Paul Darvill
Head of Department, Bonhams Collector Cars Europe
Lot 102
The ex-Alessandro Zanardi - 14 Grand Prix races
1999 Williams-Supertec Renault FW21 Formula 1 Racing Single-Seater
1999 Williams-Supertec Renault FW21 Formula 1 Racing Single-Seater
Amended
13 May 2022, 15:00 CEST
Monte CarloSold for €362,250 inc. premium
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Paul Gaucher
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Gregor Wenner
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Adrien Durban
Motorcar Consultant
The ex-Alessandro Zanardi - 14 Grand Prix races
1999 Williams-Supertec Renault FW21 Formula 1 Racing Single-Seater
Chassis no. FW21-05
1999 Williams-Supertec Renault FW21 Formula 1 Racing Single-Seater
Chassis no. FW21-05
• Retains Renault V10 engine and gearbox
• Raced in the 1999 F1-season by Alessandro Zanardi
• On static display for around 15 years
• Raced in the 1999 F1-season by Alessandro Zanardi
• On static display for around 15 years
Footnotes
This vehicle is offered and sold "as seen". Bonhams unfortunately has no information on when the car was last run and what state it was left in after final usage.
The 1999 season began for Williams with a switch from Goodyear to Bridgestone tyres, while drivers Jacques Villeneuve and Heinz-Harald Frentzen had moved on, being replaced by the German Ralf Schumacher and Italian Alessandro Zanardi. The new FW21 car derived from the previous year's FW20 model, and was considerably lighter, it had a lower centre of gravity and many novel new detail features and it was expected to be considerably faster than its predecessor.
The FW20 and FW21 cars were both powered by the customer version of the two-year old 71-degree Renault V10-cylinder engine which had been re-branded after Renault Sport's official withdrawal from racing under the name 'Supertec'. These FB01 power units had seen little development for the new season which permitted a considerable gap to develop between those teams with major industry engine suppliers – such as McLaren-Mercedes and Ferrari (Fiat) – and WGPE with its now customer supply, albeit of a very well-engineered basic power unit. But while reliability was excellent there was always a 50-60 horsepower power disadvantage confronting the team.
In these FW21 cars Ralf Schumacher usually out-qualified his team-mate Zanardi and Patrick Head summed up the Italian double-CART Indycar racing Champion's experiences with the Williams team as follows: "I think a Formula 1 car is very edgy on these tyres. It has very little low-speed grip. It relies for its grip very much on its downforce, and when you get down to low speed it's very much on the edge and it's been a difficult adaptation for him. But through the second half of the season he was reasonably on the pace at Spa, and very much on the pace at Monza where he qualified fourth and finished seventh, best of the year. At the Nurburgring he was looking to be in reasonable shape on the Saturday...but he didn't get a clear lap in at the right time...".
Alessandro Zanardi qualified just one place slower than Ralf Schumacher at Imola where Supertec introduced new A-specification engines and was heading for at least one Championship point there when he spun on Johnny Herbert's spilled oil. He qualified five places ahead of Ralf on the grid at Monaco, and finished eighth, and was a place ahead in Canada, but was forced to retire from the race. In Hungary, Zanardi again qualified a place ahead of his combative team-mate.
Meanwhile, 1999 was very much an interim year for the Williams team, looking forward to the beginning of a new long-term relationship with major manufacturer BMW from 2000 forward.
'FW21-05' is offered from long-term (around 15 years) static display.
We're advised that the status of the replacement space frame, Renault V10-engine and related components, brake system, gearbox and transmission is:
complete as at last run.
The 1999 racing record of this Williams-Supertec FW21- chassis '05' - is as follows:
Driven by Alessandro Zanardi:
San Marino GP – qualified 10th – finished 11th
Monaco GP – qualified 11th – finished 8th
Spanish GP – qualified 17th – Rtd (transmission) 24 laps
Canadian GP – qualified 12th – Rtd (transmission) 50 laps
French GP – qualified 15th – Rtd (engine) 26 laps
British GP – qualified 13th – finished 11th
Austrian GP – qualified 14th – Rtd (out of fuel) 35 laps
German GP – qualified 14th – Rtd (transmission) 21 laps
Hungarian GP – qualified 15th – Rtd (transmission) 10 laps
Belgian GP – qualified 15th – finished 8th
Italian GP – qualified FOURTH – RAN THIRD – finished 7th
European GP – qualified 18th – Rtd (transmission) 10 laps
Malaysian GP – qualified 16th – finished 10th
Japanese GP – qualified 16th – Rtd (electrics) 0 laps
Saleroom notices
This vehicle is offered and sold "as seen". Bonhams unfortunately has no information on when the car was last run and what state it was left in after final usage.