THE GOOD
FW07
The car that made the Williams name. It could hardly have been otherwise when an underbody tweak suddenly had the FW07 lapping Silverstone more than 1.5 seconds faster than anyone else – and on its way to the team’s maiden win with Clay Regazzoni in the 1979 British Grand Prix. Ground effect might have been pioneered by Lotus in 1977 but Patrick Head advanced the principle even further. The Williams technical director produced the neat and light FW07 for 1979 but teething problems affected the first few races. The car’s potential was suddenly released when, along with aerodynamicist Frank Dernie, Head tidied up the airflow around the base of the Ford-Cosworth V8. It was something they had been meaning to do for a while – but never quite got round to it. The performance improvement would be massively disproportionate to the simplicity of sealing a low-pressure area with metal panels. Four more wins would follow – too late to secure the 1979 championship – but the modified FW07B was on its way to giving Alan Jones the title the following year with five victories for the Australian, and a win for Carlos Reutemann in Belgium contributing to the first constructors’ championship for Williams.
FW11
The Williams-Honda FW11 might have been a superb car but 1986 was fraught with drama, worry and, ultimately, a failure to win the drivers’ championship
