140 | GOODWOOD REVIVAL SALE
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1999 wiLL iam S-Su Per TeC renauLT F w21
FormuLa 1 raCing SingLe-SeaTer
Chassis no. FW21-05
The 1999 season began for Williams with a switch from Goodyear
to Bridgestone tyres, while drivers Jacques Villeneuve and Heinz-
Harald Frentzen had moved on, being replaced by the German
Ralf Schumacher and Italian Alessandro Zanardi. The new FW21
car derived from the previous year’s FW20 model, and was
considerably lighter, it had a lower centre of gravity and many novel
new detail features and it was expected to be considerably faster
than its predecessor.
The FW20 and FW21 cars were both powered by the customer
version of the two-year old 71-degree Renault V10-cylinder engine
which had been re-branded after Renault Sport’s official withdrawal
from racing under the name ‘Supertec’. These FB01 power units
had seen little development for the new season which permitted
a considerable gap to develop between those teams with major
industry engine suppliers – such as McLaren-Mercedes and Ferrari
(Fiat) – and WGPE with its now customer supply, albeit of a very
well-engineered basic power unit. But while reliability was excellent
there was always a 50-60 horsepower power disadvantage
confronting the team.
In these FW21 cars Ralf Schumacher usually out-qualified his team-
mate Zanardi and Patrick Head summed up the Italian double-CART
Indycar racing Champion’s experiences with the Williams team
as follows: “I think a Formula 1 car is very edgy on these tyres. It
has very little low-speed grip. It relies for its grip very much on its
downforce, and when you get down to low speed it’s very much on
the edge and it’s been a difficult adaptation for him. But through the
second half of the season he was reasonably on the pace at Spa,
and very much on the pace at Monza where he qualified fourth and
finished seventh, best of the year. At the Nurburgring he was looking
to be in reasonable shape on the Saturday...but he didn’t get a clear
lap in at the right time...”.
Alessandro Zanardi qualified just one place slower than Ralf
Schumacher at Imola where Supertec introduced new A-specification
engines and was heading for at least one Championship point there
when he spun on Johnny Herbert’s spilled oil. He qualified five places
ahead of Ralf on the grid at Monaco, and finished eighth, and was
a place ahead in Canada, but was forced to retire from the race.
In Hungary, Zanardi again qualified a place ahead of his combative
team-mate.Meanwhile, 1999 was very much an interim year for the Williams
team, looking forward to the beginning of a new long-term
relationship with major manufacturer BMW from 2000 forward.
This vehicle is offered in the following condition: engine and related
component status - replacement space frame, gearbox and
transmission status - complete as at last run, brake system status -
complete as at last run.The 1999 racing record of this Williams-Supertec FW21 driven
by Alessandro Zanardi:- chassis ‘05’ - is as follows:San Marino GP – qualified 10th – finished 11th
Monaco GP – qualified 11th – finished 8th
Spanish GP – qualified 17th – Rtd (transmission) 24 laps
Canadian GP – qualified 12th – Rtd (transmission) 50 laps
French GP – qualified 15th – Rtd (engine) 26 laps
British GP – qualified 13th – finished 11th
Austrian GP – qualified 14th – Rtd (out of fuel) 35 laps
German GP – qualified 14th – Rtd (transmission) 21 laps
Hungarian GP – qualified 15th – Rtd (transmission) 10 laps
Belgian GP – qualified 15th – finished 8th
Italian GP – qualified FOURTH – RAN THIRD – finished 7th
European GP – qualified 18th – Rtd (transmission) 10 laps
Malaysian GP – qualified 16th – finished 10th
Japanese GP – qualified 16th – Rtd (electrics) 0 laps
£40,000 - 50,000
€50,000 - 63,000