THE HISTORY OF WILLIAMS PART 3: 1989-93
More significantly, few teams have ever been so much better than their rivals as Williams was in 1992, as it hit a seam of form that would make it the driving force of the decade. Out of the 20 world titles for constructors and drivers available in the 1990s, Williams would claim nine, McLaren seven, Benetton three and Ferrari just one.
By now well established as a Formula 1 superpower, the final year of the 1980s marked the next step for Williams, as the stability of a symbiotic partnership with Renault shot it through the next nine seasons. At the same time, years of investment, hard work and canny recruitment allowed Williams to harness a raft of technologies that would change the game, to the point where the governing body outlawed it all. On the one hand, that hurt after so much grind to unlock F1’s perennial quest for the ‘unfair advantage’; on the other, it was the ultimate compliment. Williams had simply become too good.
TEN RACE VICTORIES, SIX TEAM ONE-TWOS, 15 OUT OF 16 POLE POSITIONS AND A CAR THAT LED 84% OF THE SEASON’S LAPS. THERE ARE OTHER EXAMPLES THAT EXCEED SUCH STATISTICAL DOMINANCE, BUT NOT MANY...
The source of that sweet status can be traced all the way back to 1984, when brake and clutch specialist AP approached Williams with an active ride system it had originally developed for road cars. Patrick Head charged his deputy Frank Dernie with responsibility for a project that would initially run in an FW09, the team’s ungainly first Honda-powered
