Williams Racing

Origins

Frank Williams founded Williams in 1977 after his previous team, Frank Williams Racing Cars, failed to achieve the success he desired. Despite the promise of a new owner, Canadian millionaire Walter Wolf, and the team's rebranding as Wolf–Williams Racing in 1976, the cars still were not competitive. Eventually, Williams left the rechristened Walter Wolf Racing and moved to Didcot, Oxfordshire to rebuild his team as Williams Grand Prix Engineering. Frank recruited Patrick Head to work for the team, creating the Williams–Head partnership.

Racing history – Formula One

Ford-Cosworth engines (1977–1983)

Williams entered a March 761 for the 1977 season. Lone driver Patrick Nève competed in 11 races that year, starting with the Spanish Grand Prix. The new team failed to score a point, achieving a best finish of 7th at the Italian Grand Prix.

For the 1978 season, Patrick Head designed the first Williams car: the FW06. Williams signed Alan Jones, who had won the Austrian Grand Prix the previous season for a devastated Shadow team following the death of their lead driver, Tom Pryce. Jones's first race for the team was the Argentine Grand Prix where he qualified in 14th position but retired after 36 laps due to a fuel system failure. The team scored its first championship points two races later at the South African Grand Prix when Jones finished in fourth. Williams earnt their first podium at the United States Grand Prix, where Jones came second, 20 seconds behind the Ferrari of Carlos Reutemann. Williams finished the season in ninth place in the Constructors' Championship, with a respectable 11 points, while Alan Jones finished 11th in the Drivers' Championship. Towards the end of 1978, Frank Williams recruited Frank Dernie to join Patrick Head in the design office.

Head designed the FW07 chassis and gearbox for the 1979 season with Frank Dernie picking up the suspension, aerodynamic development and skirt design. This was the team's first ground effect car, a technology that was first introduced by Colin Chapman and Team Lotus. Williams also obtained membership of the Formula One Constructors' Association (FOCA) which expressed a preference for teams to run two cars, so Jones was joined at the team by Clay Regazzoni. It was not until the seventh round of the championship, the Monaco Grand Prix, that they finished in the points. Regazzoni came close to taking the team's first win but finished second, less than a second behind race winner Jody Scheckter. The next race, the French Grand Prix, is remembered for the final lap battle between René Arnoux and Gilles Villeneuve, but also saw both cars finish in the points for the first time; as Jones was fourth with Regazzoni in sixth. The team's first win came at the British Grand Prix (their home Grand Prix) when Regazzoni finished 25 seconds ahead of second place.

Greater success followed when Williams got a 1-2 finish at the next round in Germany, Jones in first with Regazzoni two seconds behind in second. Jones then made it three wins in a row at the Austrian Grand Prix, finishing half a minute ahead of Gilles Villeneuve's Ferrari. Three wins in a row became four two weeks later at the Dutch Grand Prix, with Alan Jones winning yet again by a comfortable margin over Jody Scheckter's Ferrari. Scheckter ended Williams's winning streak when he won the Italian Grand Prix; with Regazzoni finishing third behind Scheckter and Villeneuve. Alan Jones managed another win at the penultimate race in Canada to cap off a great season.

Honda engines (1983–1987)

Frank Williams looked towards Honda, who was developing a turbocharged V6 engine with Spirit. A deal between Honda and Williams was settled early in 1983, with the team set to begin using the engines in 1984. Keke Rosberg won at Monaco Grand Prix, marking Williams' last victory with Ford. The team debuted its Honda engine at the series finale in South Africa, with Rosberg running fifth.

Rosberg was unable to defend his championship, which was won by Nelson Piquet for Brabham, and finished in fifth with 29 points. Williams signed Jacques Lafitte, who had previously raced for Frank Williams' original team, away from Ligier to replace Derek Daly. Laffite finished eleventh in the points with a best finish of fourth, achieved twice at Brazil and Long Beach. Because they did not contest the entire season with one manufacturer, Williams made two entries in the constructor's standings. The Fords garnered a total of 36 points, leaving the team a distant fourth behind champion Ferrari, Renault, and Brabham; the two points Rosberg earned in the Honda at South Africa was enough to place it eleventh in the constructor's standings, just ahead of Theodore and Lotus, which each garnered one point.

For the 1984 season, the team ran an FW09. Keke Rosberg won the Dallas Grand Prix and finished in second at the opening race in Brazil, coming in eighth in the championship as Lafitte came in fourteenth with five total points and a best finish of fourth in Dallas. Williams again struggled in the constructor's championship, finishing with 25.5 points to place them sixth, 8.5 behind fifth place Renault. This was the last year that Williams raced with backing from Saudia Airlines.

In 1985, Head designed the FW10, the team's first chassis to employ the carbon-fibre composite technology pioneered by McLaren. Nigel Mansell, who was pushed out of his ride at Lotus after they were able to convince Ayrton Senna to leave Toleman after his rookie year, joined the team to partner with Rosberg after Lafitte chose to return to Ligier after two seasons with Williams. Dernie produced another competitive aerodynamic package. The team scored four wins with Rosberg winning the Detroit and Australian Grands Prix, and Mansell won the European Grand Prix and the South African Grand Prix. Williams finished in third in the Constructors' Championship, scoring 71 points.

During qualifying for the British Grand Prix, Rosberg completed a lap of the circuit in 1:05.591. The lap's average speed was 160.938 mph (259.005 km/h). This was the fastest recorded lap in Formula One history to that point.

Judd engines (1988)

Unable to make a deal with another major engine manufacturer, Williams used naturally aspirated Judd engines for the 1988 season. This left them with a significant performance deficit compared with their turbo-powered rivals. Piquet left Williams to join Lotus to replace Ayrton Senna. Senna, meanwhile, was headed to McLaren to replace Stefan Johansson alongside Alain Prost. In addition, McLaren replaced its TAG-branded Porsche engines that had taken them to multiple world championships with the same Honda works engines Williams had been receiving. Furthermore, Piquet convinced Frank Dernie to join him at Lotus, which was also running Honda engines.

Williams brought in Riccardo Patrese from Brabham to replace Piquet. The team did not win a race that season and finished seventh in the Constructors' Championship, scoring 20 points. The highlights of the season for the team were two second-place finishes by Mansell. When Mansell was forced to miss two races due to illness, he was replaced by Martin Brundle for Belgium and Jean-Louis Schlesser for Italy. Schlesser's collision with Senna in that race would deny McLaren a clean sweep of race wins that season.

Renault engines (1989–1997)

The team secured Renault as their engine supplier in 1989. Renault engines subsequently powered Williams's drivers to another four Drivers' and five Constructors' Championships up until Renault's departure from Formula One at the end of 1997. The team brought in Adrian Newey to replace Frank Dernie. The combination of Renault's powerful engine and Adrian Newey's designing expertise led to the team dominating the sport in the mid-1990s alongside McLaren. Mansell had a record-breaking 1992 season, winning the title in record time and leading numerous races from pole to finish.

The Renault era started in 1989, with the team signing Thierry Boutsen away from Benetton to pair with a returning Patrese as Mansell left to join Ferrari. The engine's first Grand Prix in Brazil was one that the team would prefer to forget: Boutsen retired with an engine failure and Patrese with an alternator failure. Williams managed to get back on track with Boutsen finishing in fourth at the next race in Italy; winning the team three points. Two races later at the Mexican Grand Prix, the team managed to achieve their first podium with the Renault engine, as Patrese finished second, 15 seconds behind Ayrton Senna in first. The next race saw Patrese finish second again, having started from 14th on the grid, with Boutsen finishing in 6th. At the sixth round in Canada, Williams not only scored their first win with the Renault engine but also their first one-two: with Boutsen finishing in first followed by Patrese in second. This won the team 15 points. Williams came second in the Constructors' Championship, scoring 77 points, 64 points behind McLaren. Patrese finished 3rd in the Drivers' Championship with 40 points, 41 points behind first-placed Alain Prost. Boutsen finished 5th in the championship with 37 points after also winning in Australia. Boutsen's win gave Williams the distinction of having won both the first and last Grand Prix of the 1980s.

In the 1990 season, Williams kept Patrese and Boutsen as the team's drivers. The team scored 20 fewer points than the previous year and finished fourth in the Constructors' Championship two positions lower than in 1989. In the Drivers' Championship, Boutsen finished sixth with 34 points and Patrese in seventh with 23 points. After the season, Boutsen left to drive for Ligier.

For 1991, Williams looked to a familiar face to fill the seat left by Boutsen. In fact, they were able to fill it with the man that Boutsen had been brought in to replace. After being personally selected by Enzo Ferrari to drive for the Italian team, and becoming the last driver to receive such an honor, Nigel Mansell's term at Ferrari had not gone particularly as well as he had hoped. After recording two wins in his first campaign, Mansell was paired alongside Alain Prost for 1990 after he had left his world championship winning ride at McLaren. Prost was immediately given the position of lead driver, which infuriated Mansell, and he had decided to retire from the sport altogether at the end of the season. Frank Williams appealed to Mansell to reconsider, and Mansell agreed to return to pilot one of the two Williams-Renaults. Patrese was retained to drive the other, and Damon Hill joined the team as its test driver.

Mecachrome engines (1998)

After 1997, the team was unable to maintain their dominance in Formula 1. In addition to the departure of Newey, Williams lost its engine supplier after Renault decided to pull out of F1, leading them to partner with Mecachrome for 1998 to provide them with what were essentially the same engines, just rebadged. This, coupled with the design of the FW20, led some to comment that they ran what was virtually the same car, adjusted for the 1998 regulations.

A further change involved the team's livery. For most of the existence of the Williams team as it was constructed, and especially since 1985, the team's colors featured some shade of blue, such as the violet-blue from their years with Canon and their current lighter navy color since taking on Rothmans as a backer. However, for 1998, Rothmans had decided to use the Williams machines to promote one of their other tobacco brands in Winfield. As such, the Mecachromes were painted with red and white to represent the brand; this would be the first time a Frank Williams-produced car would carry a red livery since his original team, Frank Williams Racing Cars, ran with backing from Marlboro in the early 1970s. For 1998,

Williams kept both drivers from the previous season, the first time since 1983 that a reigning world champion remained driving for the team and also the first time since Nigel Mansell returned to the team for 1991 that they had retained the same drivers for consecutive seasons. However, as mentioned, they struggled mightily while both Ferrari and McLaren battled for the Constructors' and Drivers' titles. Williams fell to the middle of the field.

The team won no races and took only 3 podiums during the season, with a best finish of third by both drivers. Frentzen finishing in third at the first round in Australia and Villeneuve finishing third in Germany and Hungary. Williams finished third in the Constructors' Championship, scoring 38 points, while Villeneuve finished fifth in the Drivers' Championship with 21 points, and his German teammate, Frentzen, finished 4 points behind him in seventh.

Supertec engines (1999)

For the first time since 1993, Williams replaced both of its drivers for 1999. Jacques Villeneuve was lured away from Williams by the new British American Racing, which had been formed by British American Tobacco and Craig Pollock, Villeneuve's manager, after their purchase of the financially strapped former world champion in Tyrrell Racing. Heinz-Harald Frentzen, meanwhile, was sacked after his struggles and he signed with Jordan to pair with former world champion Damon Hill, who had joined Jordan after a disastrous campaign with Arrows.

In what would amount to two driver swaps, Frentzen's replacement would be Ralf Schumacher. who had been driving for Jordan but had left under acrimonious terms following an incident where he was ordered to run behind teammate Damon Hill at Spa. An angry Michael Schumacher, Ralf's brother, went to Eddie Jordan after the race and told him that his brother would never be driving for him again once the season was over; Jordan said he would only let Ralf out of his contract if a $2 million buyout was paid, which Michael paid out on behalf of his brother.

Meanwhile, the second swap involved Chip Ganassi Racing in the CART series. At the time, Williams employed young Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya as its test driver. Meanwhile, in CART, Alex Zanardi had been putting on a series of outstanding performances. Since joining the series for 1996, he had finished in the top three in series points all three years, had won the series championship twice, and recorded fifteen victories in fifty-one starts. During his first championship season, Zanardi had actually contacted Frank Williams to inform him of his interest in driving for the team. Williams reciprocated the interest, and a deal was worked out between the sides. In July of 1998, Zanardi signed a three-year contract to join Williams, and Montoya signed a three-year contract to replace him at Ganassi. This marked a return to F1 for the Italian, who had previously raced in the series from 1991 through 1994 with very little success. It was hoped that, having done so well in the CART series in the interim, that he would be able to build on that success and become a dominant F1 driver for a team that was looking to regain its championship form.

However, if 1998 was a struggle, 1999 proved even more so. Running another series of rebadged Renault engines, this time under the Supertec branding, Williams finished with a total of 35 points and once again failed to win a Grand Prix. Furthermore, all of those points were scored with Schumacher, who took a third place in Australia and Britain and a second place in Italy. Zanardi, meanwhile, struggled mightily in his return to F1 and retired from eleven events, finishing eighth twice; he was one of six drivers, including former world champion Villeneuve, to not record a single point for the season. Schumacher's point total left him sixth in the final standings, finishing behind brother Michael who missed most of the season after breaking his leg in a crash at Silverstone.

BMW engines (2000–2005)

In 1998, the team signed a long-term agreement with German manufacturer BMW to supply engines and expertise for a period of 6 years. As part of the deal, BMW expected at least one driver to be German, which led to the team's signing of Ralf Schumacher for the subsequent season. In 1999, the team had a Williams car with a BMW engine testing at circuits, in preparation for a debut in the 2000 season.

There were major sponsorship changes for 2000–2005, as Rothmans International had been purchased in 1999 by British American Tobacco (BAT), which owned British American Racing and chose not to renew Rothmans's contract with Williams. BMW paid for Williams cars to be entirely in blue and white – unlike the standard motorsport livery scheme, dominated by the colours of the team or major sponsors with the logos of minor sponsors in their own colour schemes. Williams's second major sponsor became Compaq, and following Compaq's acquisition the team debuted Hewlett-Packard (HP) sponsorship at the 2002 British Grand Prix. In a cross-promotion of this technological partnership, a worldwide television commercial featured drivers Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya seemingly driving their BMW Williams cars around a track by radio control from a grandstand.

The new "clean" image allowed Williams to sign a cigarette anti-craving brand, Niquitin, and Anheuser-Busch, alternating with the Budweiser beer brand and SeaWorld Adventure Parks, in compliance with trademark disputes or alcohol bans.

To replace Zanardi, Britain's Jenson Button made his series debut. The first season of Williams's partnership with BMW did not yield a single victory, but they managed to get on the podium three times, with Ralf Schumacher responsible for all three. Williams finished third in the Constructors' Championship, with 36 points, one more than the prior year. Ralf Schumacher finished fifth in the Drivers' Championship, while Button, in his debut season, finished in eighth. Button made scrappy mistakes in early races (Monaco, Europe), but overall made an impressive debut in Melbourne, and continued to impress, notably at Silverstone, Spa, and Suzuka.

In 2001, the arrangement between Williams and Ganassi came to an end, and thus Williams was able to bring Juan Pablo Montoya back to drive full-time for the team. He was returning after two successful years in CART, where he succeeded Zanardi as champion for 1999 and won ten races total; he also had become the first CART driver since the infamous 1996 split of American open-wheel racing to win the Indianapolis 500, doing so in 2000.

Cosworth engines (2006)

Williams opted for Cosworth V8 engines for the 2006 which saw Nico Rosberg replace Nick Heidfeld, who departed for BMW Sauber, while Mark Webber stayed on with the team. Despite having signed a contract to race for Williams, Jenson Button decided to stay with BAR for 2006 as it was to become a Honda works team. In September 2005 a deal was reached to allow Button to remain with BAR, with Williams receiving around £24m, some of it paid by Button himself, to cancel this contract.

Williams and Cosworth entered a partnership agreement where Cosworth would supply engines, transmissions and associated electronics and software for the team. Major sponsors Hewlett-Packard concluded sponsorship agreements one year before their official end of contract. The Williams team also switched to Bridgestone tyres.

The season started well, with both drivers scoring points in the opening race of the season, and Nico Rosberg setting the fastest lap at the Bahrain Grand Prix. The rest of the season was disappointing for Williams, with 20 retirements out of 36 starts for the two cars. The team failed to finish on the podium all season, the first time this had happened since Williams's debut season in 1977. The team eventually finished eighth in the Constructors' Championship, with only 11 points.

Customer Toyota engines (2007–2009)

Following Williams's worst points tally since 1978, the team announced that they would be switching from Cosworth to Toyota as their engine supplier for the 2007 season. In addition, the Toyota engine customer deal also included Magneti Marelli Step 11 engine control unit (ECU) systems and Panasonic battery package as it was used by the manufacturer's works team. A number of other changes were announced for 2007: Alexander Wurz, who had been a test driver at Williams since 2006, became the team's second driver to replace the outgoing Mark Webber; Japanese driver Kazuki Nakajima, son of Satoru, replaced Wurz as a test driver alongside Karthikeyan. Sponsorship saw a change in 2007, as it was announced that AT&T would become the title sponsors for the team from the upcoming season. AT&T was previously involved as minor sponsors with the Jaguar and McLaren teams but moved to Williams following McLaren's announcement of a title sponsorship deal with Vodafone, a competitor of AT&T. On 2 February, the new FW29 was presented to the media in the UK. Soon afterwards, the team secured a sponsorship deal with Lenovo who built the team's new supercomputer.

Rosberg and Wurz gave Williams a more productive season in terms of points and, in Montreal, Wurz scored the team's first podium finish since Nick Heidfeld's second-place at the 2005 European Grand Prix. Over the course of the year, Rosberg was consistently in the points, scoring 20 during the season; in comparison, teammate Wurz finished in the points three times. Following the announcement that Wurz would be retiring from the sport, Williams brought in their young test driver Nakajima to drive the second car for them in the final race in Brazil. The Japanese driver finished in tenth despite starting from near the back of the grid, while Rosberg enjoyed his best race of the season, finishing in fourth. Williams finished fourth in the Constructors' Championship that year.

For the 2008 season, Williams confirmed Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima as their race drivers. Rosberg was confirmed as staying with Williams until the end of 2009 on 9 December 2007, ending speculation that he could take Fernando Alonso's vacated seat at McLaren. During the Winter testing sessions, the team ran six different liveries to celebrate their 30th year in the sport and their 500th Grand Prix.

The 2008 season was a mixture of success and disappointment for Williams. While Rosberg managed to obtain 2 podiums in Australia and Singapore, the team struggled at circuits with high-speed corners. The fact that the team was one of the first to switch development to their 2009 car (when new regulations came in) also hindered their season and Williams finished a disappointing 8th in the Constructors' Championship. Rosberg stated that unless the team was more competitive in the near future, he would look to drive elsewhere. Williams retained Rosberg and Nakajima for the 2009 season.

Return to Cosworth engines (2010–2011)

After the termination of their Toyota contract, Williams announced that from the 2010 season they were to enter into a "long-term partnership" with Cosworth, and would be using an updated version of the CA V8 engine which powered their cars in 2006. Williams also announced a complete driver change for the 2010 season. Rubens Barrichello joined from 2009 Constructors' Champion Brawn GP, whilst GP2 champion Nico Hülkenberg graduated from the test driver seat. Replacing Hülkenberg in the test seat was Finland's Valtteri Bottas, who finished third in the 2009 Formula Three Euroseries as well as winning the non-championship Masters of Formula 3 event at Zandvoort.

Their new 2010 car, the Williams FW32, was unveiled for the first time at a shakedown test at Silverstone. Its first official test was on 1 February at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia. Hülkenberg took the team's first pole position in over five years, in variable conditions at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Hülkenberg was dropped from the team ahead of the 2011 season, and replaced by Venezuelan newcomer and reigning GP2 Series champion Pastor Maldonado. The combination of Barrichello and Maldonado meant that 2011 would be the first time since 1981 that Williams would start a season without a European driver in their line-up.

At the second pre-season test in Jerez, Barrichello posted the fastest time of the week on the last day. That was to no avail as Williams endured one of their worst seasons to date: two ninth places for Barrichello and one tenth place for Maldonado were their best results during the entire year. After Brazil, the team ended with a ninth place in the Constructors' Championship.

Return to Renault engines (2012–2013)

On 4 July 2011, Williams announced they would be reuniting with engine-supplier Renault who were to supply the team's engines from 2012 onwards. On 1 December 2011, it was confirmed that Maldonado would be retained for the 2012 season, along with reserve driver Valtteri Bottas, who took part in 15 Friday practice sessions. In January 2012, it was confirmed that Bruno Senna would be the driver to partner Maldonado, effectively ending Rubens Barrichello's F1 career.

Prior to the 2012 season, Patrick Head moved from the Williams F1 team to Williams Hybrid Power Limited, another subsidiary of Williams Grand Prix Holdings. The team also announced that its relationship with AT&T ended by mutual agreement, and there were negotiations with another telecommunications company for team's title sponsorship. At the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix, Pastor Maldonado took his only Grand Prix victory, which was also Williams's first race victory since 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix. Around 90 minutes after celebrating this win, a fire broke out in the garage of the Williams team, damaging the FW34 of Bruno Senna and leaving several injured. The team eventually achieved eighth position in the Formula One World Constructors' Championship.

Claire Williams, the daughter of team principal Frank Williams, was appointed deputy principal in March 2013. Maldonado was retained by the team for 2013 and was joined by Bottas, promoted from his role as test driver. The team struggled throughout the season, despite a good qualifying session at the Canadian Grand Prix and a place in the top 10 at the United States Grand Prix, scoring only five points in the World Constructors' Championship.

While Williams enjoyed a victory in the 2012 season and occasional points finishes, they did not reach the same heights as was achieved during their domination of Formula One during the 1990s. This, combined with an absolutely dismal 2013 season, prompted Williams to look for a new engine supplier from the 2014 season onwards.

Mercedes power units (2014–present)

In May 2013, Williams signed a long-term contract with Mercedes to supply engines for the team, the German manufacturer providing 1.6-litre V6 turbo engines from the start of the 2014 season. Bottas was retained as driver for 2014, and Felipe Massa was signed from Ferrari to replace Maldonado. The team also unveiled a new, multi-year title sponsorship deal with drinks brand Martini.

The team won its first pole position since 2012, courtesy of Massa at the Austrian Grand Prix; it was the only time that Mercedes would be beaten to pole position over the course of the 2014 season. With Bottas qualifying alongside Massa, it was also the first time the team had locked out the front row since the 2003 German Grand Prix. The team enjoyed an upturn in performance, including a double podium in Abu Dhabi, resulting in them taking third place in the Constructors' Championship. They repeated this feat in the 2015 season, despite a low-key season owing to the resurgence of Ferrari.

The team went into the 2016 season with Bottas and Massa retained. Former Ferrari Driver Academy member Lance Stroll joined the team as a development driver; Alex Lynn became a reserve driver with Paul di Resta who was announced on 13 March, following Susie Wolff's retirement from motorsport.

In September 2016, Massa announced his intentions to retire from Formula One, with Stroll later announced as his replacement for 2017. Following Nico Rosberg's decision to retire, the team released Bottas from his contract to allow him to take his place at Mercedes, with Massa returning to the team on a one-year deal.

Massa was forced to withdraw from the 2017 Hungarian Grand Prix due to illness; the team then announced that Paul di Resta would be racing alongside Stroll instead.

On 4 November 2017, Felipe Massa announced his decision to retire from F1. Renault reserve driver and 2016 GP2 Series 3rd-place finisher Sergey Sirotkin was signed as his replacement for 2018, with Robert Kubica joining the team as a reserve and development driver.

Williams struggled over the course of the 2018 season, scoring only 7 points and finishing last in the Constructors' Championship standings. Although the FW41 rarely suffered from reliability issues, it was significantly off the pace; the team's highest finish was Stroll's 8th-place finish in Azerbaijan. The team's only other points finish was at the Italian Grand Prix, with Stroll finishing 9th and Sirotkin scoring his first championship point in 10th. This was also the only Grand Prix of the season in which the team reached the third qualifying session, with Stroll starting 10th on the grid.

Williams Group

Williams Grand Prix Holdings is the public company of Williams Group, which includes the Formula One Team and others like Williams Heritage, Williams Grand Prix Technologies (WGPT), and collaborations with other brands. It was also the former parent company of Williams Hybrid Power & Williams Advanced Engineering. Both of these businesses took technology developed for F1 and adapted it for multiple commercial applications. Williams Hybrid Power was sold to GKN in March 2014 and Williams Advanced Engineering was sold to Fortescue in February 2022.

Williams Grand Prix Holdings is currently owned by Dorilton Capital who purchased the team on 21 August 2020. With the acquisition, Claire Williams was offered the chance to stay on as a team principal but that offer was declined. The 2020 Italian Grand Prix in Monza was the last race where the Williams family led the team.

The sale happened after years of financial difficulties. Reuters reported on 20 November 2009 that founders Sir Frank Williams and Patrick Head had sold a minority stake in the team to an investment company led by Toto Wolff. In February 2011, Williams F1 announced plans to raise capital through an initial public offering (IPO) on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (FWB) in March 2011, with Sir Frank Williams remaining the majority shareholder and team principal after the IPO.

In December 2017 Sir Frank Williams owned 51.3% of the company, with 24.1% on the public marketplace, Brad Hollinger owning 11.7%, Patrick Head 9.3%, and 3.6% is held by an employee trust fund. However, in May 2020, Williams was put up for sale after posting a £13 million loss in the previous year.

Williams Heritage

Williams Heritage (WH) is the retired chassis and restoration division of Williams F1 (similar to Ferrari F1 Clienti and Classic Team Lotus) that keeps and maintains old retired Williams Formula One chassis that are no longer in racing use. The division's headquarters are located at the Formula One team's site in Grove, Oxfordshire. Williams Heritage manage the restorations, maintenance and on-track activities of the entire Williams collection, as well as privately owned Williams cars. The division was created by Jonathan Williams and the current Heritage Director is Jonathan Kennard.

Williams Grand Prix Technologies

Williams Grand Prix Technologies (WGPT) was launched in April 2024, and the company applies the innovation and technologies of F1 to tackling clients' engineering challenges in other sectors. Services, capabilities and assets originally developed for and used by the Williams race team are offered by WGPT to a range of sectors that include the wider motorsport sector, premium automotive, aerospace, defence, marine, energy, sport and lifestyle.

Services offered by WGPT include F1 standard platform dynamics, advanced materials, simulation and modelling, and instrument and data analytics. These core engineering services are supported by a range of in-house prototype testing and evaluation resources that include a wind tunnel, a driver-in-the-loop simulator, single-axis testing machines, an 8-post rig, chassis rig, and bedplate testing.

Williams Driver Academy

Like most F1 teams, Williams operates its own driver academy. As of 2025, the Williams Driver Academy's roster is Jamie Chadwick and Luke Browning.

Former drivers include Franco Colapinto, Logan Sargeant, Lance Stroll, Oliver Rowland, Nicholas Latifi, Dan Ticktum, and Jack Aitken. Both Colapinto and Stroll are driving in Formula One as of the 2026 season, while Sargeant, Latifi, and Aitken are the other four members to drive in the sport.

Williams Experience Centre

The Williams Experience Centre is located at the home of the Williams Formula 1 team in Grove, Oxfordshire.

Originally the base of BMW's Le Mans project, the building was converted in 2002.

Other motorsports activities

Formula Two

Williams developed the car for the revived Formula Two championship, beginning in 2009. The design was originally created for a new, more-powerful offshoot of the Formula Palmer Audi series, however the car was re-purposed when Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision successfully bid for the rights to run the new Formula Two series.

Group B rallying (1985–1986)

The MG Metro 6R4 rally car was developed by Williams in 1984 on commission from Rover. The rally car was a MG Metro with a completely new V6 engine (mid-engined) and four-wheel drive, developed to the international Group B rallying regulations. Williams developed the car in just six months.

British Touring Car Championship (1995–1999)

Williams entered the British Touring Car Championship in 1995, taking over the works Renault programme. Alain Menu transferred from Renault Dealer Racing, with Will Hoy signed to partner him. Williams employed Ian Harrison, future director of Triple Eight Racing as team manager. While Menu was a championship contender, Hoy had constant failures and bad luck during the first half of the season. However, Hoy's luck changed and he won three races and scored several podium finishes in the second half of the year, eventually taking fourth in the championship while Menu finished second in the championship with seven wins. Renault won the manufacturers championship. 1996 was a more difficult year with the front-wheel-drive cars outclassed by the 4WD Audi A4s of Frank Biela and John Bintcliffe. Menu was second in the championship again, while Hoy finished a lowly ninth. 1997 was a breakthrough year for Williams, winning the drivers' championship with Menu, the manufacturers' trophy and teams' award. Other changes for the team saw Jason Plato replacing Hoy, taking third in the championship. The team won 15 races out of 24 in 1997. It also competed in the 1997 Bathurst 1000 with Menu and Plato leading for much of the early part of the race. Alan Jones drove the second car, his first appearance for Williams since 1981.

1998 saw few changes to the Williams team: the driver line-up was unchanged with Menu to defend his title alongside Plato, but the main sponsor for 1998 was Nescafé, with Renault still putting sponsorship in for the team. While the Renaults had a new look for 1998, the opposition had caught up after 1997, and both Menu and Plato had a more difficult season, finishing fourth and fifth in the championship. In the final round of 1998 at Silverstone, a third car was entered for Independents Champion Tommy Rustad. Renault ultimately finished third in the manufacturers trophy and second in the teams championship. 1999 was the most difficult season for Williams, as Menu left Renault after racing with the manufacturer since 1993. Plato was joined by Jean-Christophe Boullion. Nescafé were again the main sponsor for the Williams team in 1999. Renault did not have much luck in 1999 with engine failures haunting the team during the mid-part of the season. One win for Plato was the only success for the season, and Renault pulled out of the BTCC at the end of the season.

Le Mans 24 Hours and Sportscars (1998–2000)

Prior to their F1 partnership, Williams Motorsport built Le Mans Prototypes for BMW, known as the V12 LM and V12 LMR. The V12 LMR won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1999. The car was driven by Pierluigi Martini, Yannick Dalmas and Joachim Winkelhock, and operated by Schnitzer Motorsport under the name of BMW Motorsport.

Formula E

Williams's Advanced Engineering division collaborated with Jaguar Racing in its debut season. Williams had a contract to supply the battery system for the Gen3 Car from the 2021–22 Formula E World Championship.

Automobile activities

Jaguar C-X75

In May 2011 Jaguar announced a limited production of the C-X75 from 2013 to 2015, with a compact, forced induction petrol engine combined with electric motors instead of the micro gas turbines in the concept car. A maximum of 250 cars were planned to be built in partnership with Williams Advanced Engineering. The Jaguar C-X75 is a hybrid-electric, 2-seat, concept car produced by British automobile manufacturer Jaguar Cars in partnership with the derivative of the Formula One team, Williams Advanced Engineering which debuted at the 2010 Paris Motor Show.

Renault Clio Williams

The Williams name and logo were used on the Renault Clio Williams, a limited sports model of the production supermini, which was Formula One's safety car at the 1996 Argentine Grand Prix.

However, no input was provided by Williams into the development of the car.

Porsche 911 GT3R Hybrid

In 2010, through subsidiary Williams Hybrid Power, the company developed and supplied a flywheel-based kinetic-energy storage system for a variant of the Porsche 911 GT3 R, entered in various GT racing series. The car achieved its first victory on 28 May 2011 at the 4th round of the VLN Endurance Racing Championship held at the Nürburgring.

Former subsidiaries

WAE Technologies

WAE Technologies, formerly known as Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE), was the technology and engineering services business of the Williams Group. Based in the United Kingdom, it is located in a dedicated facility of 3,800 square metres (41,000 sq ft), adjacent to Williams Formula One facilities.

The company provides the battery technology used in Formula E and Extreme E, and has assisted the development of the electric Vanda Electric Dendrobium car from Singapore. It has worked with Jaguar to create the C-X75 hybrid supercar. WAE partnered once again with Jaguar to build new stunt C-X75s for the 24th James Bond film, Spectre.

WAE announced in June 2013 a new collaboration with Nismo, the performance-orientated brand of Nissan, to partner in the development of high-performance road cars.

WAE generated revenues of £10.9m in fiscal year 2014–15, with profits of £1m.

The company announced in August 2017 a collaboration with Singer Vehicle Design. The initial work is a modified, naturally aspirated, air-cooled, flat-six Porsche 911 engine with a 4.0L capacity, four valves per cylinder and four camshafts, rated at 500HP.

On 1 May 2019, Williams Advanced Engineering announced their partnership with the FIA sanctioned electric off-road racing series, Extreme E. Williams Advanced Engineering will supply the batteries for the first two seasons of Extreme E, which began in 2021.

On 2 May 2019, it was announced that Williams Advanced Engineering will supply the batteries for the multi-make ETCR series that is due to launch in 2020.

On 24 January 2022, the Australian mining firm Fortescue announced it had purchased Williams Advanced Engineering for £164m in an effort to meet its carbon neutral targets for 2030. In January 2023, the company was renamed WAE Technologies. In June 2024, the company was renamed again as Fortescue Zero.

Williams Hybrid Power

Williams Hybrid Power (WHP) was the division of Williams F1 that developed electromechanical flywheels for mobile applications such as buses, trams and high-performance endurance-racing cars. A hybrid system that uses a spinning composite rotor to store energy, these flywheels help a vehicle save fuel and ultimately reduce its CO2 emissions.

WHP was first established in 2008 and immediately set about developing a new flywheel energy-recovery system for the Williams F1 Team after the introduction of Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) into Formula One for the 2009 season. While other teams were pouring their efforts into electric battery systems, Williams F1 opted to go down the flywheel route because of a strong belief in the technology's wider applications. While it was never raced in Formula One due to technical changes, WHP has since seen its technology adapted for a range of applications. For example, the Audi R18 hybrid car that won the 2012 Le Mans 24 Hours used a WHP flywheel. WHP has also seen its flywheel technology introduced into a series of buses as part of a deal with the Go-Ahead Group, one of the UK's biggest transport operators. In April 2014, Williams Hybrid Power was sold to GKN.

Race cars

While the team has entered customer cars into Formula One races since 1974 (running as the predecessor Frank Williams Racing Cars before 1978), the first being the Williams FW (the FW standing for team founder Frank Williams), Williams has built and entered their own cars since their first season as a constructor in 1978. All of their cars are named after founder Frank Williams.

Formula One results

Constructors' Championships winning percentage: 18.8%

Drivers' Championships winning percentage: 14.6%

Winning percentage: 13.2%

Drivers' Champions

The following drivers won the Formula One Drivers' Championship for Williams:

Alan Jones (1980)

Keke Rosberg (1982)

Nelson Piquet (1987)

Nigel Mansell (1992)

Alain Prost (1993)

Damon Hill (1996)

Jacques Villeneuve (1997)

Complete F1 Esports Series results

(key (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

* Season still in progress