A Test Of Strength - Williams-Honda F1 Partnership

It was the beggining of the 1980s and after 5 years of racing, Frank Williams’ team was finally showing what they were capable of with a victory in the constructors championship in 1980. However, in 1982 the team (although their driver Keke Rosberg won the drivers championship) was losing ground. Falling from a first place to a 5th in the 1982 season. They had to come up with something new and had to do it quick.

After a winning the championship in 1980. Williams was falling back to a 5th place the next year.

Williams was a relatively new team when it first won the Constructors Championship. With their Cosworth powered FW08 driven by Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann, the car won 4 races. Achieving a total of 13 podiums and 2 Pole Positions. However the next year, 1982, the teams performance was fading. They won only 1 race, making it one of only two podium finishes. That was when the team looked at Honda, who developed the engine for the cars of the Spirit Team.

In 1983, Williams looked at Honda power units. The same the Japanese were using for the Spirit Team

Honda was pleased with Williams’ offer. Not only did the British team had been World Champion in the recent years, they also had Keke Rosberg driving for them. (Compared with Spirit/Honda’s, rookie Steffan Jahansson) So that same year, Honda dumped the Spirit Team, leaving it to fend for itself. (Spirit will go bankrupt in 1985) The deal stated that Honda was to supply the engines to Williams for the 1984 season, however Williams would be in charge of the engines development. Williams would finish the 1983 season using the Ford engines except for the last race, the South African GP, where the new Williams-Honda finished on both 5th place and on a nearby wall.

For the 1984 season, Williams presented its Honda powered FW09

Many new partnerships tend to start badly, however, not for Williams. The 1984 season started out very well for the Anglo-Japanese team. They raced their new car with the same line up as the previous year, with Keke Rosberg and Jacques Laffite. On the first race, (Brazil) Laffite retired due to an electrical failure. However the team’s exitement was not diminished, since Rosberg who started 9th, had fought his way through and was now holding 3rd place, which would later become a 2nd due to British driver Derek Warwick having to retire. Rosberg finished behind the almighty TAG-McLaren of Alain Prost.

Rosberg (yellow) managed to get 2nd place in the first race of the 1984 season

Although when it worked gave an amazing performance, the car spent most of the time in the pits, and the team, in the exit. The same car that had managed to keep up with the pace of the TAG-McLarens, was a terribly designed piece of engineering. Both drivers found extra power of the engine usefull, but the chassis suffered from the sudden bursts of power that it gave, messing with the balance of the car. The engine power delivery was so abrupt that parts of the engine block actually twisted during the race. The body was found to produce a lot of drag at high speed. The problems with the 1984 chassis were noticed, opening the FOCA’s season review video saying “Rosberg had managed to make the Williams look driveable”. Reliability was also a problem, with Laffite only finishing 5 races during the whole season, although the Honda powered FW09s were the fastest through the speed traps. Rosberg had a more successful year than Laffite, managing to handle the car’s unpredictable handling and winning the Dallas Grand Prix for his and the team’s first win since the 1983 Monaco Grand Prix, and giving Honda its first Formula One Grand Prix win since John Surtees won the 1967 Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Although hard to drive, the FW09, driven by Rosberg, gave Williams its only win of the season in the Dallas GP, a race in which only 8 of the 26 cars finished the race.

A modified version of the car, called the FW09B was presented at Brands Hatch for the 1984 British Grand Prix. Unfortunately from that race until the end of the season both Rosberg and Laffite only recorded one finish each, none in the points. One particular event that became a summary of Williams’s season was at the Austrian Grand Prix, which was at the time the fastest circuit used by Formula One, with average lap speeds as high as 150+ mph. Rosberg drove into the pits from 9th place and informed technical director Patrick Head that he was retiring the car because it was dangerously unstable at the Österreichring’s very fast sweepers and he was afraid of an accident. The Finnish driver had amazing reflexes, a flat-out driving style and was not the type that quits out of fear. Williams, which along with Ferrari and Brabham was one of the few race winners in a season dominated by McLaren, would finish 6th in the championship, behind Ferrari, Lotus, Brabham, Renault, and of course, the invincible McLaren.

A slightly modified version of the FW09 called the FW09B was introduced late in the season. It got a total of 2 race finishes

For the 1985 season Williams signed an interesting driver to take the place of Laffite. The world’s fastest mustache, Nigel Mansell. This season was a return to shape for the Anglo-Japanese team. The drivers raced the new car, the FW10, and scored a total of 8 podiums. Both Mansell and Rosberg won 2 races each. At the penultimate race, in South Africa, they even managed a 1-2 finish. By the end of the season, Williams placed 3rd on the Constructors championship, behind Ferrari and again McLaren.

In 1985, Williams presented a car that could finally give a run for their money to McLaren, the FW10, driven by Keke Rosberg and

1986 was a probably the most drama filled season Williams has had. That year, Keke Rosberg left Williams and now worked for the enemy, McLaren. As his replacement came Brazilian driver, Nelson Piquet. This team up gave us another of the greatest F1 rivalries ever seen, all happening under Williams’ roof. The season started in Brazil with Brazilian 1-2, a win for Piquet in the Williams FW11, and Ayrton Senna 2nd in Lotus.

The almighty team of Ron Dennis was losing ground, they only managed to get 4 victories. A lot less than the 12 they got on their first year with the TAG engines. Williams won the constructors championship with a total of 9 victories. 5 of Mansell and 4 for Piquet. They could have won the drivers championship, but the constant contact between the cars of both drivers made the championship escape both of them. At the end it was Alain Prost who took the championship, with Mansell 2nd and Piquet 3rd.

The FW11 gave Williams the 1986 constructors championship, however the drivers championship was won by Alain Prost, with the Williams drivers finishing 2nd and 3rd

1987 was another great season for Williams. The team had at least one driver in the podium on each race. (except Belgium, where both cars retired) The season was a constant domination by Williams. McLaren only managed to win 3 races, and was in a constant battle against Lotus and Ferrari for the 2nd place at the constructors championship.

Williams dominated the 1987 season with their FW11B, winning a total of 9 out of 16 races

Williams performed amazing, by the end of the season they had achieved 9 victories, 18 podiums (sum of Mansell and Piquet) and four 1-2 finishes. Beating McLaren by more than 60 points. This time however, the drivers got their act together and Piquet became World Champion for the 3rd time. Mansell finished 2nd and Ayrton Senna 3rd in the Lotus.

Williams literally took McLaren for a ride, ending with 3 years of dominance by the Woking team.

Piquet won the Drivers Championship in 1987

In 1988, Williams ran out of magic. Honda finished their deal with Williams and left to provide engines to McLaren, and we all know how that went. Not being able to find another engine supplier, Williams had to go with Judd engines. The team fell from 1st to 7th in the constructors championship that year. MMeanwhile, McLaren regained dominance to the series once again.

So guys that was the story of Williams and their adventure with V-Tec. I wanted to write about it because many people think McLaren was the first team to experience with the Japanese manufacturer, although they weren’t. What do you think of the story? Do you think Williams or any other team should give another chance to Honda power? Leave your opinion in the comments ;)

So guys, that is it for this article. If you have read until this point, thank you very much, I appreciatte it and I hope you’ve liked it ;)
I know I have been taking a little more to release new articles, but the thing is, I just returned to school last Monday, so my days aren’t as long as they used to. My next article will be another episode of the racing driver series (which I still need to think of a name for) and I hope it will be ready for Saturday.

That was all guys, have a good day/afternoon/night

F1Trooper out.