The Williams FW18 was a car built by Williams for the 1996 Formula One season. The car was designed by Patrick Head and Adrian Newey, and was driven by Damon Hill and rookie Jacques Villeneuve. During the season, it won 12 races out of 16, with the exception of Monaco, Spain, Belgium and Italy.
The FW18 is featured in various video games such as ToCA Race Driver 3, Formula One Championship Edition, F1 2013 and F1 2017.[1]
Season review[]
Designed and built by Head and Newey for 1996, the FW18 was the most dominant car of the season. Williams started their season off with an 1-2 finish at the Australian Grand Prix, in which Hill won the race with Villeneuve in 2nd, the best finishing position for a rookie's début race until Kevin Magnussen finished 2nd in the 2014 Australian Grand Prix.
Hill continued to win two further races at Brazil and Argentina until Villeneuve took his first Formula One victory at Europe.
Hill was leading at the Monaco Grand Prix, but on the 40th lap, his engine blew up, ending his race. Villeneuve retired on the 66th lap after colliding with Forti's Luca Badoer.
Both cars failed to finish in the points at Italy, with Hill retiring on the 5th lap after spinning off, and Villeneuve finishing outside of the points in 7th, behind Pedro Diniz of Ligier.
The title would be decided at the season-ending Japanese Grand Prix. Hill was leading with 87 points, and Villeneuve was behind him with 78 points. However, Villeneuve retired from the race on lap 36 due to a loose wheel, and Hill eventually won the race and became the Drivers' Champion of 1996.
At the end of the season, Hill was dropped by Williams in favour of Heinz-Harald Frentzen for the next season.
Race Victories[]
| Year | Event | Driver | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Australian Grand Prix | Damon Hill | |
| Brazilian Grand Prix | Pole position, fastest lap and win | ||
| Argentine Grand Prix | |||
| European Grand Prix | Jacques Villeneuve | First win for Villeneuve | |
| San Marino Grand Prix | Damon Hill | ||
| Canadian Grand Prix | |||
| French Grand Prix | |||
| British Grand Prix | Jacques Villeneuve | ||
| German Grand Prix | Damon Hill | ||
| Hungarian Grand Prix | Jacques Villeneuve | ||
| Portuguese Grand Prix | |||
| Japanese Grand Prix | Damon Hill |
Complete Formula One Results[]
| Complete Formula One results | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Year | Driver | Tyre | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | Pts | Pos | |
| 1996 | 
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175 | 1st | |||
 Hill
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G | 1st | 1st | 1st | 4th | 1st | Ret | Ret | 1st | 1st | Ret | 1st | 2nd | 5th | Ret | 2nd | 1st | ||||
 Villeneuve |
2nd | Ret | 2nd | 1st | 11th | Ret | 3rd | 2nd | 2nd | 1st | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 7th | 1st | Ret | |||||
Notes[]
- ↑ "Unveiling the iconic Williams cars in F1™ 2017". 23 June 2017. http://blog.codemasters.com/f1/06/unveiling-the-iconic-williams-cars-in-f1-2017/. Retrieved 26 June 2017.
| V T E | 
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| Drivers 2.  Logan Sargeant · 23.  Alexander Albon · 43.  Franco Colapinto
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| Personnel Frank Williams · Patrick Head · Pat Symonds · Mike Coughlan | |||
World Champions Alan Jones (1980) ·  Keke Rosberg (1982) ·  Nelson Piquet (1987) · Nigel Mansell (1992) ·  Alain Prost (1993) · Damon Hill (1996) · Jacques Villeneuve (1997)
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| Cars March 761 · FW06 · FW07 · FW07B · FW07C · FW07D · FW08 · FW08C · FW09 · FW09B · FW10 · FW10B · FW11 · FW11B · FW12 · FW12C · FW13 · FW13B · FW14 · FW14B · FW15C · FW16 · FW16B · FW17 · FW17B · FW18 · FW19 · FW20 · FW21 · FW22 · FW23 · FW24 · FW25 · FW26 · FW27 · FW28 · FW29 · FW30 · FW31 · FW32 · FW33 · FW34 · FW35 · FW36 · FW37 · FW38 · FW40 · FW41 · FW42 · FW43 · FW43B · FW44 · FW45 · FW46 | |||