Williams FW15C

The Williams FW15C is a Formula One car designed by Adrian Newey and built by Williams Grand Prix Engineering for use in the 1993 Formula One World Championship.

As the car that won both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships in the last season before the FIA banned electronic driver aids, the FW15C (along with its racing predecessor FW14B) was, in 2005, considered to be one of the most technologically sophisticated Formula One cars of all time, incorporating anti-lock brakes, traction control, active suspension, and a semi-automatic and fully-automatic gearbox.

The original FW15 was a new car designed in 1991 to incorporate the active suspension changes developed by Frank Dernie and implemented on the 1992 season's FW14B. The FW14B had initially been designed as a passive car (FW14) and had been pushed into being active. This meant it had various new active components implemented on the car which had not been in the original design brief. It was therefore considered a relatively overweight package. The original FW15 was an active car from the start which enabled a much tidier package closer to the minimum weight limit. However, the success of the FW14B meant that the FW15 was not needed in 1992.

The FW15B was a 1992 FW15 hastily converted to the 1993 regulations featuring narrower front suspension, narrower rear tyres, raised nose and wing endplates, and narrower wings to enable early season testing for 1993.

Building on the hugely successful FW14B which took Nigel Mansell and Williams to both titles in 1992, the car was the first all-new car to be produced by Patrick Head and Adrian Newey in collaboration (Head had designed many of Williams's previous cars, while Newey had designed cars for the March and Leyton House Racing teams).

With Newey's aerodynamic input the FW15 was a significant improvement on its predecessor, with a narrower nose, sleeker airbox and engine cover and carefully sculpted sidepods. Another new feature was the larger rear wing used at high-downforce circuits which featured an extra element ahead and above the main wing (similar to the 'winglets' seen in Grand Prix racing in 1983 and 1984).

The car was available in August 1992, but given the success and improved reliability of the FW14B, prudence dictated that the new car did not make its debut until the following year's season-opener in South Africa. As a result of the huge difference in build of their two drivers (Alain Prost was nearly half a foot shorter than Damon Hill), Williams eventually opted to build two slightly different FW15C tubs, so as to accommodate Hill's size 12 feet, as he had repeatedly complained of cramp in the tight confines around the pedals.

The FW15C had 12% better aerodynamics (downforce/drag) and an engine with 30 additional horsepower than the FW14B. Newey said in an interview in 1994 that the aerodynamics on the FW14B were messy due to the switch to active suspension from passive suspension, and that the FW15C was an aerodynamically cleaned up version of the aero on the FW14B.