing, Adrian Newey, Patrick Head, Frank Dernie, and Sam Michael have all been involved with Williams. They have helped Williams triumph, or simply kept it competitive in the midfield of the F1 grid.

The last time Williams has been competitive was in 2003; Juan Pablo Montoya finished the season in 3rd, and Ralf Schumacher in 5th. Since then Williams’ success has declined from year to year, and while Frank Williams and Patrick Head may put on a brave face, Williams needs to turn around their fortunes, needs to start winning.

To win in F1 is not an easy task, and takes years to achieve. There are no exemptions; Brawn’s current successes are the results of the funding by Honda and development and planning work by Ross Brawn. 

Ferrari did not clinch championships with Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen within a year. Ferrari’s first serious contender in the recent years was designed for the 1997 season and the first car that clinched the championship for the Scuderia the F399 as well as the last one to take the crown the F2008 are all direct descendants of that first car the F310B.

Williams must then build on the car designed for 2009 to start wining the championships; Williams can not keep changing the very character of their vehicle. That may be a challenging task as there seems to be little continuance in design due to the variation of rules to help improve the show.

Yet this may not be so difficult, because while the exterior of the automobile differs immensely, the inner skeleton or character of the car does not differ as such.  Williams must then begin designing a competitive car and maintain research and development from the current season and combine it with the vision of the future. 

Williams has brilliant and passionate team members, and they are capable of turning out a competitive machine and a giant killer; history has shown that Williams can take on the competition and win by focusing on a single factor.

At the 1985 Australian Grand Prix Williams took an impossible win; by understanding that the car had no grip into the corners Frank Dernie decided to use the car’s awesome speed to achieve victory. By removing the wing from the car completely and going flat out on the straights Williams maximized on the car’s strongest characteristic, and beat out the Turbos. 

Yet perhaps Williams is not capable of winning; limited testing and lack of possibility for new and ground breaking designs due to rules dictating consistent engine package and chassis rules have changed the landscape of F1. The balance between driver and car is now offset; while the car’s development is still vital, the driver’s talent is now more important. Williams needs new talent, hungry talent, and unknown talent.

While the cars are an important part of the Sport, drivers are what separate the champion from the first of the losers.  The last champion for Williams was Jacques Villeneuve and Damon Hill one year before him. 

Since then Williams has seen promising drivers come and go, Ralf Schumacher, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Mark Webber. None of these drivers have delivered.  Currently Williams is running Nico Rosberg, and Kazuki Nakajima, and they have failed to deliver until now. 

The latest racer the FW31, designed for the 2009 season looked like a potential winner, and featured technology that has made the Brawn GP car the current championship leader. The FW31 had the twin diffuser technology, and yet it is not at the front of the grid. 

When the McLaren 2009 racer came out it was the slowest car on the grid; it was not on the same technological level as the Williams machine, and yet in Hungary Lewis Hamilton won the car driving it.  

The MP4-24, the F60, both the biggest disappointment of the early parts of the 2009 season, yet both teams are seeing improvements of race end track position the further the season progresses.  Surely Williams has not stood still in development; should that be the case why is Williams not taking podiums on an average basis, why is the FW31 not qualified on pole, or at least threatening the Red Bulls, the Brawns, the Renaults? 

The issue most certainly must be the driver talent.  Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima are not bad drivers; they have talent, but it might not be the talent that suits the Williams model.  From weekend to weekend the two perform admirably, yet they are not able to get the .100s out of the car.  While they have a strong showing, the two are not winning; Frank Williams once told his team that second is the first of the losers, which says quite a bit about his view on the current status of Williams. 

As the 2009 season draws to an end Williams must make some hard choices and figure out how to approach the 2010 season.  As more and more teams drop out Williams constant presence in F1 indicates their passion and love for the sport. 

While Williams have not won a championship in over the decade their commitment to the sport means that in the BMW-Williams partnership only one was serious about F1. The other? You decide.