Rosberg won the Dallas Grand Prix with the FW09, but the team finished the year sixth with 25.5 points.
Williams continued to use Ford power except for the final race in South Africa in 1983, and the full-time switch to Honda the following year proved unsuccessful. Nevertheless, the Finn claimed the title despite only winning one race that season in Switzerland.įrank Williams realised he needed the help of a major manufacturer to stay at the top of F1 and turned to Honda, who were developing a turbocharged V6 engine with the Spirit team. Jones retired in 1982, and was replaced by Keke Rosberg who had failed to score a point the previous year. Jones and Reutemann scored four wins between them in the following year and, while both drivers finished behind champion Piquet in the Drivers' standings, Williams took the Constructors' Championship over Brabham. Williams also won their first Constructors' Championship, with 120 points to their name. Jones clinched victory at another four races, including the final two of the season in Canada and the United States, to take the World Championship by 13 points over Brabham's Nelson Piquet. Reutemann partnered Jones in 1980, and the Australian wasted no time by winning the opening race of the season in Argentina. Jones added another win in Canada, finishing third in the Drivers' Championship behind champion Scheckter and his Ferrari teammate Gilles Villeneuve, while Williams ended the year second in the Constructors' Championship.
The streak extended to four when Jones won comfortably ahead of Scheckter at Zandvoort, but the Ferrari driver ended Williams' run by taking the chequered flag at the Italian Grand Prix. That success continued at Hockenheim as Jones led the team's first 1-2 finish, before making it three in a row for Williams at the Austrian Grand Prix. That elusive first victory finally came at Williams' home race, the British Grand Prix, with Regazzoni finishing 25 seconds clear of the field. The Swiss driver almost claimed the outfit's debut win in Monaco, but finished less than a second behind race winner Jody Scheckter. Jones was joined by Clay Regazzoni as Williams opted to field two cars in 1979.
The team finished the year ninth in the Constructors' Championship with 11 points. Jones improved on that in the United States, bringing home Williams' first podium with a second place. He scored their first points at the South African Grand Prix, finishing fourth. Head designed his first Williams car, the FW06, in the following year, with the team bringing in Alan Jones as their new driver. The Belgian driver failed to score a point, his best finish being seventh in Italy. Williams entered a custom March 761 for the 1977 season, with Patrick Neve driving the team's lone entry starting from the Spanish Grand Prix.
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