FW18 Formula One car at the
1996 Canadian Grand Prix. The
Canadian would finish second, behind his teammate,
Damon Hill. The Grand Prix was one of six occasions when the FW18s finished first and second. Williams retained
Damon Hill for 1996, who helped to develop the FW18, and the car seemed to respond well to his smooth driving style, while his new teammate, Formula One rookie
Jacques Villeneuve, also quickly adapted to the FW18. The car was extremely reliable, as FW18s completed 1778 laps of a possible 2028, more than any other car that season. The car responded well to set-up changes and was competitive on all types of circuits, with Hill qualifying on the front row at every track and at least one Williams driver finishing on the podium for every race except for the
Monaco and
Italian Grands Prix, both of which saw Hill retire from the lead due to engine failure at the former and driver error at the latter. The FW18's dominance was also due in part to the recent personnel changes at rival teams.
Benetton (running the B196s of
Gerhard Berger and
Jean Alesi for 1996), which had previously bested Williams in the past two seasons, had lost
Michael Schumacher and several key technical people to
Ferrari. However, the Ferrari F310s that Schumacher and
Eddie Irvine had at their disposal were unreliable and it would not be until
1997 that they could challenge for the Constructors' title. The FW18 proved to be extremely successful during the season, as the car won twelve of the sixteen races and won the Constructors' Championship for Williams at the
Hungarian Grand Prix with four rounds to spare. Their eventual winning margin of 105 points over second placed Ferrari was the second largest recorded in history at the time, behind only the
McLaren MP4/4 that dominated the
1988 season. Hill and Villeneuve fought a good natured but close intra-team title fight, with Hill winning six of the opening nine races to open up a points cushion, which he successfully defended in the second half of the season after Villeneuve began to mount a title challenge, the foundations of which were built upon a run of seven consecutive mid-season podium finishes. The Championship title was eventually decided in the Englishman's favour at the final round in Suzuka after Hill won the
Japanese Grand Prix and Villeneuve's car lost its right-rear wheel. This was after Williams team principal,
Frank Williams, took the controversial decision to not re-sign Hill for the 1997 season. Also before the season concluded, designer
Adrian Newey had been placed on "
gardening leave" as he would join McLaren for 1998. The departures of Hill and Newey would signal the beginning of the end of Williams dominance in Formula One, only narrowly winning the Driver's and Constructor's titles in 1997 and failing to win a race in
1998; although they remained competitive up until
2004, with Patrick Head at the helm of engineering. demonstrating the FW18 at the
2010 Bahrain Grand Prix. ==Livery==