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The Williams FW11 was a Formula 1 car designed by Patrick Head and Frank Dernie as a serious challenger to McLaren and their MP4/2 car. The car took over from where the FW10 left off at the end of 1985, when that car won the last 3 races of the season. The FW11's most notable feature was the Honda 1.5 Litre V6 turbo engine, the most powerful in F1 at the time producing 800bhp at 12,000rpm and well over 1,000bhp in qualifying. Added to the engine's power were the aerodynamics, which were ahead of the MP4/2 and the Lotus 97T. That and it's excellent driving pairing of Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell made it a force to be reckoned with. The car was an instantly recognisable product of the turbo era of F1.
In 1986, the car won first time out in Brazil with Piquet, before Mansell laid down a title challenge with four wins. Williams were shaken by the near fatal road crash of Frank Williams which demoralised the team, but Head stepped up and managed the team until Williams returned late in the season. This may have caused the in-fighting between the two team mates, and the lost points helped Alain Prost take his second world championship. That and Mansell's spectacular blow out in the final race in Australia where all he had to do was finish third to win the title. The points built up between Piquet and Mansell were enough for Williams to take the constructors' championship, however.
The FW11 was updated slightly for 1987, and the team made no mistakes in wrapping up both championships. Honda were now supplying Lotus with the same engine supplied to Williams, which helped Ayrton Senna challenge consistently, but the FW11's superiority told, and Piquet was champion. As for Mansell, he scored six victories including a memorable win at the British Grand Prix. He scored twice as many wins as Piquet, but also had the lion's share of bad luck and unreliability. Piquet's third championship was assured after Mansell had a major crash during practice for the Japanese Grand Prix. The team tried active suspension for the first time with the FW11, and there were plans to introduce semi automatic transmission, but this never came to pass.
The FW11 was not a technical showcase by any means, but solid engineering, the engine's outright power and Piquet and Mansell helped the car take 18 wins, 16 pole positions and 278 points.
The FW11 is also one of three Williams cars featuring in the Codemasters game, TOCA Race Driver 3.
