Williams' top ten drivers with the most starts

      In 2025 in the career of Carlos Sainz begins a new chapter - he became a racer Williams, and with his arrival the British team has great hopes. They will come true, they will not come true - there is no point in guessing, but the press service of Williams, obviously, hopes that Carlos will stay for a long time, so he compiled a list of ten drivers who spent in the team, founded by Frank Williams, the largest number of starts.

      For all this time, cars Williams piloted 56 drivers, someone became a champion, someone's successes were more modest, but, of course, all of those who were included in this top ten, in different years won races or at least climbed the podium. Although not all managed to do it together with the team from Grove. This peculiar excursion into the history of Williams begins with the racer, whose name in this list occurs twice. 10. Keke Rosberg - 62 starts Keio Erik "Keke" Rosberg was the first Finnish World Champion, and he won his title in 1982 driving a Williams FW08 with just one victory that season. He drove 62 Grands Prix for the team, winning five of them, and was on the podium a total of 15 times. Keke was known for his dashing driving style, unbridled bravery and business acumen, but that's another story. 9. Damon Hill - 65 starts Damon Hill had a late start to his Formula 1 career, making his debut in the World Championship when he was already in his 30s, but that didn't stop him from succeeding. Between 1993 and 1996 he scored 21 wins, 40 top-three finishes, and in his last season with the team he became World Champion. 8. Alex Elbon - 66 starts (to continue in 2025) Alex will spend his fourth season at Williams, but he has already surpassed Hill in the number of starts. During this time he has not yet managed to finish in the top three, but on podiums he has already risen when he played for Red Bull Racing. Of course, the team hopes that when his partner will be Sainz, they will push each other, and this sooner or later will bring results. But on one condition: in Williams must build for their racers car, adequate to their talents. 7. Juan-Pablo Montoya - 68 starts Colombian racer Juan-Pablo Montoya in the years of performances for Williams (from 2001 to 2004) was fast, aggressive and very brave, which allowed him to win 4 victories and record 23 podiums. In short, in F1 he continued what he had started back in the ocean, where in 1999 he became ChampCar (now IndyCar) champion, even though it was his debut season in the American series. 6. Nico Rosberg - 70 starts Nico Rosberg won the world championship with Mercedes in 2016, but made his Formula 1 debut ten years earlier at Williams. For this team he played from 2006 to 2009, and although the victories then has not yet achieved, on the podium a couple of times rose. Nico immediately gave great promise, was a racer smart, calculating and fast, and these qualities are fully useful to him at the next stage of his career. In addition, he continued the glorious success story started by his father. 5. Valtteri Bottas - 77 starts He became the second representative of Finland, playing for Williams. The team believes that his main qualities were reliability, stability and, of course, speed. From 2013 to 2016, he was on the podium nine times, and made an important contribution to the progress of the team in the early years of the hybrid era. 4. Felipe Massa - 78 starts The Brazilian, vice-world champion in 2008, played for Williams already after Ferrari - from 2014 to 2017. When he moved to the team from Grove, it was very useful experience he gained in Maranello, where Felipe was a partner of such masters as Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso. Together with Williams he climbed the podium five times, and in the team he was very appreciated, and not only for racing, but also for human qualities. 3.Riccardo Patrese - 81 starts Riccardo Patrese played for Williams from 1987 to 1992, The Italian's career in Formula 1 lasted for almost two decades, and his highest achievement was 2nd place in the World Championship. But Patrese is remembered not only for this reason: he long held the record for the number of starts in the Grand Prix, which he had 256. This record was broken only in our time, when the stages in the World Championship calendar became noticeably more. 2. Ralf Schumacher - 94 starts The younger brother of the seven-time world champion played for Williams for six years (from 1999 to 2004), during which time he scored 6 victories and 21 times climbed the podium. Although Ralf did not achieve in Formula 1 such successes as Michael, in Grove he had a reputation for reliability and speed. 1. Nigel Mansell - 95 starts 95 starts driving for Williams, 28 wins, 43 podiums and the 1992 World Championship title - an impressive statistic. The British racer was a favorite not only of British fans, who called him "Big Nige" - for his aggressive style of fighting on the track in Italy, he was nicknamed Il Leone - "The Lion".

      Mansell has certainly earned the status of a legend of Formula 1, and even in its own way symbolic that it is he who tops the list of drivers who spent the most starts with Williams, now seeking to return to the former level, when it won races and championships. With interest, we will watch to what extent Carlos Sainz and Alex Elbon will be able to continue this statistic.