It was driven by Jacques Villeneuve, in his second year with the team, and Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who moved from Sauber to replace the defending 1996 champion, Damon Hill who was dumped before the season began.

[citation needed] The car used Elf fuel, Castrol oil, Penske shock absorbers and AP Racing carbon disc brakes.

[citation needed] The car had the tough challenge of picking up the baton from 1996's FW18, which had walked away with both titles in the hands of Damon Hill, now departed for Arrows, and the retained Jacques Villeneuve.

The season began in the way 1996 left off for Williams, with Villeneuve taking pole and Frentzen joining him on the front row for the opening race in Australia.

Frentzen, however, had a far more exciting race, dropping to 13th at the start, being passed by Hill, Ralf Schumacher in the Jordan, Rubens Barrichello's Stewart, Coulthard and Herbert.

Villeneuve held on to his championship lead, as did the team, and Frentzen moved up to equal third — he, Gerhard Berger of Benetton, Mika Häkkinen of McLaren, Irvine and Coulthard all had 10 points.

As the rain continued to fall, they picked up places due to the accidents of Herbert and Jarno Trulli in the Minardi, Berger having to stop for a new front wing and actually passing Shinji Nakano's Prost on the racetrack.

This left them in 11th and 12th with Frentzen still leading his teammate, but on lap 17 Villeneuve pulled into the pits with a problem, later identified as accident damage after a brush with the barrier, and retired.

Villeneuve, having been beaten to pole position in the dying moments of qualifying by Michael Schumacher, crashed into the Wall of Champions on lap 2, thus enabling the German to record victory and retake the championship lead.

Villeneuve would straight-line the final corner in his attempts to rejoin the track to take 4th place, which earned him a summons from the stewards who let Jacques off with a warning.

Villeneuve struck back in the battle of Britain, clinching victory at Silverstone whilst Schumacher would retire with a wheel bearing issue, closing the Germans lead to 4 points.

The Williams Renaults locked out the front row of the grid with Jacques ahead of Frentzen after the pair displaced Mika Häkkinen's McLaren in the dying moments of qualifying.

Unfortunately, a 33-second pit stop after a wheel nut delay on the left rear tyre dropped the Canadian to 7th place whilst giving Schumacher the lead.

The title pendulum would swing back to the blue corner of Williams Renault at August's Hungarian Grand Prix, with Villeneuve's 5th win of the season and second consecutive in Budapest.

With the majority of the Goodyear runners struggling with blistered tyres, Jacques would make a 2 stop strategy work, however he was unable to keep up with the scintillating pace of Damon Hill's Bridgestone shod Arrows Yamaha.

The Belgian Grand Prix witnessed a pre-race heavy rain shower that engulfed Spa Francorchamps and with it flooded away Villeneuve's aspirations of winning in the Ardennes Forest.

He would outbreak himself into the Bus Stop chicane and had to elect to take to the pit lane entry, by which point the team used the opportunity to switch to intermediates after a delay getting the tyres ready.

Villeneuve meanwhile rocketed up the order in dry conditions, setting the race's fastest lap by a full second before taking a damage limitation 5th after Häkkinen's exclusion.

Also notable was Jacques Villeneuve's second warning of the season during Friday practice for failing to slow down adequately for yellow flags, the same offence he committed as that at the San Marino Grand Prix.

With form having been erratic between the Canadian and Italian race meetings, a late season resurgence which ultimately steered the team back on the path to title glory began at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Villeneuve then passed Rubens Barrichello's Stewart Ford for second place before overcutting Jarno Trulli's Prost to regain the lead at just over half distance.

The Williams cars qualified 2nd and 3rd with Jacques ahead, however the pair would touch in the run down to the first corner, with Villeneuve dropping to 3rd behind the two McLaren's whilst Frentzen, in the confusion, accidentally knocked his ignition switch which briefly cut out his Renault engine.

A tumultuous yet victorious Japanese Grand Prix weekend provided a microcosm for the team's 1997 season, where crushing lows were still subsided by ultimate success.

For Jacques Villeneuve, the penultimate race meeting of the year turned sour from the moment he was penalised for failing to slow down for waved yellow flags as a result of Verstappen's stationary Tyrrell out of spoon curve during Saturday morning practice.

With Frentzen pitting and rejoining 4th, Eddie Irvine regained 1st place then dramatically slowed to allow Schumacher into the lead on lap 25 at the esses, before blocking Villeneuve off.

Frentzen would close in on Schumacher and set the fastest lap of the race to finish 1.3 seconds adrift; his 6 points confirming Williams Renault as 1997 Constructors Champions.

The qualifying hour would produce an unprecedented first for Formula 1, with championship rivals Villeneuve and Schumacher followed as well by Frentzen all ensuring that the top 3 set the exact same time to the nearest thousandth of a second, each lapping the Jerez circuit in 1:21.072.

With Schumacher slowly eking out a lead, the Williams Renaults switched positions on lap 8 with Villeneuve picking up both 2nd place and the chase to catch his title rival.

In total, of the season's 17 Grand Prix the Williams Renault FW19 would record 8 victories, 11 pole positions, 9 fastest laps, 15 podiums and 5 front row lockouts.

Throughout the season, the team gained several sponsors including Burg-Wächter, Auto Motor und Sport, ProSieben, Snap-on, Hype Energy and Pagine Gialle.