Williams FW07

Lore & Background

The FW07 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, simple, and extremely light, powered by the ubiquitous Ford Cosworth DFV. While not the first to use ground effects in Formula One, an honour belonging to Colin Chapman and the Lotus 78, Dernie may have had a better grasp of the principles than even Chapman.

When the British Grand Prix at Silverstone came around, chief designer Frank Dernie had designed and implemented a system that ensured the car's all-important skirts touched the ground at all times and had also corrected some aerodynamic leakage. Dernie claimed the car had a 30 percent aerodynamic improvement. The car's performance was dramatically improved, with Jones setting a pole position time 2 seconds faster than the initial next fastest time.

Aerodynamic Roots and Dernie's Breakthrough

The Williams FW07 was conceived as a ground-effect Formula One car whose aerodynamic philosophy drew heavily on the work of Colin Chapman's Lotus 78 and 79. Developed in the same Imperial College London wind tunnel as the Lotus 79, the car relied so closely on those principles that Lotus aerodynamicist Peter Wright dismissed it as essentially a re-engineered Lotus 79 with a stiffer chassis. The car was small, simple, and extremely light, powered by the Ford Cosworth DFV. While Chapman's team pushed ground effect further with the Lotus 80 and the twin-chassis Lotus 86 and 88, those projects either carried inherent drawbacks or were barred by technical regulations.

Frank Dernie, however, may have grasped the underlying principles more deeply than even Chapman. His critical breakthrough arrived between the French and British Grands Prix in 1979, when he implemented a skirt system that kept the car's lower edges in constant contact with the track and sealed aerodynamic leakage at the rear of the chassis. Dernie claimed this delivered a 30 percent aerodynamic improvement, transforming the FW07 from a modest challenger into a dominant force on the grid.

The 1979 Mid-Season Transformation

The FW07's 1979 campaign was a tale of dramatic mid-season metamorphosis. After a cautious start—Jones finishing 13th at the Spanish Grand Prix and 4th in Belgium, where he led 16 laps before an electrical failure ended his run—early reliability problems kept the car from threatening the title. But Dernie's aerodynamic revisions between the French and British rounds changed everything. At Silverstone, Jones lapped two full seconds ahead of the next fastest car on pole, a staggering margin.

Regazzoni took that race, marking his final Grand Prix victory and first since 1976, but from that point the Williams was nearly untouchable. Jones won four of the next five races across Germany, Austria, Holland, and Canada, with the car's superiority most pronounced on high-speed circuits. The only machines that came close were the Ferraris of Scheckter and Villeneuve and Laffite's Ligier. The FW07's competitiveness, however, was concentrated in the second half of the season, and the car's early unreliability meant the title slipped away that year.

The 1980 Championship and the Power-to-Weight Edge

For 1980 the FW07 evolved into the FW07B, and its ground-effect downforce was so efficient that front wings became entirely unnecessary. Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann refined the setup and strengthened the suspension throughout the season. A pivotal moment arrived at the French Grand Prix, where Jones raced a specially prepared Cosworth DFV modified in John Judd's Rugby workshops. The Judd-DFV featured an advanced camshaft and cylinder head design that pushed the engine to 11,400 RPM, producing 500 to 510 BHP compared to the standard DFV's 10,800 RPM ceiling.

This narrowed the gap to Renault's 520 BHP turbo V6 and Alfa's 525 BHP V12 to just 10 to 15 BHP. Crucially, the Williams required only a 173-litre fuel tank versus 215 litres for the Renault and roughly 205 for the Alfa, granting the FW07B a superior power-to-weight ratio. This blend of aerodynamic efficiency, adequate power, and a light fuel load made the car a genuine title threat on power-sensitive tracks like Hockenheim, the Österreichring, Zandvoort, and Imola, ultimately delivering Williams their first Drivers' and Constructors' championships.

A Four-Season Legacy and the Six-Wheeled Experiment

The FW07's lineage stretched well beyond its championship year. For 1981 the FW07C emerged after the FIA banned the moveable skirts that had been essential to effective ground effect. The resulting car suffered from an extremely harsh ride, and Jones, who had been developing the hydraulic suspension systems, famously told Frank Williams to put suspension on the seat. Williams quipped that Jones should sit on his wallet, to which the Australian drawled, "Then give me something to put in it!" The punishing nature of the car led Jones to temporarily leave Formula One, later describing the experience as wrecking the internals.

BBC's Horizon series captured the team's winter testing at Paul Ricard, producing the 1981 documentary Gentlemen, Lift Your Skirts, which featured extensive behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the drivers, Williams, and Head. The FW07 platform also spawned the experimental six-wheeled FW07D, tested once by Jones at Donington Park, whose concept fed directly into the FW08B. Developed versions of the car saw service as late as 1982, a remarkable four-season lifespan.

Reader's Guide

The FW07 established Williams as a top contender. A specially prepared John Judd developed Cosworth DFV gave the car a power deficit of just 10-15 BHP compared to factory Alfas and Renaults, while requiring a smaller fuel tank, giving it a superior power-to-weight ratio. The FW07 and its variants have been regular fixtures in historic racing, winning the FIA Masters Historic Formula One Championship multiple times.