Sunday Docco: The Making of the Williams Renault FW15C

Alain Prost in the 1993 Canadian Grand Prix, thanks to the Cahier Archive

Put on a pot of coffee, put your feet up and soak in the classic Formula 1 history with this documentary recounting the making of the Williams Renault FW15C.

After updating the FW14 with active technologies, Williams designed the FW15 from the ground up to take advantage of them. And while the FW14’s implementation of these cutting-edge technologies may have been a little clumsy, that’s not to say they weren’t successful. Williams and Nigel Mansell came very close to taking both drivers’ and constructors’ titles in 1991, and knocked it out of the park in 1992 to secure both.

1993’s FW15C was a masterpiece of early-’90s technology. Adrian Newey designed it, Williams Grand Prix Engineering built it and teammates Alain Prost and Damon Hill had the honour of driving it.

It’s also a bit of an outlier. It reached a point of technological sophistication and refinement that nothing else in the paddock at the time could match before rule changes swept into the sport and ensured that nobody ever really did.

Speaking of chasing it down, not many people did during the 1993 Formula 1 World Championship, especially when it came to qualifying. Alain Prost sat in P1 at the start of thirteen of the sixteen races in 1993, with Damon Hill taking over the position for two and Ayrton Senna nabbing the honours for the last race of the season in Australia.

Throughout the season, Senna in his McLaren was the only one keeping the two Williams boys honest and helped produce an exciting season. He was able to take five races off the pair and claim second in the drivers’ championship. The only other driver to earn a win was Schumacher in the 1993 Portuguese Grand Prix.

Having returned from taking 1992 off, Alain Prost revived his rivalry with Senna in 1993, winning seven races, sitting on the podium for five and wrapping up his fourth and final Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship title. Not a bad way to leave the sport!

So – how did Williams build this beast? Enjoy the story in this awesome documentary.

MORE: For Sale: Damon Hill’s 1993 Williams FW15C

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