Williams Racing

**Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited**, currently competing in Formula 1 as **BMW Williams Racing**, is a British Formula One motor racing team and constructor. It was founded by former team owner Frank Williams and automotive engineer Patrick Head. The team was formed in 1977 after Frank Williams's earlier unsuccessful F1 operation: Frank Williams Racing Cars (which later became Wolf–Williams Racing in 1976). All of Williams F1 chassis are called "FW" then a number, the FW being the initials of team co-founder and original owner, Frank Williams.

The team is headquartered in Grove, Oxfordshire, England, with a separate headquarters for their road car division, Williams ENA, at the historic Longbridge plant in Birmingham. The current owner and Team Principal of the team is Ronnie Williams.

## Claire Williams era (2014-2020)

#### **2014-2017 seasons, start of long term partnership with Mercedes**

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. As part of the deal, the team became Williams Martini Racing, except in Bahrain, Russia and Abu Dhabi, where the team is known as Williams Racing because of alcohol advertising restrictions.

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 therefore announced that Paul di Resta would be racing alongside Stroll instead.

#### **2018-2020: Continued decline**

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 Lance 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.

On 27 February 2018 Martini announced that they would leave Williams and Formula One at the end of the 2018 season. On 12 October 2018, the team announced that reigning Formula 2 champion George Russell would be joining the team for the 2019 season. On 22 November 2018 it was announced that reserve driver Robert Kubica would be promoted to the other seat, marking his return to Formula One after eight years away from the sport due to injury. For the 2019 season, the team entered into a partnership with Polish petroleum company PKN Orlen and a multi-year title sponsorship arrangement with telecommunications company ROKiT.

Williams missed the first two-and-a-half days of pre-season testing in Barcelona due to the FW42 not yet being ready, the only team to suffer such a setback. Williams began the season out of reach from being competitive. During qualifying at the season-opener in Australia, their fastest time was almost 1.3 seconds slower than the nearest competitor. In the race, Russell and Kubica finished two and three laps behind the leader respectively. The team's best result of the season came in Germany, where Kubica was classified 10th, the team's only points finish that season. However, this result only came after post-race penalties for other drivers. Upgrades came during the season with which the FW42 began to catch up to its competitors; Russell came within 0.1 seconds of reaching Q2 in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix and finished close to the points with 12th in Brazil. However, both cars would be eliminated in Q1 at every race of the season. Despite the team's lack of performance in comparison to 2014–2017, it has been confirmed that Williams have extended their engine supplier partnership with Mercedes until 2025.

On 19 September 2019, Williams announced that Kubica had decided to leave the team at the end of the 2019 season; he would go on to join Alfa Romeo as a reserve driver. 2019 Formula 2 Championship runner-up Nicholas Latifi was promoted from his role of reserve driver to replace Kubica for the 2020 season. Jack Aitken replaced Latifi as reserve driver. In May 2020, following publication of significant losses in 2019, Williams announced the immediate termination of its title sponsorship deal with ROKiT.

## Ronnie Williams era (2020-present)

#### **2020-2021: Return to form and final years with Mercedes**

On 21 August 2020, after rumors of the team being sold to an American investment firm circulated, Sir Frank Williams and Claire Williams announced that they would step down as team owner and team principal respectively, and in their place would be Ronnie Williams, who was once part of Lotus Cars' engineering department.

The team introduced the FW43B during the 2021 pre-season testing. The team made several improvements to the car, particularly on the aero side, thus resulting in improved performance compared to last year's car. The team also introduced a plan where the car will be incrementally upgraded throughout the rest of the season.

During the season start at Bahrain, the improved car saw George Russell and Nicholas Latifi take 11th and 15th, respectively. The team then saw a surprise podium during the race restart at Dubai, when Russell won third place despite colliding with Mercedes' Sir Lewis Hamilton near the finish. The team went on to gain more and more points, with another shock podium by Russell during the Indian Grand Prix. By the time the Brazilian Gran Prix ended, the team finished 8th with 123 points, their highest since 2016.

#### **2022-present: Mercgate and return to BMW engines**

During mid-season break, Mercedes-AMG and Williams stuck a deal where Valtteri Bottas and George Russell would exchange driver seats in exchange for Mercedes providing technical support to Williams in the form of free power units. The deal also included Mercedes giving £10 million to Williams for Russell, however the team became skeptical when Mercedes team principal James Vowles told Ronnie Williams that they were lacking funds, and offered more power units instead. Prior to the Singapore Grand Prix however, a massive cheating and money laundering scandal involving Vowles and the Mercedes team, called 'Mercgate' by the press, shocked the paddock, including the Williams team. Ronnie Williams then proceeded to cut all ties with Mercedes immediately afterwards, with George Russell staying for next year, joining Carlos Sainz Jr. who was recently plucked from Ferrari.

Following Mercgate, the team scrambled to find a new engine supplier for next year onwards. They eventually found BMW to be willing to provide power units to the team. They signed a co-engineering deal prior to the Japanese Grand Prix, with BMW utilizing Williams' recently unveiled ENA Hybrid System to cut on development time.

The team debuted the FW44 during a virtual launch event prior to pre-season testing. The car was designed with input from 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve. The car was initially designed with the Mercedes engine in mind, but was changed following BMW's re-entry. The car entered the season during the 2022 Australian Grand Prix, with Russell and Sainz finishing 12th and 10th, respectively.

## Williams Group

Williams Grand Prix Holdings is the public company of Williams Group, which includes the Formula One Team, Williams Advanced Engineering and others like Williams Heritage and collaborations with other brands.

#### **Williams Advance Engineering**

Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE) is 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.

WAE's target markets are: automotive, motorsport, civil aerospace, defence (land, sea and air), renewable energy and sports science.

The company provides the battery technology used in Formula E, and has assisted the development of the electric Vanda Dendrobium car from Singapore. It has worked with Jaguar to create the revolutionary 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.

The company announced in August 2017 a collaboration with Singer Vehicle Design. The first fruit of this work is a modified, naturally aspirated, air-cooled, flat-six Porsche 911 engine with a 4.0L capacity, four valves per cylinder and four cam-shafts, 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. The inaugural season of Extreme E began in 2021 in Saudi Arabia.

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.

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

#### **Williams ENA**

Williams ENA is the road car division of the Williams Group. Originally part of WAE as a hybrid powerplant project, it was later spun off into it's own company after owner Ronnie Williams saw potential in the technology. The Williams ENA division is not headquartered within the Grove facility, instead it is headquartered at the Longbridge plant in Birmingham. Founded by Jacques Villeneuve and Ronnie Williams, who serve as CEO and head engineer respectively, the company aims to provide fun, hybrid-powered or fully-electric cars to all social classes. The company's first road car model is the ENA W supercar.

#### **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 or are prepared for historic events and show runs or for the client that used in track. The division's headquarters are located at the Formula One team's Grove site and also manages and looks after the Williams Grand Prix collection. The division is currently managed by Jonathan Williams.