After a time with the Walter Wolf racing team in the 70s Sir Frank Williams decided to start his own F1 team in 1977, establishing Williams Grand Prix Engineering with talented engineer and designer Patrick Head.

Using a customer built March 761 chassis fitted with a Cosworth DFV engine the Didcot-based team entered 11 races during the 1977 season with Belgian driver Patrick Neve but had very little success.

For the next season Williams produced his own car designed by Head using the designation FW06 and engaging Australian driver Alan Jones, who had won the Austrian GP the year before driving a Shadow.

The following year Jones provided the team with their first pole position at the British GP but it was left to Clay Regazzoni to deliver Williams first GP win when Jones’ car developed a water leak in the race.

Jones stayed with the team till the end of 1981 scoring eleven GP wins and claiming the world championship in 1980.

Since then the team has gone onto to win six more driver’s titles with Keke Rosberg (father of 2016 champion Nico), Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve.

The Williams team have won a total of 114 GP races since their debut in 1977, which is third on the list behind Ferrari on 160 in the same period and McLaren with 161 wins.

Their most successful Williams driver is the now retired Nigel Mansell who won 28 of his 31 career wins with the team, followed by Damon Hill on 21 from 22 starts, Jones in third and Villeneuve on 11 from 11.

A total of 16 different drivers have stood on the top step of the podium for Williams with the last win coming at the 2012 Spanish GP courtesy of Pastor Maldonado, who caught everyone by surprise.

Williams won 12 of the 16 races in 1996 as drivers Hill and Villeneuve went on a rampage.

Hill took out the title in the Renault powered FW18 that proved so dominant, they finished 100-points ahead of main-rivals Ferrari.

In recent times we have witnessed the domination of the Mercedes Benz team and it’s interesting to note that former Williams driver Vallteri Bottas, who was seconded from Williams at the end of last year to replace the retiring Nico Rosberg, has just recorded his first GP win driving the Mercedes Benz.

The coveted constructors title has been won by Williams on nine occasions, but the last time was in 1997 and there is very little to suggest that further titles will come their way in the immediate future.

Experienced veteran Felipe Massa has come out of retirement to rejoin Williams along with rookie pay driver Lance Stroll but there are no signs this once formidable team are back to front running status.

Williams was awarded a CBE in 1987 and was later knighted in 1999 for an outstanding contribution to the sport and his courageous efforts at rehabilitation after a spinal cord injury suffered in a car crash in France in 1986 left him in a wheelchair.

He still has an active role in the running of the team to this day with daughter Claire now heading up the team’s efforts under her father’s guidance.

The lowest point in the 40-year history of the team was the death of Ayrton Senna on May 1 at the San Marino GP in 1994 after which Williams was charged with manslaughter under Italian law.

After an extensive examination of all the circumstances it was determined there was no case to answer.

While there have been no race victories since 2012, the team have established themselves as the team to beat in the DHL pit stop competition.

They set the fastest time at 14 of last year’s 21 races with a record time of 1.92 seconds to change wheels for Massa at Baku.