Editing Williams Racing (section)

===Ford-Cosworth engines (1977–1983)===
{{See also|Ford Motor Company|Cosworth}}
[[File:Williams logo (old).png|thumb|The original Williams logo]]

====1977 season====
Williams entered a [[March 761]] for the {{F1|1977}} season. Lone driver [[Patrick Nève]] competed in 11 races that year, starting with the {{F1 GP|1977|Spanish}}. The new team failed to score a point, achieving a best finish of 7th at the {{F1 GP|1977|Italian}}.<ref>''Williams Grand Prix Engineering&nbsp;– 1977 results'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20071008010930/http://www.f1db.com/exec/section/team/action/results/id/1977030/type/entries www.f1db.com]. Retrieved 22 August 2006.</ref>

====1978 season====
[[File:Williams FW06.jpg|thumb|left|The 1978 [[Williams FW06]] at [[Silverstone Circuit|Silverstone]] in 2007]]

For the {{F1|1978}} season, Patrick Head designed the first Williams car: the FW06. Williams signed [[Alan Jones (racing driver)|Alan Jones]], who had won the {{F1 GP|1977|Austrian}} the previous season for a devastated [[Shadow Racing Cars|Shadow]] team following the death of their lead driver, [[Tom Pryce]]. Jones's first race for the team was the {{F1 GP|1978|Argentine}} where he qualified in 14th position but retired after 36 laps due to a fuel system failure. The team scored its first championship points two races later at the {{F1 GP|1978|South African}} when Jones finished in fourth. Williams earnt their first podium at the {{F1 GP|1978|United States}}, where Jones came second, 20 seconds behind the [[Scuderia Ferrari|Ferrari]] of [[Carlos Reutemann]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Grand Prix Results: United States GP, 1978|url=http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/rr312.html|publisher=GrandPrix.com|access-date=13 November 2006}}</ref> Williams finished the season in ninth place in the Constructors' Championship, with a respectable 11 points, while Alan Jones finished 11th in the Drivers' Championship. Towards the end of 1978, Frank Williams recruited [[Frank Dernie]] to join Patrick Head in the design office.

====1979 season====
Head designed the [[Williams FW07|FW07]] chassis and gearbox for the {{F1|1979}} season with [[Frank Dernie]] picking up the suspension, aerodynamic development and skirt design. This was the team's first [[ground effect in cars|ground effect]] car, a technology that was first introduced by [[Colin Chapman]] and [[Team Lotus]]. Williams also obtained membership of the [[Formula One Constructors' Association]] (FOCA) which expressed a preference for teams to run two cars, so Jones was joined at the team by [[Clay Regazzoni]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Hamilton|first=Maurice|title=Frank Williams|year=1998|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=0-333-71716-3|page=80}}</ref> It was not until the seventh round of the championship, the {{F1 GP|1979|Monaco}}, that they finished in the points. Regazzoni came close to taking the team's first win but finished second, less than a second behind race winner [[Jody Scheckter]]. The next race, the [[1979 French Grand Prix|French Grand Prix]], is remembered for the final lap battle between [[René Arnoux]] and [[Gilles Villeneuve]], but also saw both cars finish in the points for the first time; as Jones was fourth with Regazzoni in sixth.<ref>{{cite web|title=Grand Prix Results: French GP, 1979|url=http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/rr321.html|publisher=GrandPrix.com|access-date=9 June 2012}}</ref> The team's first win came at the {{F1 GP|1979|British}} (their home Grand Prix) when Regazzoni finished 25 seconds ahead of second place.

Greater success followed when Williams got a 1-2 finish at the next round in [[1979 German Grand Prix|Germany]], Jones in first with Regazzoni two seconds behind in second. Jones then made it three wins in a row at the [[1979 Austrian Grand Prix|Austrian Grand Prix]], finishing half a minute ahead of Gilles Villeneuve's Ferrari. Three wins in a row became four two weeks later at the [[1979 Dutch Grand Prix|Dutch Grand Prix]], with Alan Jones winning yet again by a comfortable margin over [[Jody Scheckter]]'s Ferrari. Scheckter ended Williams's winning streak when he won the {{F1 GP|1979|Italian}}; with Regazzoni finishing third behind Scheckter and Villeneuve. Alan Jones managed another win at the penultimate race in [[1979 Canadian Grand Prix|Canada]] to cap off a great season.

Williams had greatly improved their Constructors' Championship position, finishing eight places higher than the previous year and scoring 59 more points. Alan Jones was the closest driver to the Ferrari duo of Villeneuve and 1979 champion Jody Scheckter. Jones scored 43 points, 17 points behind Scheckter, while Regazzoni was two places behind him with 32 points.
<!--Alan Jones was the closest driver to the Ferrari duo of Villeneuve and 1979 champion Jody Scheckter, the Australian scored 43 points, 17 behind the South African, while Jones's teammate, Regazzoni, was two places behind him with 32 points.-->

====1980 season====
Before the start of the 1980 season, Regazzoni left the team and was replaced by [[Carlos Reutemann]]. Williams started strong in the championship, with Jones winning the first race of the season in [[1980 Argentine Grand Prix|Argentina]]. Jones won four more races: the [[1980 French Grand Prix|French Grand Prix]], the [[1980 British Grand Prix|British Grand Prix]], the [[1980 Canadian Grand Prix|Canadian Grand Prix]] and, the last race of the season, the [[1980 United States Grand Prix|United States Grand Prix]]. Jones became the first of seven Williams drivers to win the Drivers' Championship, 17 points ahead of [[Nelson Piquet]]'s [[Brabham]]. Williams also won its first Constructors' Championship, scoring 120 points, almost twice as many as second-placed [[Equipe Ligier|Ligier]].

====1981 season====
Williams won four races in {{F1|1981}}. Alan Jones won the first race of the season, the [[1981 United States Grand Prix West|United States West Grand Prix]], and the final race of the season, the [[1981 Caesars Palace Grand Prix|Caesars Palace Grand Prix]]. Meanwhile, Carlos Reutemann won the [[1981 Brazilian Grand Prix|Brazilian Grand Prix]] and the [[1981 Belgian Grand Prix|Belgian Grand Prix]]. Williams won the Constructors' title for the second year in a row, scoring 95 points, 34 points more than second-placed Brabham.

====1982 season====
[[File:Williams F1 Main Article.jpg|thumb|[[Keke Rosberg]]'s [[Williams FW08|FW08]] used during the {{F1|1982}} season when Rosberg won the Drivers' Championship recording only a single win during the season]]

This season, Alan Jones retired from Formula One (though he would come back a year later for a single race with the [[Arrows Grand Prix International|Arrows]] team). The Australian was replaced by [[Keke Rosberg]], the father of [[2016 Formula One World Championship|2016]] World Champion [[Nico Rosberg]]. Rosberg had not scored a single point the previous year. He won the Drivers' title that year despite winning only one race, the {{F1 GP|1982|Swiss}}. Rosberg's teammate, [[Carlos Reutemann|Reutemann]], finished in 15th place having quit Formula One after just two races of the new season. His seat was filled by [[Mario Andretti]] for the [[1982 United States Grand Prix West|United States Grand Prix West]]; before [[Derek Daly]] took over for the rest of the year. Williams finished fourth in the Constructors' Championship that year, 16 points behind first-place [[Scuderia Ferrari|Ferrari]].