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Piquet’s F1 Williams FW11 the star of Race Retro 2019

December 21, 2018

Race Retro International Motorsport Show is Europe’s number 1 historic motorsport show.

Now in its 41st year, Race Retro, held at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire from the 22nd to the 24th of February 2019 features a number of halls that are always jam-packed with legendary cars from series across the world and throughout the ages.

Next year’s event will be a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the first Formula 1 win by a turbocharged car, when Jean-Pierre Jabouille won the 1979 French Grand Prix in a Renault (a feat that was somewhat overshadowed by Gilles Villeneuve (Ferrari) and Renault Arnoux (Renault)’s epic duel for second place.

This year, one of the stars of the show – alongside a host of other turbocharged racing cars – is going to be Nelson Piquet‘s 1987 World Championship winning Williams FW11.

Powered by a Honda 1.5-litre turbocharged V6 engine, both Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet would score wins in 1986 – the car’s debut season (five for Mansell and four for Piquet) and then again in 1987 (another six for Mansell and three for Piquet) when the revised FW11B took Piquet to the F1 World Championship.

The turbo era lasted from 1977 when Renault debuted the Renault RS01 with a Gordini V6 1.5L turbocharged engine to the Japanese Grand Prix in 1989, when turbocharged engines were banned in favour of their naturally-aspirated counterparts in an effort to reduce costs and improve safety, with the turbo-engines being considered dangerously powerful.

This lasted until 2014 when a new 1.6L V6 turbocharged formula 1 was introduced to allow cleaner and more efficient engines in an era where everyone is trying to do their bit to help the environment (we’ll just ignore the massive carbon footprint made by the Formula 1 circus in travelling to 21 different countries every year).

Show director Lee Masters promises a very special day in celebration:

“We can promise visitors a very special display in celebration.”

(I’ve always wanted to do that).

So there you go. Get yourself along if you want to see a true Williams legend and part of Formula 1 history.

I wouldn’t visit their website if I were you though – I think they forgot about it in 2017.


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