Joytech WILLIAMSF1 User Manual

The WilliamsF1 Story 01 – 05

User Guide

English 06 – 14

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SVENSKA 33 – 41

HOLLANDS 42 – 50

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PORTUGUÊS 69 – 77

USER GUIDE CONTENTS

The WilliamsF1 Story

Just prior to the start of the 1986 season, the team
was dealt a severe blow. While leaving a pre-season
test at the Paul Ricard circuit in France, Team
Principal Frank Williams’ car left the road and
overturned. It was an accident that left him
confined to a wheelchair and very nearly claimed his
life but, instead of bemoaning his fate, he fought his
way back to lead the company. The year also saw the
appointment of the former World Champion,
Brazilian Nelson Piquet, a worthy replacement for
Keke Rosberg. He quickly adapted to the FW11 and
took the new car to victory in the debut race in
Brazil. The team went on to win nine Grand Prix in
1986 and secured the prestigious Constructors’ World
Championship for the third time.

Success continued in 1987 with the team winning nine races again with the modified FW11. This time
they made sure of not only the Constructors’ but also the Drivers’ Championship, with Piquet taking
his third title and Mansell runner-up for the second consecutive year.

After the experience of the Honda years, and the increasing competitiveness and cost of F1, it
became apparent that the only route to success relied on securing the backing from a major motor
manufacturer. This ambition was realised in July 1988 when the team signed a three-year deal with
Renault for the supply of their new V10 engines.

Technical Director, Patrick Head designed the FW13 chassis to house the new Renault engine and
Belgian driver, Thierry Boutsen, joined the team in 1989, replacing Nigel Mansell and partnering
Riccardo Patrese.

This proved a popular and successful choice, and at Canada in very wet conditions Boutsen scored his
maiden Grand Prix win and also the first for the new partnership. Boutsen also went on to notch up
his second victory at the final race of the year in Adelaide, again in atrocious weather conditions. It
was also a great year for Patrese. He appeared on the podium six times, led several races, finished
third in the Drivers’ World Championship and helped the team to runner-up place in the Constructors’
World Championship.

1990 got off to a good start with Boutsen taking his FW13B to third in Phoenix. At the third race of
the year, the San Marino Grand Prix, there was a fairytale end to the weekend when Patrese won his
third race; having been starved of GP success for over seven years. Boutsen’s turn came in Hungary
where he claimed his first ever pole position and went on to win an impressive flag to flag victory.
These two wins and several other podiums meant the team concluded the season in fourth place in
the Constructors’ World Championship.

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The WilliamsF1 Story

WilliamsF1 (formerly Williams Grands Prix
Engineering) was founded in 1977 by Frank Williams
and Patrick Head. With a staff of only 17, they set
about the business of designing race cars to contest
the FIA Formula One Championship.

By the start of the 1978 season, the first Patrick
Head-designed Formula One car, the FW06, broke
cover, and Frank Williams had secured sufficient
sponsorship to tempt the Australian driver, Alan
Jones, to join the team. The essential combination of
a rigorous car design, a talented driver and sufficient
finance was the starting point for the development
of a reputation that has spanned 25 years.

In 1979, Jones continued as team leader with Swiss driver and Ferrari and Ensign exile Clay Regazzoni
joining Williams in a second car. The team came of age at the British Grand Prix in 1979 when,
Regazzoni drove to victory after Jones disappointingly retired from the lead thus claiming the team’s
debut win at its home Grand Prix. The win opened the floodgates and Jones claimed four of the six
remaining race wins that season.

In 1980, Jones, now partnered by Argentine Carlos Reutermann, led the team beyond the
achievements of winning races to claiming their first Constructor’s Championship, and in the process
earned himself a world driver’s crown. Williams garnered an unchallenged three further Constructor’s
titles in the 1980s, making it the most successful team of the decade.

In 1983, Grand Prix racing’s normally aspirated era was coming to an end, and Williams Grand Prix
Engineering subsequently announced a new association with Honda, with the Anglo-Japanese
turbo-powered race car taking to the grid for the final race of the season.

In 1984 the team climbed a steep learning curve with the new turbo technology, but the season was
highlighted by Rosberg’s Dallas win, which was indicative of the form to follow. The team also moved
into a superb new custom-built factory facility just a mile from their original home at Didcot.

In 1985, the redoubtable personality of Keke Rosberg
was augmented by a new signing in the guise of
Nigel Mansell. Together with the new all-composite
chassis car, the FW10, the season started slowly, but
reached new heights, as both drivers climbed to the
top of the victory podium no less than four times.

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The WilliamsF1 Story

Halfway through the 1990 season Nigel Mansell, announced his retirement after a disappointing
British Grand Prix while driving for Ferrari. Frank Williams persuaded him to change his mind and he
re-signed for the team for whom he would win more Grand Prix than any other driver.

The 1991 Canon backed team proved a winning combination and came close to winning in half of
the season’s races, with Mansell scoring five wins and Patrese two.

In 1992 at the first race in South Africa, Mansell and Patrese finished first and second with the
FW14B specified with active suspension. This chassis remains probably the most sophisticated racing
car ever built.

And so began a winning streak for Mansell, who became the first driver to win the opening five races
of a season. His record breaking did not stop and he became the first driver to win nine races in one
season and to be on pole 14 times.

When Mansell came second in Hungary he clinched the Drivers’ World Championship, the first British
driver to do so since James Hunt in 1976. In Belgium, WilliamsF1 and Renault took the Constructors’
title, the first ever for Renault, and to end the winning year Patrese finished runner-up to Mansell in
the drivers’ championship.

For 1993, it was all change in the driver line-up, with three-time World Champion, Alain Prost, and
official test driver, Damon Hill, taking over from Mansell and Patrese. They took up where Mansell
and Patrese left off, retaining the Constructors’ title, while Prost clinched his fourth drivers’ title
and Hill won his debut GP in Hungary. Soon after clinching the title, Prost decided to make the ’93
season his last in competitive racing, leaving the door open for three-times World Champion, Ayrton
Senna, to join the team.

So the 1994 championship started with the new look Rothmans Williams Renault team and drivers,
Ayrton Senna and Damon Hill, ably supported by new official test driver, David Coulthard.

During the third Grand Prix of the year at Imola in
Italy, Ayrton Senna was killed while leading the race
when his car left the circuit at the notorious
Tamburello corner and crashed into a concrete wall.
The world of motor racing was stunned and the
close-knit team was shattered by the tragic death of
the driver who many people regarded as simply
the best.

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The WilliamsF1 Story

The fight back typified the character of the team. As
a mark of respect only one car was entered for the
next race in Monaco and then four weeks after that
tragic day in Imola, Hill won the Spanish Grand Prix
in Barcelona and dedicated his victory to both Ayrton
and the team.

For this race, Hill was partnered by David Coulthard,
who drove the second car for eight of the remaining
races. For the other four races, Nigel Mansell came
back from the USA, where he was racing in the Indy
Car series. After the win in Barcelona, Hill went on to

score another five victories. In such a tragic year it
was testimony to the strength of the team that they retained the Constructors’ World Championship,
to close a season that will never be forgotten.

For 1995 it was Hill and Coulthard who drove for the team and the pair notched up five victories in
the FW17.

Jacques Villeneuve, the 1995 Indy Car Champion and son of the late Gilles Villeneuve, joined the team
for the 1996. The team had achieved good results during pre-season testing but it was not until the
first race in Melbourne that the FW18’s true potential was shown. New boy Jacques was the star of
the show, claiming pole. With Damon second on the grid, the pair were over half a second quicker
than the nearest opposition. They continued their domination in the race and eventually Damon
won, with Jacques second.

The team went on to win 12 of the 16 races that season, with eight races being credited to Damon
and four to Jacques. The Constructors’ Championship was sewn up by the Hungarian Grand Prix. The
Drivers’ Championship was led from start to finish by Damon, with Jacques second, but was taken
down to the wire with the final race in Suzuka seeing the title settled. Damon needed just one point
to win and for Jacques it was a win or nothing. In the end Damon led the race from the lights to the
chequered flag while Jacques was forced to retire. This was Damon’s first and the team’s sixth Drivers’
World Championship.

German driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen joined up the team in 1997 to partner Jacques. There were
celebrations at Silverstone with the 100th Grand Prix win at the scene of the very first victory 18 years
previously. The famous WilliamsF1 determination had kicked in and by round 14, the Austrian Grand
Prix, the team was back at the top of the championship table where it would stay. A record-breaking
ninth Constructors’ World Championship was sealed at the Japanese Grand Prix. An emotional World
Championship victory for Jacques in the last race at Jerez sealed the delight of the entire team.

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