The only question was: who would drive it? Williams signed Damon Hill, the loyal #2 to Alain Prost and then Ayrton Senna, and paired him with a raw, 21-year-old rookie named Jacques Villeneuve.
The 1996 season wasn't a battle for the championship; it was a coronation. (Williams) won the title, but the story was as much about the car as the driver. The Williams FW18 is regarded as one of the greatest F1 cars ever built. It was aerodynamically superior, had the dominant Renault engine, and was reliable. f1 1996 season
The season was dominated by the Williams-Renault team , which won 12 out of 16 races with the highly successful chassis. The only question was: who would drive it
In the grand theater of Formula 1 history, certain seasons are remembered for their blistering title fights, last-lap passes, or technical revolutions. The 1996 season is not one of those seasons. Yet, to dismiss it as forgettable would be a profound mistake. The 1996 campaign was a season of stark paradoxes: a dominant champion who was openly loathed by his team, a brilliant newcomer who redefined driving technique but couldn't win a race, and a legendary team that finally broke its curse only to immediately collapse. (Williams) won the title, but the story was
It was the year the machine won, and the man driving it paid the price.
To understand 1996, you must understand the bizarre hatred directed at Damon Hill. The son of double world champion Graham Hill, Damon was polite, articulate, and middle-class in a sport that preferred the fiery working-class heroics of a Hunt or a Schumacher. Frank Williams never wanted him as #1. Patrick Head openly criticized his "lack of raw pace."
The 1996 season ended with one of F1’s most shocking betrayals. Despite delivering Williams its first drivers' title since 1987 (and the first for the Hill family name since 1962), Damon Hill was sacked. Frank Williams offered him a paltry $1 million salary (a fraction of what Schumacher or even Villeneuve would make) with a clause that allowed the team to drop him at any time.