Williams FW07

The FW07 was closely based on the Lotus 79, developed in the same wind tunnel at Imperial College London. Lotus aerodynamicist Peter Wright considered it little more than a re-engineered Lotus 79 with a stiffer chassis. While not the first ground effect car — that distinction belonging to Colin Chapman and the Lotus 78 — designer Frank Dernie was credited with a thorough grasp of the principles. Chapman's team, meanwhile, pursued the concept further with the Lotus 80, attempting to engage the entire underside of the chassis as a downforce device, and subsequently with the twin-chassis Lotus 86 and 88, which were never allowed to race under existing technical rules.

The FW07 was small, light, and powered by the Ford Cosworth DFV. For the 1979 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Dernie implemented a system ensuring the car's skirts maintained contact with the ground at all times and corrected aerodynamic leakage at the rear of the chassis — a change Dernie claimed produced a 30 percent aerodynamic improvement.

For 1980 the car became the FW07B. Work concentrated on setup and suspension strengthening; the car's ground effect was so efficient that front wings were removed as unnecessary. At the 1980 French Grand Prix, Alan Jones became the first driver in a race to use a specially prepared Cosworth DFV developed by John Judd in Rugby. The Judd-DFV's advanced camshaft and cylinder head design produced 500–510 bhp at 11,400 rpm against 10,800 rpm for a standard unit. This closed the gap to the Renault turbo V6 (approximately 520 bhp) and the Alfa V12 (approximately 525 bhp) to 10–15 bhp, while the Williams required only a 173-litre fuel tank against the Renault's 215 litres, giving it a superior power-to-weight ratio.

The FW07B became the FW07C for 1981. After the FIA banned moveable skirts, work focused on suspension. Jones had found the ride extremely harsh and suggested to Frank Williams that they "put suspension on the seat." An experimental six-wheeled variant, the FW07D, was tested by Jones at Donington Park; its design principles were later incorporated into the six-wheeled FW08B. The BBC Horizon series followed the team during 1981 winter testing and broadcast the resulting film, Gentlemen, Lift Your Skirts.

The FW07 debuted at the 1979 Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama, the fifth round and first European race of the season. Jones placed 13th at Jarama and fourth in Belgium, where he led 16 laps before retiring with electrical failure. At Silverstone, the revised car's pole position time was two seconds faster than the next competitor. Clay Regazzoni won that race — his last Grand Prix win and first since 1976 — and Jones then took four of the next five races in Germany, Austria, Holland, and Canada. Despite dominance in the second half of the season, the car's mid-season arrival meant Jones and Williams lost both championships to Jody Scheckter and Ferrari.

In 1980, Regazzoni was replaced by Carlos Reutemann. Jones won five races — Argentina, France, Britain, Canada, and Watkins Glen — to take his only World Championship; Reutemann won a wet Monaco race. Williams secured their first Constructors' Championship. The main challenge came from Nelson Piquet in the Brabham BT49.

In 1981, Reutemann challenged Piquet for the championship but narrowly missed out in the final race; Williams again won the Constructors' title with four further victories. The FW07C was judged the second-fastest car of 1981 behind the Renault RE30, but more reliable. Jones lost two potential wins at Monaco and Hockenheim to fuel pressure problems: high G-forces from ground effect caused fuel to slosh in the tank, starving the pump. Reutemann suffered a similar problem at the French Grand Prix.

After Jones retired, Keke Rosberg joined Williams for 1982. Despite being three years old, the FW07 remained competitive. After 15 wins, 300 points, one Drivers' and two Constructors' titles, it was replaced by the similarly engineered FW08 from early 1982.

Rights to the FW07's design were acquired by Bobby Hillin, owner of IndyCar team Longhorn Racing. A copy named the Longhorn LR02 was built with minor adjustments for CART and Indianapolis 500 regulations. The car ran in 1981 with Al Unser at the wheel, achieving a best result of second at the CART Mexico round and starting the 1981 Indianapolis 500 from the third row, ninth on the grid, before finishing seventeenth.

The FW07 and its variants have been regular fixtures in historic racing. The FW07C won the FIA Masters Historic Formula One Championship in 2016, 2018, and 2021; the FW07B won the championship in 2017.

This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.