FW16

The Williams FW16 is a Formula One vehicle that was operated by the Rothmans Williams Renault team in the 1994 Formula One World Championship. It is mostly remembered as the last F1 car Ayrton Senna drove until his fatal accident at Imola on 1 May 1994.

For the first round at Interlagos in Brazil, Senna put the car on pole while teammate Damon Hill was down in fourth on the grid. At the start, Senna got cleanly away while his main rival Michael Schumacher was held up by Jean Alesi. Eventually Schumacher got past Alesi and overtook Senna during the first pitstops. After another stop (for fuel), Senna was able to close to within 5 seconds but spun-off on lap 57, thus failing to score points. Hill finished a lap down in second from Schumacher.

The second round at the TI Circuit in Aida, Japan would see Senna get pole once again, but not without him and Hill spinning during Qualifying several times. Like other teams, the FW16 was fitted with an extra section to the rear wing as well as chines to the nose for extra down-force. It later emerged that the FW16's front wing was positioned too low, leading to the car spinning if it ran over a bump on-track. Senna would then be punted off at the first corner by Mika Häkkinen before being T-boned by Nicola Larini's Ferrari.

Going into the third round at Imola, Senna was 20 points behind Schumacher and under pressure to start challenging the German for the title. For this race, the FW16 had been modified with a new slightly higher front wing to try and alleviate the instability seen earlier in the season.

With the fatal accident of Roland Ratzenberger from the previous day on in the back of their minds, the grid assembled for the race on 1 May 1994. After JJ Lehto stalled his Benetton and was hit by Pedro Lamy, the safety car was brought out for 5 laps before the race resumed. Leading the race on lap 7, Senna's FW16 went off at Tamburello and the hit the wall at 211 km/h (131 mph). He was killed when the suspension from his Williams punctured his helmet. An Austrian flag was found his car as Senna had planned to wave it in a sign of respect for Raztenberger. Despite the crash, the race was resumed. Hill attempted to overtake Schumacher at the restart but damaged his car in the process forcing him to pit. He finished 6th.

In a sign of respect for Senna, Williams only ran one car (Hill) for the Monaco Grand Prix. At the start, Hill's FW16 hit Häkkinen's McLaren. Hill eventually retired due to the damage from the collision at the Casino corner. Schumacher was not leading the Championship with 40 points.

Starting with the Spanish Grand Prix, the FW16 received new upgrades to improve its safety and stability. Some of these upgrades were mandatory due to the FIA trying to improve safety after the San Marino crashes. For this round, Badge boards were added as well as the diffuser being shrunk and the Vortex generators behind the front wing being banned. Test driver David Coulthard was assigned to the No.2 car. Hill was second the grid and stayed second during the majority of the race until Schumacher's Benetton was stuck in the fifth gear. Hill was thus able win the FW16 and his first race of the year.

By the German Grand Prix, the FW16B was introduced and was used by the team for the rest of season. Although Damon Hill lost the Drivers Championship to Michael Schumacher, Williams-Renault was still able to win the Constructors Championship.

• Damon Hill - Car No.0
• Ayrton Senna (Rd1 ~ Rd3) - Car No.2
• David Coulthard (Rd5 ~ Rd6,Rd8 ~ Rd13) - Car No.2
• Nigel Mansell (Rd7,Rd14 ~ Rd16) - Car No.2