Williams’ plans to celebrate his 800 Formula 1 races were complicated: how he solved it

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Williams is one of the most important teams in the history of world motorsports. Since Frank Williams brought it to life in 1977, it has left its mark on Formula 1 and is the second most winning team in the Constructors’ World Championship, with nine crowns (it is only surpassed by Ferrari, with 16, and is above McLaren and Mercedes, who have eight each). His long journey through “la Máxima” included several of the legends of this sport as a pilot: Alan Jones, Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna or Carlos Reuteman, just to name a few.

This journey marks that Williams is about to reach 800 races in Formula 1 and will be the third to reach that figure, behind Ferrari and McLaren. The original calendar for the 2023 F1 season indicated that this 800 race would be held at Silverstone, in Great Britain, the home of the English team. And that’s why the Grove-based team has a celebration planned to honor its history and its founder.

Frank Williams and the Argentine Carlos Reutemann, in an image from the 1980s with one of the cars of the team in Formula 1. (File)

But the suspension of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, due to the floods that Italy suffered, meant that Silverstone actually hosted the 799th Williams race and the 800th one at the Hungarian Grand Prix, at the Hungaroring.

Given this circumstance, Williams Racing chose to decorate its cars in a special way for those two races: its 799 at Silverstone (its home) and its 800 at the Hungaroring.

“Silverstone’s striking design will pay tribute to the team’s British heritage and its founder, the late Sir Frank Williams,” the British team said in a statement.

But they also highlighted that in the race in Hungary (that of the team’s 800 F1 Grands Prix), a special emblem will be added to the design.

Of course, at his home, in Silverstone, there will be something very special for fans of the team and Formula 1: on Sunday 9 July, in the pre-race, Jenson Button will turn with the FW14B model with which Nigel Mansell won the championship in 1992. In addition, there will be a special team fan zone in which different objects will be exhibited, including the car with which Alain Prost was world champion in 1993.

How Williams is doing in the 2023 Formula 1 Championship

Williams is in the process of recovering his sporting level. After many years in which the results were bad, in which it was at the bottom of the grid and for which the Williams family was forced to sell the structure to the Dorilton Capital group, little by little it begins to improve and the new F1 regulations allow you to have better chances.

Thai Alex Albon and American rookie Logan Sargeant are the current drivers. In the eight rounds played so far, Williams has added 7 points,

Albon comes from his best race of the year, as he finished with a celebrated seventh place. In addition, he was tenth on the opening date in Bahrain. The Thai showed that he is in a very good moment and that if the car continues to grow in performance and reliability, he is in a position to continue adding to the cause and generate expectations in a structure that wants to continue growing. Meanwhile, Sargeant has not yet finished in the points zone and is having a hard time getting out of the bottom.

Those 7 points added so far by Williams put him ninth in the Constructors’ World Championship, just above AlphaTauri (2) and very close to Haas (8) and Alfa Romeo (9).