It's the way we
Iconic F1 Team
Williams Racing
Putting an iconic F1 brand back on-track.
The Williams Formula 1 team is a sporting icon. A term often used without substance, but the Williams team has forged a reputation of success through sheer determination, grit, doggedness intertwined with advanced, skilful racecraft and absolute discipline.
Williams represents a unique blend of historic success and undying hunger to perform on the track. Williams is as British as Ferrari is Italian, but as colourful and global as Grand Prix motor racing itself. It epitomises resolute ambition, deep technological intuition and, of course, a grit to just keep driving forward.
As a creative team that has worked in Formula 1 since the late 1980s, Interstate realised the gravity of the task and designing something that Sir Frank Williams and Sir Patrick Head would approve of, was as important as engaging millions of young fans around the world. Hopefully the traditional references and precision of the application did that. We hope so and are proud of our latest F1 transformation. RIP Sir Frank.
CHALLENGE
Highs and lows are all part of any long established brand’s journey. Historic success is one thing, but Williams’ recent form has been far from the Jones, Rosberg, Mansell, Piquet Championships. The drive seemed to have faded and the mojo both on and off track was gone.
2021 was to be the first season in the team’s entire history (since 1977) where the Williams family was no longer in the driving seat.
This would either be the beginning of the end, or the beginning of an exciting new era for the brand. The race to move back up the grid and scale appropriately was on.
RESPONSE
2021 was not just another season. With changes in ownership and management, Williams was in the midst of a reboot. The core program DNA, unmistakable. The magic and energy, still present but a new modus operandi is needed.
Our reset builds on the need to drive, to perform and to deliver on and off the track. Gone are the constraints, the ‘we always did it that way’, the ingrained processes. Familiar colours remain and a dynamic, transformative pattern woven around the famous 'W' created a unique identity that would move the team up on the visual awareness scale. As an evolution of the 2020 car that failed to perform, it was important that the FW43B characterised the new spirit and optimism and signalled change loud and clear.
RESULTS
Using colour inspiration from the brand's heritage with a firm avoidance of a rearward facing pastiche, we created a bold statement livery that got everyone talking.
At its initial reveal from a virtual studio, it was the F1 ‘marmite’ livery, loved and hated in equal measures. But when it appeared in its natural habitat - a race car on-track - the daring new identity that embedded the ‘W’ of Williams in a shard-shatter disruptive graphic came to life and proved the naysayers had jumped the start. It worked as it was intended to work and created a dramatically fast looking car to stir the enthusiasm of Williams fans far and wide.
By the first race, the FW43B had been voted Nº 1 in the ten best F1 Liveries 2021 by The Telegraph and, in an online poll of the public by BBC Sport, won ‘Best Looking Car on the Grid’ prior to the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix. The kudos given was proof that design matters to Formula 1 fans and that a under-performing team can make its mark by being brave.
