Williams FW14B
The most dominant of all Williams's many winning cars, the FW14B took Nigel Mansell to a crushing 1992 World Championship.
Aside from its superb Renault V10 engine — which was vastly more fuel-efficient than the Honda V12 in the car of chief rival McLaren — the key to the dominance of the 14B was its active-ride suspension. Williams had first tried such a system back in 1987, following the lead of Lotus some years before that. But reliability problems in the 'active' car of 1988 had seen designer Patrick Head subsequently steer away from it.
However wind tunnel data showed that there was a major aerodynamic benefit to be had from keeping the car completely flat and level at all times and, urged on by aerodynamicist Adrian Newey, Head gave the go-ahead for a new active suspension system to be fitted to the team's 1991 chassis, the FW14. Thus was born the FW 14B.
It completely trounced the opposition, Mansell winning the first five races of the season, and four more later in the year, as well as sitting on pole position for all but two of the races. He had wrapped up the title with five rounds still to go.
