Video: 38 years ago, Clay Regazzoni snagged Williams its first win
July 14th, 1979 was a breakthrough day for young Formula 1 team Williams Grand Prix Engineering. It was the day it joined an exclusive club of World Championship Grand Prix winners.
And, to make it more poignant and rewarding, the victory came on home soil at Silverstone in the oldest and most prestigious GP on the calendar, the British Grand Prix.
The team had run up front on several occasions during the first half of the season. Number-one driver Alan Jones, who was loving life under the no-nonsense but embracing wing of team founder Frank Williams and his designer Patrick Head, had finished on the podium in Long Beach, his last race in Head’s first Williams, the FW06.
From the Spanish GP onwards, Jones and team-mate Clay Regazzoni were armed with a new car, the much-improved FW07, whose superb aero and trusty Cosworth DFV made it an effective weapon in the fight against the Ferraris, Ligiers and Renaults.
Jones led in Belgium before retiring with electrical trouble and was running third in Monaco when steering issues intervened. A maiden finish in France – with P4 – meant Williams had got a handle on reliability to match the car’s pace.
And the next race, round nine, was Silverstone.
Jones and FW07 #27 qualified on pole position on the superfast Northamptonshire airfield sweeps – a first for both the Australian, after 60 attempts, and his team. He was the only man in the 1m11s, some 0.6s ahead of Renault’s Jean-Pierre Jabouille, who’d taken pole and a maiden win last time out in France.
As the 68-lap race got underway, a breathtaking start from fourth on the grid allowed Regazzoni in the second Williams to take the lead into Copse ahead of Jones. The Swiss veteran, four times a winner with Ferrari in the first half of the decade, hung on until the run down Hangar Straight into Stowe corner when Jones squeezed past to assume control. Giving chase was Jabouille, until turbo failure struck the Renault on lap 22.
For 38 laps – more than half the total distance – Jones put on a masterclass, easing ever further ahead and seemingly on his way to his second victory and a first for Williams.
And then it all went wrong again. With more than half a minute’s lead over Regazzoni, Jones suffered a blown engine – later traced to water-pump failure – and leaving him to ponder when his luck would change. As it happened, he’d only have to wait until the next race in Germany.
And so it was Regazzoni, in his 122nd Grand Prix start, who went on to secure an historic win for Williams, taking fastest lap with it. Second went to the Renault of René Arnoux, 24s adrift, with Jean-Pierre Jarier taking his second podium finish of the year for Tyrrell.
Some 38 years later, Frank Williams’ eponymous team has gone on to score another 113 wins, another 127 poles and another 132 fastest laps, as well as Drivers’ titles for Jones, Keke Rosberg, Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve. The team has also secured nine Constructors’ crowns.
And it all started on that Saturday afternoon at Silverstone in 1979.
British Grand Prix, 1979
1. Clay Regazzoni (CH) – Williams FW07-Cosworth, 68 laps
2. René Arnoux (F) – Renault RS10, 68 laps
3. Jean-Pierre Jarier (F) – Tyrrell 009-Cosworth, 67 laps
4. John Watson (GB) – McLaren M29-Cosworth, 67 laps
5. Jody Scheckter (ZA) – Ferrari 312T4, 67 laps
6. Jacky Ickx (B) – Ligier JS11-Cosworth, 67 laps
Photography courtesy of LAT Images