The Williams FW19 was the car with which the Williams team competed in the 1997 Formula One World Championship. It was driven by Jacques Villeneuve, in his second year with the team, and Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who moved from Sauber to replace the defending champion, Damon Hill who was let go before the season began. Williams also employed test drivers Jean-Christophe Boullion and Juan Pablo Montoya.
To this date, the FW19 remains the last Williams car to win either championship. It was also the last Renault-powered Formula One car to win a world championship title until the Renault R25 in and also the last Renault-powered non-full-works Formula One car outside the Enstone-based team to win a world championship title until the Red Bull RB6 in 2010.
Design The car was a logical development of the extremely successful FW18, which had comfortably won both titles in . It was also the last Williams chassis to receive input from designer Adrian Newey, who left the team to join McLaren before the season began. His work was finished by Geoff Willis. The FW19 was the last Williams to run a works Renault engine before the French marque's temporary withdrawal. It also benefited from design input from Patrick Head. The new car was designed to be lighter and stiffer than the FW18. The car was the last Williams to use the highly successful naturally aspirated Renault RS9 V10 engine along with the in-house Williams gearbox. The car used Elf fuel, Castrol oil, Penske shock absorbers and AP Racing carbon disc brakes.
Villeneuve later said that the FW19 was his favourite Formula One car but that it operated best in a very small window which therefore made it tough out of which to extract the maximum performance. Furthermore, he added that the car was amazing once it got into its operating window and was especially great in qualifying as the car would reward the driver when put on the 'knife edge' of performance. Villeneuve also stated that the car was very difficult to drive in wet conditions and that it couldn't be driven fast with understeer, saying how it felt like driving on ice but with a lot of grip. Frentzen also found the car difficult to drive, and struggled setting it up to his liking all season.
1997 season
The car succeeded the 1996 FW18, which won both titles with drivers Damon Hill -who subsequently moved to Arrows- and Jacques Villeneuve, who remained with the team.
The season began in the way 1996 left off for Williams, with Villeneuve taking pole and Frentzen joining him on the front row for the opening race in Australia. Villeneuve's pole lap was particularly noteworthy as he was 1.7 seconds faster than his teammate and 2.1 seconds faster than Ferrari's Michael Schumacher in 3rd place. However, Villeneuve was in trouble right from the beginning of the race as a bad start pulled him back into the field and he was taken out by Eddie Irvine in the second Ferrari at the first corner, pushing the Williams into Johnny Herbert in the Sauber and into the gravel trap. This left Frentzen in the lead on a two stop strategy, but he was jumped by David Coulthard's one stopping McLaren after the German's second stop. He was still on for second place, however, but his brakes failed three laps from the end and it was a no score for Williams.
Villeneuve took pole again in Brazil, with Frentzen down in a disappointing 8th. The Canadian led the entire race apart from three laps during the second round of pitstops and held on to take his and Williams's first win of the season. Frentzen, however, had a far more exciting race, dropping to 13th at the start, being passed by Hill, Ralf Schumacher in the Jordan, Rubens Barrichello's Stewart, Coulthard and Herbert. He repassed Barrichello and Herbert in the early laps, but remained in 11th after the first stops. The second stops were better for him, and he passed Ralf Schumacher, Hill and Coulthard, emerging in 8th. He was passed late on by Giancarlo Fisichella in the Jordan and demoted to 9th, so once again scored no points. This result left Villeneuve equal top of the championship with Coulthard and Williams equal second with Benetton and behind McLaren.
An early safety car was triggered in Argentina due to the collision between Coulthard and Ferrari's Michael Schumacher. This was good for the Williams team, who had started 1–2, with Villeneuve on pole for the third consecutive time. It didn't last very long for Frentzen, though, as his clutch broke after only five laps, meaning he had still scored no points for the season. Villeneuve was able to hold on to the lead for the vast majority of the race, with only five laps during the pitstops led by the Ferrari of Eddie Irvine. The Canadian's second win of the season left him and the team clear at the top of the championship table, despite Frentzen being yet to score.
The Grove based team locked out the front row yet again in San Marino, and Villeneuve retained his 100% pole position record for 1997. Frentzen was jumped by Michael Schumacher at the start, and the Williams cars ran 1st and 3rd until the first round of pitstops, when Villeneuve was already suffering from gearbox problems. Frentzen jumped his compatriot Schumacher and took the lead while Villeneuve dropped to 3rd with his problems. He finally retired on lap 41. Frentzen was under pressure from Schumacher to the very end, but held on to take his first ever F1 victory. Villeneuve held on to his championship lead, as did the team, and Frentzen moved up to equal third — he, Gerhard Berger of Benetton, Mika Häkkinen of McLaren, Irvine and Coulthard all had 10 points.
Frentzen took his first career pole at the Monaco Grand Prix, with Villeneuve back in third and Michael Schumacher splitting them. Villeneuve had been on course to challenge Schumacher's initial provisional pole before making a mistake at the final corner on his quickest lap and subsequently clouting the wall on the following lap, ending his session early after breaking his left rear suspension at the Sainte-Dévote corner. Rain on race day saw a wet start but Williams started their drivers on dry slick tyres, believing the rain to be only a short shower. Michael Schumacher on wet tyres jumped Frentzen at the very wet start and the Jordans of Fisichella and Ralf Schumacher also got through. Villeneuve had an awful start and was down to 9th, behind Coulthard, Herbert, Barrichello and Olivier Panis's Prost as well. Frentzen had a spin and Villeneuve had technical problems, and they were soon running 16th and 17th after pitting for wet tyres. As the rain continued to fall, they picked up places due to the accidents of Herbert and Jarno Trulli in the Minardi, Berger having to stop for a new front wing and actually passing Shinji Nakano's Prost on the racetrack. This left them in 11th and 12th with Frentzen still leading his teammate, but on lap 17 Villeneuve pulled into the pits with a problem, later identified as accident damage after a brush with the barrier at Sainte-Dévote again and retired. Frentzen picked up a place on the same lap due to Jean Alesi spinning his Benetton out of the race. The German passed Ukyo Katayama in the other Minardi a lap later, and was in 9th. He was still in 9th on lap 40 when he ran wide at the seafront chicane and bounced across the kerbs, damaging his right front suspension. He then hit the wall on the other side of the track, which caused almost identical damage to the left front suspension. He was out of the race, and the Williams Monaco challenge was over. Michael Schumacher's victory left him top of the championship by four points from Villeneuve. Frentzen had been demoted to fourth due to Eddie Irvine's 3rd place, and Williams had been bumped down to 2nd by the Ferrari performance.
The Williams cars were back on the front row in Spain, with Villeneuve on pole again. Villeneuve held position at the start despite intense pressure from Coulthard and Michael Schumacher. Frentzen, however, dropped down to 6th as the McLaren and the Ferrari swept passed him along with Alesi and Häkkinen. Frentzen had run as high as third, but by the time the second pitstops were over he was down to 8th - Herbert and Panis had got passed him as well. At the end Villeneuve was able to hold onto the lead only because Olivier Panis, an unlikely challenger, was caught in the traffic of Eddie Irvine and Jos Verstappen's Tyrrell. Frentzen was not much help to the Canadian, only moving up to 8th with a last lap move on Fisichella. This result allowed Villeneuve to move back to the lead of the championship, but meanwhile Frentzen was slipping, from 4th to 6th as Panis and Coulthard overtook him.
Round 7 of the Championship took place in Montreal, Canada, Villeneuve's home race. However, the event would mark a mid-season slump in fortunes for the team in both results and car performance. Villeneuve, having been beaten to pole position in the dying moments of qualifying by Michael Schumacher, crashed into the Wall of Champions on lap 2, thus enabling the German to record victory and retake the championship lead. Frentzen meanwhile, could only qualify and finish 4th after a lacklustre race that consisted of a poor start and 3 pit stops.
Williams would fall further behind in the title race at the French Grand Prix as Michael Schumacher recorded a dominant win from pole position, 23 seconds ahead of second placed Frentzen. The Williams cars would start and finish 2nd and 4th, Villeneuve's qualifying pace hindered by having to use the spare car after crashing his race car in Saturday mornings practice session. For Frentzen, the race was a straightforward run, unable to keep pace with Schumacher but pulling clear of Irvine's 3rd place Ferrari. Villeneuve, having dropped behind Irvine at the start after passing Schumacher's Jordan off the line, made a late switch to wet tyres in the closing laps as a late thunderstorm hit the Nevers region. Rejoining 6th, Villeneuve would repass Ralf Schumacher and Coulthard into the Adelaide hairpin before mounting a last lap challenge on Irvine's podium place. Approaching the final Lycée corner, Villeneuve looked at diving down the Ferrari's inside before dipping his rear wheel on the inside grass and spinning across the track into the pit lane entry, wiping out the entry bollards as he did so. Villeneuve would straight-line the final corner in his attempts to rejoin the track to take 4th place, which earned him a summons from the stewards who let the Canadian off with a warning. The result meant Frentzen climbed back up to 3rd in the standings while Villeneuve slipped 14 points behind Schumacher and Williams fell 13 points behind Ferrari in their respective Championships - their largest deficits of the season.