Williams F1 is one of the world’s leading Formula One teams – and the Williams name has been synonymous with top-level motor racing since the 1960s.
After running teams on the sport’s nursery slopes, patron Frank Williams entered the F1 arena in 1969 and soon earned a reputation as one of the industry’s most determined individuals. Having sold his controlling interest in the original team, Frank founded Williams Grand Prix Engineering in 1977 and built his first eponymous car the following year.
Since then, Williams has won 16 FIA Formula One World Championships (nine for constructors, in partnership with Cosworth, Honda and Renault, and seven for drivers, with Alan Jones, Keke Rosberg, Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve). Williams employs about 500 personnel at its technology campus in Grove, Oxfordshire, where it designs and manufactures Formula One racing cars that compete in every grand prix (19 races in 2010). The team’s endeavours have earned Frank Williams a knighthood as well as the French equivalent, the Légion d’honneur.
