The Williams FW21 was the car with which the Williams team competed in the 1999 Formula One World Championship. It was driven by German Ralf Schumacher, who had swapped from Jordan with compatriot Heinz-Harald Frentzen, and Italian Alessandro Zanardi, who had last raced in Formula One in 1994 but had since won the CART championship twice.
Design
Engine
This was also the team's last season using a Renault engine (badged as a customer Supertec) until one was fitted in the race winning FW34 in 2012; with a new works deal with BMW for the 2000 season.[2] [3]
Season summary
Although Schumacher had a successful season and was a consistent front-runner with the all-new design of the FW21, Zanardi struggled all season with the handling characteristics of the then-recently introduced grooved tyres and failed to score a point. He was dropped at the end of the year in favour of Formula Three driver Jenson Button.
The team eventually finished fifth in the Constructors' Championship, with 35 points, all scored by Schumacher and thus Williams ended up with their worst season since 1990.
Livery
This was the second and final year for Williams had a sponsorship deal with a cigarette brand Winfield as the team's main sponsor. Williams used 'Winfield' logos, except at the French and British Grands Prix, where it was replaced with "WilliamsF1". In Canada, the kangaroo emblem was replaced with a boomerang-styled emblem. In French, Veltins logo was replaced with "Veltins alkoholfrei" but it was covered up by a barcode for scale models and video games.
The car's livery was primarily red and white, as in 1998, but incorporated blue and yellow elements to reflect the colour scheme of the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker. An emblem depicting him was featured on the nose cone as part of a sponsorship with Universal Studios.
FW21B
A "B" spec car was used for testing the BMW V10 engine for their return in 2000 season. Later, the car were run on Michelin tyres, testing them in preparation for their return in the 2001 season.
Complete Formula One results
(key) (results in bold indicate pole position, results in italic indicate fastest laps)
| Year | Team | Engine | Tyres | Drivers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | Points | WCC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Williams | Supertec FB01 V10 | B | AUS | BRA | SMR | MON | ESP | CAN | FRA | GBR | AUT | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | EUR | MAL | JPN | 35 | 5th | |
| Alessandro Zanardi | Ret | Ret | 11† | 8 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 11 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 8 | 7 | Ret | 10 | Ret | ||||||
| Ralf Schumacher | 3 | 4 | Ret | Ret | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | Ret | 4 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 4 | Ret | 5 |
Notes:
- † – Driver did not finish the Grand Prix but was classified, as he completed more than 90% of the race distance.
References
- AUTOCOURSE 1999-2000, Henry, Alan (ed.), Hazleton Publishing Ltd. (1999) ISBN 1-874557-34-9
- Specific
- ^ "Engine Supertec • STATS F1".
- ^ Beer, Matt (4 July 2011). "Williams to run Renault engines again from 2012". autosport.com. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
- ^ Weaver, Paul (13 May 2012). "Pastor Maldonado ends Williams' drought with Spanish Grand Prix win". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
External links
Media related to Williams FW21 at Wikimedia Commons
