Williams F1 Team

British Formula One team and constructor

Frank Williams and Patrick Head's Grove Outfit

Built from a second start in 1977, Williams won nine constructors' championships and seven drivers' titles between 1980 and 1997.

Williams Grand Prix Engineering was Frank Williams's second attempt at running a Formula One team. His earlier outfit, Frank Williams Racing Cars, had struggled and passed to Walter Wolf, so in 1977 Williams started again in Didcot with Patrick Head as his engineering partner. The new team ran a March chassis that first year, then raced its own car, the Head designed FW06, from the 1978 Argentine Grand Prix. Its home today is a large site in Grove, Oxfordshire.

The first win came at the 1979 British Grand Prix with Clay Regazzoni. Alan Jones won 11 races for the team and the 1980 drivers' title, Williams took the constructors' championships of 1980 and 1981, and Keke Rosberg was champion in 1982. With Honda engines Nelson Piquet won the 1987 title as the team collected constructors' crowns in 1986 and 1987.

The partnership with Renault was the most productive of all, bringing 64 wins and five constructors' titles in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996 and 1997. Nigel Mansell, who won 28 races for Williams, was champion in 1992, Alain Prost in 1993, Damon Hill in 1996 and Jacques Villeneuve in 1997. Villeneuve's victory at the 1997 British Grand Prix was the team's hundredth.

Later years brought wins with BMW engines, six of them for Ralf Schumacher, and a final victory to date for Pastor Maldonado at the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix. In August 2020 the team was bought by Dorilton Capital, and Frank Williams and his daughter Claire left its management. Through the rounds held so far in 2026, Williams has started 865 races as a constructor and won 114, and it races on as Atlassian Williams F1 Team with Alexander Albon and Carlos Sainz Jr.

Drivers

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