The move from Didcot to Grove
By 1995 the Didcot HQ was rapidly becoming too small to house the team. A search for a new base was made and midway through 1995 the ideal place was found 10 miles from Didcot at Grove. Over the '95/'96 winter the team moved with the final phase being the transportation of the wind tunnel over the weekend of the 1996 San Marino Grand Prix. The new Grove factory was officially opened by HRH The Princess Royal on Tuesday 29th October 1996.

Joining the team for 1996 was Jacques Villeneuve, 1995 Indy Car Champion and son of the late Gilles Villeneuve. The team had achieved good results during pre-season testing but it was not until the first race in Melbourne that the FW18's true potential was shown. New boy Jacques was the star of the show, claiming pole. With Damon second on the grid, the pair were over half a second quicker than the nearest opposition. They continued their domination in the race and eventually Damon won, with Jacques second after the Canadian had to slow down in the closing laps and relinquish his lead due to an oil pipe problem

Heading for more World Championships with Hill and Villeneuve
This success continued with Damon also winning in Brazil and Argentina and then Jacques winning his first ever Formula One Grand Prix, the European at the Nurburgring. The team went on to win 12 of the 16 races - Damon eight and Jacques four - and the Constructors' Championship was sewn up by the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Drivers' Championship was led from start to finish by Damon, with Jacques second, but was taken down to the wire with the final race in Suzuka seeing the title settled. Damon needed just one point to win and for Jacques it was a win or nothing. In the end Damon led the race from the lights to the chequered flag while Jacques was forced to retire. This was Damon's first and the team's sixth Drivers' World Championship.

1997 - a record breaking ninth Constructors' Title
German driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen joined up the team in 1997 to partner Jacques. The season promised to be very competitive. The team fought hard but by mid-season still trailed championship-leaders Ferrari. There were celebrations at Silverstone with the 100th Grand Prix win at the scene of the very first victory 18 years previously. The famous WilliamsF1 determination had kicked in and by round 14, the Austrian Grand Prix, the team was back at the top of the championship table where it would stay. A record-breaking ninth Constructors' World Championship was sealed at the Japanese Grand Prix. An emotional World Championship victory for Jacques in the last race at Jerez sealed the delight of the entire team

A change of image in 1998 co-incided with a change of fortune. The competition had shifted up a gear and by the first Grand Prix in Australia it looked like the McLaren team was going to walk away with the World Championships. A mass of new regulations in 1998 had presented all the teams with many new challenges including a reduction in the width of the car from two metres to 1.8 metres, more stringent crash testing and grooved tyres. McLaren had adapted best to the changes and the rest of the field was left to play 'catch-up'. WilliamsF1 had said goodbye to Renault in 1997 after a tremendously successful partnership that brought nine championship titles to the two companies

The team continued to race with Mecachrome/Supertec engines before new technical partner, BMW, made its return to compete in Formula One racing in 2000. Without a works engine partner, the team had a hard fight on its hands to compete with the dominant McLaren and the hard charging Ferrari team. By the close of the season, it was McLaren and Ferrari challenging for the Championships whilst the "Winfield WilliamsF1 Team" found itself in the fight for third place. Continual developments to the FW20 gave the team the push it needed and third place in the Constructors' Championship was duly secured. 1999 looked set to be another tough year for the team but there would be a few changes

A completely new driver line-up brought reigning CART Champion Alex Zanardi and Ralf Schumacher to the team in 1999. Zanardi had a difficult season. Coming from the CART series to the modern Formula One threw the Italian onto a very steep learning curve. The advent of grooved tyres and narrow track cars in 1998 had forced the drivers to change their technique to control these new machines. Zanardi had to catch up with the learning process fast.

Bad luck dogged his early season but the turning point came at the Belgian Grand Prix when he was finally on the pace. A strong performance at the next race in Italy looked like the tables were turning but further disappointments, ending with an electrical problem on the first lap of the last race in Japan, finished off a miserable season for the Italian...

1999 Ralf Schumacher within reach of his first GP victory
Schumacher though was to become the star of the year, putting in stunning performances, regularly scoring points and, at the European Grand Prix, his finest moment almost came but he was robbed of victory by a puncture. His strong racing skills earned him sixth position in the Drivers' World Championship and fifth place in the Constructors' Championship for the team.

With the start of the new millennium, a new era began for WilliamsF1. After almost two years of backstage work, BMW returned to the Formula One arena with the WilliamsF1 team. The partnership, planned for five years, got off to a very promising start in 2000 with the BMW WilliamsF1 Team taking third place in the Formula One Constructors' World Championship.