Formula 1 McLaren vs. Williams – Global Sports Planet

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Since its creation in 1950, there has always been a fierce competition to win the world championship. However, behind every champion, there is a team, i.e. a constructor working to make it possible.

McLaren and Williams are two of the most successful and storied teams in Formula 1. Founded in 1963 and 1977 respectively, both teams marked some of the most golden and dominant eras of the 20th century, despite not building their own engines, and have contributed greatly to the progress of F1.

Both teams have consolidated the legends of great champions such as Emerson Fittipaldi, Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell, and Mika Häkkinen. With the turn of the century, the golden days of both teams seem to be behind them, although we know that sooner or later, they will be back in the fight for the championships.

Today, we will review the history and rivalries of the two teams, along with Ferrari, with more history in Formula 1.

McLaren vs. Williams: A Review Of Their History

McLaren and Williams are teams that have been present in Formula 1 for a long time, so the history of both is, to a large extent, the history of the category. Therefore, let\’s review the history of these two historic teams, which share many similarities.

McLaren: One Of The Pillars Of Formula 1

Behind Ferrari, McLaren is the team with the most races in Formula 1, and the most successful. It was founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren, who raced in F1 with Cooper since 1959, and from 1966 raced with his own team.

From its third season, the team began to achieve podiums and victories, and despite the death of its founder in 1970, the team was settling and growing in the category, achieving its first title with Emerson Fittipaldi and in 1976 its second with James Hunt. Unlike other great teams in the history of F1, McLaren only builds its chassis, and throughout its history has purchased engines from other manufacturers, such as Mercedes, Ford, and Honda.

McLaren\’s golden age in F1 came in the 1980s, coinciding with the hiring of Ron Dennis. From 1984 to 1993, the team won six drivers\’ and six constructors\’ titles and four runner-up positions, with great drivers such as Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, and Ayrton Senna, and powered by Porsche and Honda.

McLaren remained competitive in the 1990s and 2000s, powered by Mercedes, achieving its last constructor\’s title in 1998, and drivers\’ championships in 1998 and 1999 with Mika Häkkinen and in 2008 with Lewis Hamilton. With the hybrid era, McLaren returned in 2015 to team up with Honda, achieving disastrous results and being one of the least competitive teams on the grid for years.

After years of restructuring in which they switched engines to Renault and then to Mercedes again, the team seems to have improved, scoring a few podiums, and in 2021 came their first win since 2012.

Williams: The Team That Brought Modernity To F1

Williams is the third team with most races, behind Ferrari and McLaren, and is the fourth most successful team in Formula 1 history. The team was founded in 1977 by Frank Williams and Patrick Head, in partnership with Walter Wolf Racing. Like McLaren, Williams has been characterized by building its own chassis and buying engines from major manufacturers, being Renault with whom they have won the most titles.

Williams began to be successful very soon, achieving in 1979 its first victories and podiums. In 1980 came their first drivers\’ title, won by Alan Jones, and also their first constructors\’ title. The 80s were very competitive for Williams, winning 3 constructors\’ and 3 drivers\’ titles with Jones, Keke Rosberg, and Nelson Piquet.

However, the team\’s golden years were the 1990s, as they introduced numerous technological advances, winning 4 drivers\’ and 5 constructors\’ titles, with Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill, and Jacques Villeneuve. Between 1980 and 1997, Williams won 9 constructors\’ titles, a record that stood until it was broken by Ferrari in 2000.

With the turn of the century, the team has been very irregular, having very competitive periods, as in the early 2000s or with the arrival of the hybrid era, and others very uncompetitive, as in the late 2000s and the current one. Williams\’ last victory in F1 was achieved by Pastor Maldonado in the 2012 Spanish GP.

The Williams family parted ways with the team in 2020 in the midst of a sporting crisis, and it was sold to a private company that will try to take the team back to its golden days.

McLaren vs. Williams: Stats

As previously mentioned, McLaren is statistically the second-best team in the history of F1, only behind Ferrari, while Williams is the fourth, as Mercedes is also ahead.

In 56 years of F1 racing, McLaren has entered 917 races, obtaining 183 victories, 494 podiums, 156 pole positions, 161 fastest laps, 8 constructors\’ championships, and 12 drivers\’ championships.

This means that they have achieved 19.96% of the victories, 26.94% of the podiums, 17% of the pole positions, and 17.56% of the fastest laps in the races in which they have participated.

On the other hand, since 1977, and in a total of 781 races, Williams has achieved 114 wins, 313 podiums, 128 pole positions, 133 fastest laps, 9 constructors\’ championships, and 7 drivers\’ championships.

With these figures, Williams has won 14.6% of the races in which they have participated and has achieved 20% of podiums, 16.39% of pole positions, and 17% of fastest laps.

McLaren vs. Williams: Their Most Successful Drivers

Many great drivers consolidated their legend and went down in the history books with Williams or McLaren. As we can see in the following table, the drivers who have been most successful with these teams are some of the best drivers in history, reaching truly enviable figures.

Drivers such as Nigel Mansell, Mika Häkkinen, Lewis Hamilton, and Jacques Villeneuve marked great dominating seasons for their teams, while other drivers such as Senna, Prost and Piquet faced great battles for the title.

It is curious the case of Williams that, despite having so many world champions, none of them has won multiple championships, unlike other great teams such as Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes or Red Bull.

Most Successful Drivers with McLaren
Driver	Years in the team	Starts	Wins	Podiums	Titles
Ayrton Senna	1988-93	96	35	55	3
Alain Prost	1980, 1984-89	107	30	63	3
Mika Häkkinen	1993-2001	131	20	51	2
Lewis Hamilton	2007-12	110	21	49	1
Niki Lauda	1982-85	58	8	15	1

Most Successful Drivers with Williams
Driver	Years in the team	Starts	Wins	Podiums	Titles
Nigel Mansell	1985-88, 1991-92, 1994	95	28	43	1
Damon Hill	1993-96	65	21	40	1
Alan Jones	1978-81	60	11	22	1
Jacques Villeneuve	1996-98	49	11	21	1
Nelson Piquet	1986-87	31	7	21	1

McLaren vs. Williams: Their Most Dominant Season

As we have seen, McLaren and Williams have won many titles. However, as with everything in life, some seasons stand out more than others, either because of the great rivalry with the rest of the teams or because of their superiority over them. As for the latter, the two teams have achieved some of the most dominant seasons in the history of the category.

1988 was not only McLaren\’s most dominant season but the most dominant in the history of Formula 1. The McLaren MP4/4, powered by Honda and driven by Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, who finished first and second in the Championship respectively, took 15 wins out of 16 races. The only race they did not win was the Italian GP, in which both retired.

Senna and Prost gave excitement to the championship, starting their historical rivalry. The Brazilian won 8 victories and the Frenchman 7. McLaren also achieved 15 pole positions, 10 one-twos, 25 podiums (out of 32 possible), and 199 points. The British team won the constructors\’ championship 134 points ahead of the second Ferrari.

On the other hand, Williams\’ most dominant season was 1996 with its FW18, powered by Renault, designed by Adrian Newey, and driven by Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve.

The team scored 12 wins out of 16 races, eight by Damon Hill and four by Jacques Villeneuve, 12 pole positions, 21 podiums (out of 32 possible), and 175 points in the constructors\’ championship, scoring 105 points more than the second-placed Ferrari.

With Ferrari less competitive, Williams was virtually unchallenged, and Damon Hill was able to emulate his father Graham, also becoming world champion.

McLaren vs. Williams: Their Most Dominant Season
McLaren MP4/4 (1988 Season)	Stat	Williams FW18 (1996 Season)
16	Races	16
15	Wins	12
25	Podiums	21
15	Pole positions	12
Ayrton Senna	Championship winner	Damon Hill
199	Points in the constructors\’ championship	175
134	Gap with the 2^nd	105

McLaren & Williams: What Engines Do They Use In F1?

McLaren and Williams, as we saw above, are teams that build the chassis, but buy the engines from other suppliers. These suppliers can be major motorsport brands or other F1 teams that make their own engines and also sell them to other teams, as is the case of Mercedes or Ferrari.

Currently, there are four engine suppliers in Formula 1: Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault, and Red Bull Powertrains (based on the Honda engine). Both McLaren and Williams use Mercedes engines, although this has not always been the case.

McLaren saw its best days in Formula with TAG (Porsche) and Honda engines, and subsequently had a 20-year partnership with Mercedes before calling it quits in 2015. After uncompetitive years, the team returned to its partnership with the German manufacturer in 2021.

On the other hand, Williams achieved its greatest successes with Renault in the 1990s, and also with Honda in the 1980s. With the arrival of the hybrid era in 2014, they started their partnership with Mercedes, which is still in place today. The team was very competitive during the early years but has declined over the seasons.

These are the engines that have been used by both McLaren and Williams in Formula 1:

Engines used by McLaren in F1
Year	Engine
1966	Ford/Serenissima
1967-1968	British Racing Motors
1969-1982	Ford Cosworth
1983-1987	TAG
1988-1992	Honda
1993	Ford
1994	Peugeot
1995-2014	Mercedes
2015-2017	Honda
2018-2020	Renault
2021-Nowadays	Mercedes

Engines used by Williams in F1
Year	Engine
1977-1983	Ford Cosworth
1983-1987	Honda
1988	Judd
1989-1997	Renault
1998	Mecachrome
1999	Supertec
2000-2005	BMW
2006	Cosworth
2007-2009	Toyota
2010-2011	Cosworth
2012-2013	Renault
2014-Nowadays	Mercedes

McLaren & Williams: Why Don\’t They Win Anymore?

Williams and McLaren have been two of the most successful teams in the history of Formula 1, marking great periods of dominance and success. However, it has been years since neither team has won a championship. McLaren\’s last championship was in 2008, while Williams\’ was in 1997.

Williams is currently one of the least competitive teams on the grid, while McLaren gets occasional podium finishes, but never quite matches the best. Why don\’t they win anymore? The reasons are complex, and to a large extent particular to each team, although there are some reasons that have caused the decline of these two historic teams.

The first is that, unlike brands such as Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari, which have a large market beyond Formula 1, McLaren and Williams are not just one entity, but are made up of groups of investors who finance the team, which, in addition to not having as much money, makes them more unstable. This makes them constantly look for large shareholders who can secure the team\’s future. In years of crisis, these teams are more vulnerable.

Another reason is that, as mentioned above, McLaren and Williams do not make their engines, but buy them. On many occasions, the engine that the big manufacturers sell is not the same that their official team uses, but a less powerful version or from the previous year, which means that they can never beat them.

In the years when McLaren and Williams were winning, their engine suppliers (TAG, Honda, and Renault) did not have official Formula 1 teams, so they received the best version of those engines. Today, Mercedes uses their best engines for their team, and Williams and McLaren receive a \”second-rate\” engine.

Another factor is that neither McLaren nor Williams currently have a major sponsor behind them. In previous decades, McLaren was sponsored by big brands such as Marlboro, West, or Vodafone, while Williams was sponsored by Canon, Rothmans, or Martini, which offered a large financial injection.

\"\" — Editorial credit: cristiano barni / Shutterstock.com

Conclusion

McLaren and Williams are two of the most successful teams in Formula 1 history, winning many titles with great drivers who have gone down in the history books.

With their progress and achievements, they have contributed to the evolution of the category. However, both are currently in a delicate situation, as neither of them has won titles for years.