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[LifeW12]

This team dominated for most of the 80's and 90's, winning countless races and 7 world championships. Now they are running in the mid-field and haven't won since Brazil 2004. They haven't really won much since they lost the Renault engines at the end of 1997.

What's happened to the once mighty power of Williams?

[Jabberwocky]

It all went wrong when Mr Newey decided to work for McLaren, then it lost its engines, but BMW made a promising start but look how that went, then they where left with the underpowered, undrivable Toyota lump that was Crashajima oh and the engines.

It pains me to say it but I think Williams are a spent force and we will not see them as they once where

[myownalias]

What's happened to the once mighty power of Williams?

The simple answer is loads of manufacturer teams joined F1; team budgets increased massively and Williams didn't have the resources and money to compete.

[madbrad]

Have you never noticed that a team needs a works engine deal(and it needs to be the best engine, usually) or be a manufacturer to win titles(Brawn being the exception and Red Bull becoming an exception)? Even just winning races without it is not all that common. Williams has not had a works deal since, well, the last time they won a race.

[LifeW12]

Williams used to simply dominate through the mid 1990's and now podium finishes are few and far between. Most of their cars today haven't been flash (2006) yet they seem to have had drivers more than capaple of a Prost, Mansell, Hill.

I thought Webber would have had a real chance in 2005 but the team he could have gone to, Renault, were the ones that won both titles in '05 & '06 and Williams couldn't finish races.

Monaco this year sums up how much they've changed since the mid 1990's.

[FerrariFan63]

Tyrrell were at the top of F1 for a number of years, then fell to the midfield and worse and didn't recover. McLaren were in the doldrums for a number of years in the 90s, but not as long as Williams have been.

If manufacturers leave F1, then Williams could be in a good position. If. Also I think it's possible that Williams could one day come up with a Brawn style innovation that gives them a sizeable advantage in a year.

[Hexagram]

Williams have not had the drivers or the engines since the end of 2004.

The Montoya & Ralf mix was something worth keeping, specially with BMW engines. I know BMW wanted to buy out Williams but their name would have remained in the sport with right amount of money backing them up to be a serious team.

[EwanM]

No manufacturer deal in place. Not even a technical partnership like what Force India have.

I have to admire Williams in a way though, although their finances aren't in the best shape and they lack the budget/support to mount a title challenge, Frank has kept the team in control of the racers.

Imagine BMW had managed to buy Williams and had decided to pull out like that?

Losing Sauber would have been horrific, but imagine if it had been Williams which was threatened?

[Hexagram]

Imagine BMW had managed to buy Williams and had decided to pull out like that?

They wouldn't be much worse off now compared to Sauber. Frank would have bought his team back like Peter did.

And to be honest Williams are not much better off compared to Sauber this season.

I'd rather see a team burn brightly for a short period of time then to see them wither away like Williams are right now.

Also there is every chance BMW would still be in the sport had they enjoyed the almost guaranteed greater success that would have come with owning the Williams F1 Team compared to the Sauber F1 Team.

Frank did the honourable thing and refused to sell his team, but sometimes the honorable thing is not always the smartest thing to do.

[EwanM]

Imagine BMW had managed to buy Williams and had decided to pull out like that?

They wouldn't be much worse off now compared to Sauber. Frank would have bought his team back like Peter did.

And to be honest Williams are not much better off compared to Sauber this season.

I'd rather see a team burn brightly for a short period of time then to see them wither away like Williams are right now.

Also there is every chance BMW would still be in the sport had they enjoyed the almost guaranteed greater success that would have come with owning the Williams F1 Team compared to the Sauber F1 Team.

Frank did the honourable thing and refused to sell his team, but sometimes the honorable thing is not always the smartest thing to do.

He needs to get chummy with VW I think.

[Gaz]

Imagine BMW had managed to buy Williams and had decided to pull out like that?

They wouldn't be much worse off now compared to Sauber. Frank would have bought his team back like Peter did.

And to be honest Williams are not much better off compared to Sauber this season.

I'd rather see a team burn brightly for a short period of time then to see them wither away like Williams are right now.

Also there is every chance BMW would still be in the sport had they enjoyed the almost guaranteed greater success that would have come with owning the Williams F1 Team compared to the Sauber F1 Team.

Frank did the honourable thing and refused to sell his team, but sometimes the honorable thing is not always the smartest thing to do.

He needs to get chummy with VW I think.

Bet Mclaren are looking into that one tho

[EwanM]

Imagine BMW had managed to buy Williams and had decided to pull out like that?

They wouldn't be much worse off now compared to Sauber. Frank would have bought his team back like Peter did.

And to be honest Williams are not much better off compared to Sauber this season.

I'd rather see a team burn brightly for a short period of time then to see them wither away like Williams are right now.

Also there is every chance BMW would still be in the sport had they enjoyed the almost guaranteed greater success that would have come with owning the Williams F1 Team compared to the Sauber F1 Team.

Frank did the honourable thing and refused to sell his team, but sometimes the honorable thing is not always the smartest thing to do.

He needs to get chummy with VW I think.

Bet Mclaren are looking into that one tho

We'll see if that comes off. VW won't enter F1 to be there to spend alot of money. I get the feeling that they would merely be a technical partner. The way it should be...

[Jabberwocky]

I think VAG will only show an interest when a diesel engine is a go.

However Williams have just partnered with Porsche (part of VAG IIRC) with the KERS system

[7UpJordan]

The FW32 is the worst car Williams ever built right now. Until Monaco almost all of the upgrades didn't work according to Barrichello, the Monaco upgrades did work and Sam Michael has been very vocal about even bigger upgrades for the next few races, also there have been issues with the Cosworth engine which Cosworth have confirmed, mostly being the drivability of the engine, interface with hydraulics (hence why the new teams had constant hydraulic problems), an alarming drop off in power as the engine wears on. There are new engine mappings being used by all Cosworth teams at Turkey next weekend which will hopefully improve the engine.

Barrichello keeps talking about there being potentially another second locked in the car somewhere, but I'll only believe it when I see it. Hulkenberg hasn't been able to do a right lot in such a difficult car either, but at least he's not slow like Nakajima. If Rosberg was still in this car he would probably trundle around slowly and blatantly.

[headless]

They gotta be back at the top one day