We're only weeks away from the 2024 season starting, but with so much time since the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi, we've had the chance to look through Formula 1's vast history.
Williams Racing joined the grid in the 1970s, but the sport officially began in 1950, giving us nearly three-quarters of a century and over 1,100 grands prix to reflect on.
Like our fans, we're as passionate about F1 as can be, yet there always seems to be another fact or stat that turns up to surprise us and make us wow at sport all over again.
Here are our favourite five that you might not know.
Villeneuve and Schumacher never shared the podium in 1997
The tense fight that went down to the wire in the 1997 season between Williams Racing's Jacques Villeneuve and Ferrari's Michael Schumacher was a story for the ages.
These two adversaries shared champagne celebrations in three of the four seasons that Jacques reached the rostrum.
Curiously, though, the pair somehow avoided finishing in the top three throughout their championship battle in 1997, even though each took eight pieces of silverware in that 17-race year.
2024 Season Launch
Sign up and claim your official Williams Racing Driver Card now, to receive all the details of our 2024 Season Launch first.
Mansell's championship double-up
Although Nigel Mansell is not the only F1 champion to have tasted success in the USA by winning the CART (later Indy Car) title, he is the only driver to hold both titles simultaneously.
Jacques Villeneuve, Mario Andretti, and Emerson Fittipaldi are the other names to boast title glory in both championships, but their triumphs came with time between them for others to become the reigning champions.
Not so for our Nige, who headed stateside after his 1992 World Championship win with the iconic Williams FW14B.
Thanks to CART's season finishing a month earlier than Formula 1's in 1993, Nigel had a 36-day spell where he could claim to be the reigning champ in F1 and CART.
Sir Frank Williams and Nigel Mansell during the 1992 season.
A driver was disqualified from a race they didn't qualify for
If you're only going to participate in one F1 grand prix, you might as well do something for people to remember you.
Hans Heyer certainly made his mark on the sport when he earned a five-race ban for his antics in the 1977 German GP.
Without having the speed to qualify for the race, Heyer sat as the third reserve driver, ready to line up on the grid in the event that three others dropped out.
Our founder, Frank Williams, opted not to field March driver Patrick Nève, the first reserve, bumping Hans one place closer to the race.
The second reserve, Emilio de Villota, had an engine failure, so Hans became the first reserve... but he decided to start the race even though no qualified driver dropped out.
His gearbox failed on Lap 9, causing the stewards to note his illegal participation and promptly disqualified him from the race.
He remains the only driver to receive a DNQ, DNF, and DSQ in the same race.
Seeing as Hans never entered any grands prix after, the 80-year-old is technically still banned from the sport!
The family fight at the heart of Honda vs Toyota
Long-time Japanese rivals Honda and Toyota have supplied us with our engines in the past, but did you know that two generations of Nakajima had direct and indirect involvement with Williams over the years?
Three-time Le Mans winner Kazuki Nakajima enjoyed two full seasons with us in 2008 and 2009, racing the Toyota-powered FW30 and FW31 to five point-scoring finishes.
His father, Satoru, became Japan's first F1 driver but was tied to Honda rather than Toyota, and with national pride behind him, Honda lobbied to have Satoru driving for Williams Racing.
After rebuffing the suggestion to replace Nigel Mansell or Nelson Piquet with the rookie 34-year-old for the 1986 season, Honda offered engines for the team in 1988 with the proviso that Nakajima joined Williams.
Frank opted not to but ended up having the Nakajima name racing for Williams some three decades later when Kazuki joined the team.
Kazuki Nakajima at the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix.
Sebastian Vettel's shared milestone years
Sebastian Vettel secured all his titles in Red Bull Racing overalls, but did you know Vettel and his championship-winning team both share curious same-year origins?
The four-time world champion was just 18 years old when he got his first-ever taste of F1 machinery in a Williams FW27 in 2005 — the same season that Red Bull joined the grid.
Heading further back through the history books, the Austrian energy drink celebrated its launch in April 1987 — three months before Seb's birth on July 3rd 1987!
Related Tags:
Powered By
© the Williams Group, under licence to Williams IP Holdings LLC
Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited is a company registered in England and Wales under company number 1297497.
Its registered office is at Grove, Wantage, Oxfordshire, OX12 0DQ
Powered By