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Williams Formula One team founder Frank Williams dies at 79: He was a true legend of our sport, says F1 CEO

November 28, 2021
Bharat Times

Sir Frank Williams, the founder and former team principal of Williams Racing, has died. He was 79 years old.

Williams led his motor racing team from an empty carpet warehouse to the pinnacle of Formula One, overseeing 114 victories, a combined 16 drivers and constructors’ world championships, becoming the longest-serving team boss in the sport’s history. Went.

“After being admitted to hospital on Friday, Sir Frank passed away this morning among his family,” Williams Racing said in a statement on Sunday.

F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali said the sport had lost a “much loved and respected member” of the F1 family.

“He was a true legend of our sport who overcame life’s toughest challenges and struggled to win every day,” Domenicali said in a statement.

“His incredible achievements and personality will be etched on our sport forever. My condolences to all of the Williams family and friends at this time of grief.”

Williams driver George Russell remembered Williams as a “truly wonderful human being”.

Williams’ life is more extraordinary than the horrific car accident in France that caused her injuries, so devastating doctors considered shutting down her life-saving machine.

But his wife Virginia ordered that her husband be kept alive and his determination and courage – characteristics that identified his career – enabled him to continue with the love of his life from the confines of a wheelchair.

He would continue in his role as Williams team principal for a further 34 years before being sold to an American investment group in August, F1’s biggest family team.

Francis Owen Garbett Williams was born in South Shields on April 16, 1942, to an RAF officer and a headmistress. He was educated at St Joseph’s College, a private boarding school in Dumfries, where he became fond of cars after riding in the Jaguar XK150.

A traveling salesman by day, Williams fueled his racing ambitions over the weekend and, aged just 24, launched his team, Frank Williams Racing Cars.

Four years later, he was competing in Formula Two, and with flatmate and closest friend Pierce Courage behind the wheel, Williams graduated to F1 in 1969 using a second-hand Brabham.

But tragedy struck at the 1970 Dutch Grand Prix.

Sahas ran off the track, his front wheel hit his helmet and his car caught fire. Courage’s horrific death in a car named after him devastated Williams. Broken and with mounting debt, he reluctantly sold 60 percent of his team to Walter Wolf in 1975.

But Williams was not made a back-seat driver and, desperate for independence, broke up with the Canadian businessman.

They set up shop in an old carpet warehouse in Didcote, Oxfordshire, and signed on to a promising young engineer named Patrick Head. The double act Grand Prix would go on to make history.

With Saudi Arabian funding and the recruitment of Australian driver Alan Jones, Williams Grand Prix engineering became a force to be reckoned with.

At the 1979 British Grand Prix, Jones recorded Williams’ first pole position before scoring the team’s first victory a day after teammate Clay Regazzoni.

In 1980, Jones led Williams to her first title. The team also won back-to-back Constructors’ Championships, while Keke Rosberg was crowned Drivers’ Champion in 1982. But, in 1986, Williams’ life would be changed forever.

After a trial at the Paul Ricard circuit in March, Williams drove 98 miles to Nice Airport in a hired Ford Sierra. Traveling through windy roads, Williams lost control and the car ended up on its roof after a 2.5-metre fall into a field.

Williams’ passenger, the team’s marketing manager Peter Windsor, survived with minor injuries. But Williams suffered a spinal fracture that would leave him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

Williams later said, “I was late for a plane, which I didn’t need to be late for because I found French time mixed with English time.” “The roads were very rough, the rental car was not the best in the world, and suddenly I was off the road with a broken neck and a backside.

“It was very unfair to my family, especially my wife, because of how my circumstances changed. In the end, it was a reckless and selfish act. Life went on, and I was able to keep it going, but it has been a hindrance in the truest sense of the word.”

Despite his life-changing injuries, Williams was back at the helm of his team within nine months. Over the ensuing 11 years, five more drivers’ championships – including those of Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill – were added as well as seven constructors’ titles.

But there would be even more heartache for Williams when Ayrton Senna was killed in his third race for the British team at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

Williams was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999, but her team was not able to repeat its heyday of the 1980s and 1990s. He stepped back in 2013, the year his wife died, allowing their daughter, Claire, to run the day-to-day running of the team.

Williams battled pneumonia in 2016, but she has been an irregular fixture in the paddock for many years.

And, at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, a historic sporting chapter was closed when the Williams family contested their 739th and closing race after selling Dorilton Capital.

Williams is survived by her three children, sons Jonathan and Jamie and Claire, and grandchildren Ralph and Nathaniel.