Williams FW07

Lore & Background

The car was closely based on the Lotus 79, even being developed in the same wind tunnel at Imperial College London. Some observers, among them Lotus aerodynamicist Peter Wright, felt the FW07 was little more than a re-engineered Lotus 79, just having a stiffer chassis. The car was small and simple and extremely light, powered by the ubiquitous Ford Cosworth DFV. It had very clean lines and seemed to be a strong challenger for the new season, but early reliability problems halted any serious threat for the title. While not the first to use ground effects in Formula One, an honour belonging to Colin Chapman and the Lotus 78 (the Lotus 79's predecessor), Dernie may have had a better grasp of the principles than even Chapman. While Head had been developing the Lotus 78's/79's basic principles in the FW07, Chapman's design team was attempting to take the ground effect idea further ahead of rivals on the Lotus 80 engaging the entire bottom of the chassis as an aerodynamic device for generating downforce without the necessity of external wings. Since the Lotus 80 solution had many drawbacks, Chapman devised the twin-chassis concept of Lotus 86 and 88 that should have solved the issues, but it was never allowed to race due to failure to comply with existing technical rules. When the British Grand Prix at Silverstone came around, chief designer Frank Dernie had designed and implemented a system that ensured that the car's all-important skirts touched the ground at all times and had also corrected some aerodynamic leakage at the back of the chassis between the French and British Grand Prix- Dernie has claimed that the car had a 30 percent aerodynamic improvement. The car's performance was dramatically improved- so much so that Jones set a pole position time 2 seconds faster than the initial next fastest time. Regazzoni won the race, and Jones then easily won the next 3 rounds in Germany, Austria and Holland, and he also won in Canada. The car in the second half of the season was almost unbeatable, and the only other cars that got even close to it were the Ferraris of Jody Scheckter and Gilles Villeneuve, and the Ligier of Jacques Laffite. The FW07 became FW07B in 1980, and Alan Jones, now with Carlos Reutemann, developed the FW07 further, working especially on setup and suspension strengthening.

Reader's Guide

The car made its debut at the Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama in 1979, the fifth round of the season and the first European round after the non-ground effect FW06 was used for the first four rounds in the Americas and South Africa. The car proved to be reasonably competitive; Australian Alan Jones put the car 13th at Jarama and then 4th for the next round in Belgium; he even led 16 laps of the race before retiring with electrical failure. At the British Grand Prix, Jones stuck the revised Williams on pole and was immediately 2 seconds faster than the next fastest car. The car served to make Team Williams a contender for the first time; Jones retired with fuel pump failure and his Swiss teammate Clay Regazzoni won his last Grand Prix and first since 1976. Jones then won 4 of the next 5 Grand Prix in Germany, Austria, Holland and Canada in a car that was so much quicker than any of the others, particularly around high-speed circuits. But because the car's competitiveness came only at mid-season, Jones and Williams lost the driver's and constructor's championships to South African Jody Scheckter and Ferrari, respectively. But the FW07's competitiveness meant that Williams was a top contender for the 1980 season and beyond. In 1980, Regazzoni was replaced by Carlos Reutemann. While the latter and Williams's other driver, Alan Jones, formed a successful partnership, they were not comfortable with each other. Jones won five races in Argentina, France, Britain, Canada and Watkins Glen in the USA to win his only world championship, while Reutemann won at a wet race in Monaco. Williams won also their first Constructors' Championship. The main challenge to the FW07 came from Nelson Piquet in Brabham's neat BT49. In 1981, this time it was Reutemann who challenged Piquet for the championship, narrowly missing out in the final race, but Williams took home the constructors' championship after four more wins. The FW07C was the second fastest car of 1981, behind the Renault RE30, but the Williams was more reliable. Alan Jones lost two potential victories at Monaco and Hockenheim when fuel pressure 'hunting' caused the Cosworth DFV to misfire badly, costing the Australian not just wins but also possibly the 1981 World Drivers Championship.

Did You Know?

• The FW07D was an experimental six-wheeled test car with four driven rear wheels and two undriven front wheels, tested by Alan Jones at Donington Park.
• The FW07C won the FIA Masters Historic Formula One Championship in 2016, 2018 and 2021, while the FW07B won the championship in 2017.
• Rights to the FW07's design were acquired by Bobby Hillin, owner of the IndyCar team Longhorn Racing, which built a copy named Longhorn LR02 with minor adjustments.