The Decline of Williams
Article written by David Lim
For most petrolheads, 2006 will be remembered as Michael Schumacher's last ever season in F1. In the season closing Brazilian Grand Prix, the great German gave a sparkling final movement to his wonderful career, coming back from being a minute behind the leaders to finish 4th, only 6 seconds from championship rival and winner, Fernando Alonso. 71 laps before, both Williams of Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg had collided with each other and were forced into retirement. For followers of the Williams team, this moment ultimately epitomized the present fortunes of a team once ranked as one of the superteams of Formula 1 but which observers deemed to now be in decline.
If anyone was looking for a starting point for this sudden steep decline which saw the team finish 8th this season ahead of only Toro Rosso (formerly Minardi), Midland Spyker (formerly Jordan) and Super Aguri (a completely new team at the start of the year), one might look at the day BMW announced it was ending its 6 year engine deal with Williams a year early, and buying out Peter Sauber's team. Perhaps the clearest sign of Williams' decline came in mid-2005, with the BMW partnership on the verge of divorce, when Jenson Button fought hard to make void his contract with Williams so that he could stay with BAR-Honda for 2006. At the time, neither team were having a particularly good year, and BAR were pointless until France - but clearly Button sensed that things weren't quite right at Williams and in the end a payout saw him stay with Honda.
In what would be its final year, the Williams-BMW partnership finished 5th in the 2005 constructors table with no wins, and two 2nd places for Nick Heidfeld in Monaco and the Nurburgring as their best results of the season. In 2004, the team had finished 4th with only one win to Juan Pablo Montoya in the last race of the season in Brazil, and in the 2 years before that the team had finished 2nd. In fact, 2003 was widely seen as a year when Williams-BMW had their best chance of winning both drivers and constructors titles but for misfortunes at the end of the season which cost both Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya badly. So it is safe to say the decline began 2 years ago in 2004 when high hopes of ending both Williams and BMW's long title droughts ended in disappointment and soured what was already a fairly turbulent relationship between the Grove outfit and the Munich car manufacturer.
By 2005, Schumacher and Montoya had left for Toyota and McLaren respectively - perhaps they might have something to say about their time at Williams - and Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld had stepped in to replace them. When BMW left for pastures anew, they took their compatriot, Nick Heidfeld along, forcing Frank Williams to sign Nico Rosberg, son of former world champion Keke Rosberg. Youthful exuberance was what Williams needed to revive their flagging fortunes and in the first races, it seemed that the team were doing alright with their "customer" Cosworth engines - Rosberg qualified 3rd in only his 2nd race in Malaysia. Williams started 2006 well with Webber and Rosberg 6th and 7th respectively in the first race in Bahrain - 5 team points.
They would only add 6 more points to that total for the rest of the year with poor reliability and lack of development, and ultimately Williams ended up in mid table. While Rosberg might have been positive for the team, there was concern that the team's apparent decline and lack of signs that they would be emerging from it could damage his long-term prospects in Formula 1. Before the end of the season, Mark Webber announced he was heading to join David Coulthard at Red Bull Racing for two years. Citing reasons for his departure, Webber claimed that Williams were underfunded and unable to challenge for the championship. Later, Webber also stated his dissatisfaction with his time at Williams. To add further salt to injury, Webber admitted he made a mistake when signing for Williams in 2005 and had gone against manager, Flavio Briatore's advice. Now it seemed half the grid didn't want to join Williams. Had the stench from the Williams F1 factory in Grove become too foul for drivers, teams and even car manufacturers?
It is rather sad to see a team like Williams which had produced some of the greatest cars ever to grace the sport in such terrible shape. When you think about great Williams cars, what comes to mind may be the brilliant active suspension Williams-Renault FW14B which dominated the 1992 championship and won Nigel Mansell the world title, the classic Williams-Hondas of 1986-1987 and their powerful Honda V6 turbos or the Williams-Ford FW07B which brought Williams their first drivers and constructors championship back in 1980. Williams was admired by racing fans for its best-driver-wins-on-the-day stance when it came to team-mates racing each other, especially in the 80s even if it cost them wins and even titles. 1986 always come to mind when both Williams drivers, Mansell and Piquet lost the title to Prost, which might have ultimately led to Honda heading to McLaren in 1988.
So what now for Williams? They've secured Toyota engines for 2006 but their relationship with their supplier will never be as good as one where the relationship is exclusive. Alexander Wurz makes his return to F1 having been a test driver for the last 6 years. Kazuki Nakajima, son of former F1 driver Satoru, has been signed as test driver. It's obvious to all that Williams have no choice but to go down this route simply because they have lost the power to dictate driver signings on their own terms and must grab every opportunity they can. Kazuki might turn out to be something special but he may also be pretty average, which could be the same for the rest of the team next year. And perhaps for the next 5 years. Have Williams become what formerly great teams like BRM, Tyrrell, March, Lotus, Jordan and Brabham became at the end of their lifespans - a team for young, up and coming drivers like Nico Rosberg to gain experience before moving on to better teams?
I might be wrong. After all back in 1999, Williams appeared to be pretty much in the same position. Everyone wrote them off but an inspired Ralf Schumacher motivated them and even though they finished 5th in the constructors, the spirit in the team was pretty good going into 2000 when they were to get BMW engines. But therein lies the point - they were about to get a major car manufacturer behind them. On the other hand, at the end of 2006, Sir Frank Williams could have tried to entice the likes of Audi, General Motors, Hyundai, Porsche or even Ford into Formula 1 but the motor industry has more important fish to fry with rising oil prices and pressure to produce environmentally friendlier cars. The Americans in that group also have debt to climb over.
Furthermore, does Sir Frank Williams, who turns 55 next year have the energy and motivation to go through all that bureaucracy and hierarchy of teaming up with a manufacturer who is new or returning to the sport, for the 4th time in his life? It might sound harsh but at 55, with the physical condition he is in, i.e. confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life after that horrendous accident in 1986, and after 9 constructors championships and 7 drivers championships, is there any motivation to carry on? The same question can be asked of Patrick Head, even though he will return to a more hands-on role in 2007. He will be remembered as one of the greatest F1 engineers of all time, having nurtured the likes of Adrian Newey, Ross Brawn, Geoff Willis, Neil Oatley etc. to greater heights. However, there's a season and time for everything, and F1 engineers are not immune to that. Will one day Head move onto pastures anew?
Formula 1 history has shown that great teams often have a time of great success before losing energy and ultimately fading out and disappearing. It appears that the more time spent in the midfield, battling for survival, the more likely a team will die out. That happened with Lotus once Senna left the team, and although Hakkinen and Herbert tried to revive the team in the early 90s, it was probably too late. The same happened to Brabham once BMW had pulled out and Bernie Ecclestone sold the team. March died soon after Leyton House pulled out as sponsors at the end of 1991. Might one day Sir Frank Williams sell the team to someone younger or someone motivated to find success? Or someone with money like Red Bull? Eddie Jordan might have spared the Jordan team further indignity following the loss of Honda engines and major sponsors after 2002 by selling his team to Midland in 2005.
Likewise, Benetton was sold to Renault when the Benetton family began to lose interest in the sport. Williams have a brilliant factory with great personnel in Grove and to see that put to waste in mediocrity is a crying shame. Whether he sells or not, Sir Frank Williams will be a very rich man. 2007 is set to be a make-or-break year for Williams. One feels that if the team cannot improve on 2006, the end might come for this once mighty team. It may be the sign of the times in Formula 1 where the manufacturers have taken over from the gritty English teams. Even McLaren have become more of a Mercedes entity day by day and Ron Dennis has less influence on the team then he used to when he first bought the team in the early 80s. The day Williams dies will be a very sad day. Let's hope that never happens because this is a team we know with the right backing can succeed at the highest level.
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