July 26th, 2008
Flashback - When Williams used to be red - When ?
Williams - those blue or blue and white cars, at least that is how they have looked in these past few years. But it hasn’t been that long ago that Williams painted their cars red. They used red liveries for 2 years back in the nineties. Can you recall when was that ? What drivers drove for the teams in those 2 years ?
Here are few pictures that might help …
Photos: Williams/LAT
tags: Tags: Flashback, formula 1, History, Williams
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July 26th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
They went with Winfeld sponsorship and ran the red liveries in 1998 and 99 (look terrible compared to the Rothmans and Canon liveries they had beforehand),Drivers were Jacques Villeneuve , Ralf Schumacher , Alessandro Zanardi and Heinz-Harald Frentzen.
July 26th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
I imagine that you didn’t care about the drivers order, but I doubt much that Ralf Schumacher performed well as second driver having beside Jacques Villeneuve as first driver
Against Zanardi it was pretty easier HAHA!! The correct order finds bellow 
July 26th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Did not take too long
About a year ago I made a post on Ralf Schumacher and his team mates:
http://www.f1wolf.com/2007/06/ralf-schumacher-should-he-be-sacked.html
July 26th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
It is easy!!! During 1998-1999, after winning two constructor championships and drivers championships with Damon Hill (96) and Jacques Villeneuve (97).
The partnership with Renault ended (I damn them!), and Rothmans, who actually gave the blue-while colors to the car due their sponsorship, gave a chance to another of its brands, Winfield (http://www.subliminalworld.org/99bfocus.jpg), so the cars livery painting turned to be red-white and kangaroo warning yellow signal with this new sponsorship. The car also was painted on the nosecone with ‘Woody Woodpecker’ head, from J.B. Hardaway. The devil will know why??? I don’t seem to find a logical answer. The Senna S’s should be over there to as a tribute to himself, since the Brazilian driver perished at Imola 94.
As the motors Renault left Williams F1, the team needed to get a new partnership, actually bought the engines to Mecachrome, the Supertec motors. Less powerful and rather obsolete, but still being the design from Renault (Mecachrome was belonging to the French company).
Newey moved to McLaren for a better salary, where had rather success taking with himself ideas which could have been developed in Williams the next seasons… Pretty bad!! But the new regulations from the FIA where really the worst kick to the development of the FW20 and FW21.
So, who drove the cars??? The world champion Jacques Villeneuve had to lead with the unperforming FW20, and as second driver was Heinz-Harald Frentzen duing 98’s season, the car achieved just three podiums. Drivers couple for next season during 99 was completely new, Sir Frank Williams brought another champion from the CART, Alessandro Zanardi (less performing than the car itself), and Ralf Schumacher with a successfully agreement with BMW, next engines supplier for the next season in the year 2000.
After both depressive seasons, the BMW powerful motors and new sponsorships helped the team to rise again for some more golden years. None with any championship, but leading the grid in performance terms and pushing on the ropes teams as Ferrari, McLaren, Benetton or BAR.
What else you wanna know???
July 26th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
If somebody owns any trouble to remember some details about the history of the Williams F1 Engineering, then take a look to one helpful site: http://www.attwilliams.com/team/timeline
July 26th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
basicaly, since they painted their cars red, they haven’t won any titles
July 27th, 2008 at 4:59 am
After all, being a private team is really complicate. The time of the great alliances ended, Toyota isn’t giving all it’s potential to Williams because themselves rule a team (same with RBR and Renault, but seems they’re getting propper advantage from Newey).
One thing is true, who owns this designer in the team owns some gained time in the car’s development. Basically, there isn’t lack of development in the cars from Frank Williams, just an abyss of time separate the speed in which McLaren or Ferrari get advances and the new solutions which Williams has. I think the difference of budget is mainly the most significant, than more you waste than faster you get these developments.
And since the greater budgets of Williams went away with Ford, Honda, Renault and BMW (they’re more than sponsorship or engine suppliers, they were actually a technical partner which took part in the entire development of the cars). The team is leading the pursuit to work almost “alone”, just as a private team, it’s rather comprehensive that now they’re not 1st, 2nd or 3rd after a race.
July 28th, 2008 at 2:52 am
[...] har en intressant artikel med lite bilder om tiden då Williams körde røda bilar. Lite kul att glutta på om man inte har [...]