Three-quarters front view of Clay Regazzoni's, 1979, Williams FW07 Formula One Car, from 1979, on display, at the 2022 Silverstone Classic
Frank Williams gave Regazzoni his final drive in a competitive car alongside Alan Jones. The Williams FW07 proved to be very competitive, especially in the final part of the season, with FW07s winning all but two of the final seven races of the 1979 calendar. The first win was for Regazzoni, at Silverstone, the first of over 100 victories for the Williams Grand Prix team. In deference to the team's Saudi sponsors, he celebrated on the podium with Lilt. However, despite his achievement, once again he was replaced by Carlos Reutemann at the end of the season. At the Italian Grand Prix, motor sport journalist Nigel Roebuck asked Regazzoni why he continued to drive at the age of 40, with no prospect of a competitive seat. Regazzoni replied, "I love Formula One, and most of all I love to drive racing cars. So why should I stop when I feel this way?". At the end of the year he was invited to compete in the 1980 International Race of Champions, the last active Formula One driver, alongside Mario Andretti, to do so. The car made its debut at the Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama in 1979, the fifth round of the season and the first European round after the non-ground effect FW06 was used for the first four rounds in the Americas and South Africa. The car proved to be reasonably competitive; Australian Alan Jones put the car 13th at Jarama and then 4th for the next round in Belgium; he even led 16 laps of the race before retiring with electrical failure. At the British Grand Prix, Jones stuck the revised Williams on pole and was immediately 2 seconds faster than the next fastest car. The car served to make Team Williams a contender for the first time; Jones retired with fuel pump failure and his Swiss teammate Clay Regazzoni won his last Grand Prix and first since 1976. Jones then won 4 of the next 5 Grand Prix in Germany, Austria, Holland and Canada in a car that was so much quicker than any of the others, particularly around high-speed circuits.
Size: 4012px × 3019px
Location: Silverstone Circuit, Towcester, Northamptonshire, NN12 8TN
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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