Williams FW18 Renault 1996

[Smokey Nismo]

The last two years for the British outfit had been a pretty grim time. In 1994, they not only lost their star driver in the form of Ayrton Senna, but in a double whammy, Damon Hill lost the the Drivers Title in controversial circumstances to Michael Schumacher at Adelaide. Their last car, the FW17, also failed to capatalise on the fact it had the best chassis in the field combined with the best engine. This, we imagined, had annoyed Williams enough to get to work on the car that would skull crush the opposition for their 1996 campaign. Enter the FW18.

It drew its inspiration heavily on the FW17, but used new protections for the driver as requested by the FIA. As a result, the drivers sat lower in the cockpit, in turn, lowering the cars center of gravity, and thus aiding the handling of the car. The nose cone is essentially the same as the '95 car (remember, Williams' aerodynamic mastermind Adrian Newey realized the high nose was the way to proceed, as the car in 94 still used the low nose), indicating the kind of craft that is usually an absolute requirement for pursuing F1 drivers and constructors titles.

Newey's aerodynamics placed the car well ahead of the Benetton B196s of Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi and the Ferrari F310s that Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine had at their disposal, and with the helping hand of Damon Hill and the lightning quick Jacques Villeneuve, this car proved to be the class of the 1996 field, winning 12 out of the 16 races (Hill with 8 wins and Jacques with 4) and winning Damon the driver's championship, thus became the first son of a World Champion to become a Champion himself.

 

[Azure Flare]

The Rothmans logos will likely be blanked out or have a barcode like in F1 2013.

One of my favorite F1 cars of all time.

 

[f1webberfan]

Get's my vote any day.

 

[AnfieldLFC252]

I don't think I could vote for this, only on the basis of Senna losing his life in one. Otherwise it would have had a big +1 from me.

 

[Azure Flare]

@AnfieldLFC252 Senna died driving the FW16.

 

[AnfieldLFC252]

@AnfieldLFC252 Senna died driving the FW16.

Sorry I should have said similar to this, obviously you are right though.

 

[SVT Cobra GT]

I don't think I could vote for this, only on the basis of Senna losing his life in one. Otherwise it would have had a big +1 from me.

Ignoring the fact that Senna drove the FW16. Why wouldn't you be able to vote for it because of Senna's death? Yes it was awful but surely putting it into a game is only carrying on his legacy.

 

[AnfieldLFC252]

Ignoring the fact that Senna drove the FW16. Why wouldn't you be able to vote for it because of Senna's death? Yes it was awful but surely putting it into a game is only carrying on his legacy.

I just think it's a stark reminder to the great mans vulnerability rather than his outstanding quality as a racer. The FW16 though doesn't hand us the great memories he left behind while driving for Toleman and McLaren as well as his karting days and the other Formulas that he drove in.

 

[SVT Cobra GT]

If you're applying that logic, then the '92 McLaren MP4-7 and '87 Lotus 99T wouldn't be worth putting into the game as they didn't provide anything magical aside from their respective races in Monaco.

The FW16 was possibly the car that would have given Senna his 4th title. He had 3 pole positions that season before his death and I'm sure he'd have found a way to sort out it's driving issues so that Schumacher wouldn't have won. The pole positions alone showed that this car with Senna driving had potential to deliver something magic. But alas we'll never know.

As for a reminder of his vulnerability. The 1985 Lancia Delta S4 Rally Car is in GT, that completely disintegrated along with Henri Toivonen and his co driver inside. Then there is the 1986 Ford RS200 Rally Car which killed 3 spectators at the Portuguese rally and signalled the end of Group B.