Frank Williams | |
|---|---|
 Williams in 2011 | |
| Born | Francis Owen Garbett Williams (1942-04-16)16 April 1942 South Shields, Durham, England |
| Died | 28 November 2021(2021-11-28) (aged 79) Frimley, Surrey, England |
| Education | St Joseph's College, Dumfries |
| Occupations |
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| Employers |
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| Title | Team Principal |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3, includingClaire |
| Awards | |
Sir Francis Owen Garbett Williams (16 April 1942 – 28 November 2021) was a British businessman,motorsport executive andracing driver. From 1977 to 2020, Williams served as co-founder, team principal and co-owner ofWilliams inFormula One, winning nineWorld Constructors' Championship titles between1980 and1997.
On 16 April 1942,[1] Williams was born inSouth Shields, County Durham.[2][3] At the time, his father served as an activeRoyal Air Force officer, while his mother worked as a school teacher. Williams was partly raised by his aunt and uncle inJarrow, after the breakdown of his parents' marriage.[4][5]
He subsequently spent much of his later childhood at a private boarding school,St Joseph's College, Dumfries, Scotland.[6] In the late 1950s, a friend gave Williams a ride in hisJaguar XK150, which immediately served to catalyse his interest in fast cars.[7]
After a brief career as a driver and mechanic, Williams foundedFrank Williams Racing Cars in 1966, funded by his work as a travelling grocery salesman. He ran drivers, includingPiers Courage, for several years inFormula Two andFormula Three.[8] Williams purchased aBrabham Formula One chassis, which Courage drove throughout the1969 Formula One season, twice finishing in second place.[7][9]
In 1970, Williams undertook a brief partnership withAlejandro de Tomaso.[6] After the death of Courage atthat year's Dutch Grand Prix, Williams's relationship with de Tomaso ended.[6] In 1971, he racedHenri Pescarolo with a chassis purchased fromMarch Engineering; 1972 saw the first F1 car built by the Williams works, thePolitoys FX3 designed byLen Bailey. Pescarolo crashed and destroyed it at its first race.[9]
Williams, short on cash and conducting team business from atelephone box after being disconnected for unpaid bills, looked toMarlboro andIso Rivolta, an Italian car company, for sponsorship.[6] Though they pledged their support, they did not come through in time. In 1976, Williams took on a partner in Canadian oil magnateWalter Wolf. Though the team continued functioning, it no longer belonged to Williams. He left in 1977, along with one of his employees, engineerPatrick Head. The two partners acquired an empty carpet warehouse inDidcot, Oxfordshire, and announced the formation ofWilliams Grand Prix Engineering, a new team to compete inFormula One.[9] Frank hired Neil Oatley, a graduate at the time, to operate as a cartographer for Patrick Head's drawings. Later, he brought in Frank Dernie formerly of Hesketh Racing who added additional knowledge with suspension geometry, aerodynamics and the ability to write his own computer programming (an extremely rare skill at the time).[citation needed]
The team's first win came whenClay Regazzoni drove theCosworth-poweredWilliams FW07 to victory at the1979 British Grand Prix atSilverstone.[10] Their firstDrivers' Championship andConstructors' Championship both came in 1980, with the AustralianAlan Jones winning the drivers' title. Between 1981 and 1997, the team won six more drivers' championships and eight more constructors' championships.[11] He also oversaw the team claim a total of 114 Grand Prix victories.[1]
In May 1994, following thedeath of Ayrton Senna in theWilliams FW16 atImola, Williams was charged with manslaughter in Italy, but was acquitted in 1997.[12] After Senna's death, every chassis from the 1995Williams FW17 until 2012 carried a tribute in the form of a small Senna logo on its front wing supports, or nearby.[13]
In March 2012, Williams announced he would be stepping down from the board of Williams F1 and would be replaced by his daughterClaire Williams, although he would still remain with the team in the role of team principal.[14] Williams ceased to have any involvement with the Williams team when it was sold in September 2020.[15]
Williams met Virginia Berry in 1967. They married in 1974.[16] They had two sons, Jonathan and Jaime,[17] and a daughter,Claire, who would go on to become the deputy team principal of his future Formula One teamWilliams Grand Prix Engineering.[1]
Williams used a wheelchair following a car accident in the South of France, on 8 March 1986,[18] which rendered himtetraplegic.[19] He was driving with team sponsorship managerPeter Windsor in a hiredFord Sierra from thePaul Ricard Circuit toNice Côte d'Azur Airport when the incident happened. Williams had been at the circuit to watch the testing of the team's newWilliams FW11, but as a keen long-distance runner, he was returning to the airport following the trials because he wished to compete in a half marathon in London the next day.[20][21][22]
During the drive to the airport, he lost control of the hire car on a slight left-hand kink in the road, clipping a low stone wall, causing the vehicle to leave the highway. An eight-foot (2.4 m) drop between the road and a field caused the car to roll onto the driver's side. Williams remained conscious but was immediately aware that he could not move and feared fire due to fuel spillage. After being pressed between his seat and the crushed roof, he suffered a spinal fracture between the fourth and fifth vertebra. Windsor, who had sustained only minor injuries, extracted Williams from the vehicle while waiting for the emergency services.[7][23][24] Virginia flew with Patrick Head to the French hospital and believed that Williams was about to die. She organised his urgent repatriation to England, where doctors atRoyal London Hospital performed atracheotomy, which then allowed his lungs to be drained of fluid, almost certainly saving his life.[1][24] Williams required constant care and physical dependence on others as a consequence of the accident.[22]
Virginia wrote an autobiographical book published in 1991,A Different Kind of Life, in which she describes her experiences in the Formula One team's formative years and her husband's near-fatal accident. For his part, Williams decided not to read her account during her lifetime, preferring to leave the past in the past.[24] She was diagnosed with cancer in 2010, and died on 7 March 2013, at the age of 66.[16]
Williams was admitted to hospital inFrimley, Surrey on 26 November 2021, and died two days later, on the morning of 28 November, at the age of 79.[6][25][26]
Sir Frank Williams was one of the kindest people I had the pleasure of meeting in this sport. What he achieved is something truly special. Until his last days I know he remained a racer and a fighter at heart. His legacy will live on forever.[27]
Williams was appointed aCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) byQueen Elizabeth II in the1987 New Year Honours,[28] and received aknighthood in the1999 New Year Honours "For services to the Motor Sport Industry."[29] He was appointed aKnight of the Legion of Honour by France, for his achievements withRenault F1's engines.[30] Williams received theWheatcroft Trophy in 2008, in recognition of his significant contributions to motorsports.[31]
In 2010, he was awarded theHelen Rollason Award for outstanding achievement in the face of adversity at theBBC Sports Personality of the Year awards.[32][33] Williams was added to theMotor Sport Hall of Fame as a member in 2011.[1] In 2012, a new road inDidcot, Oxfordshire, was named Sir Frank Williams Avenue.[34]
Formula One teams paid tribute to Williams by running a special livery of theFrank Williams Racing Cars logo at the2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix (the next race after his death), and a moment of silence was held before the start of the race.[35] MurWalls created a 56 ft (17 m)-long mural bearing a 7 ft (2.1 m)-high portrait of Williams at theSilverstone Circuit ahead of the2022 British Grand Prix.[36] A memorial mass of thanksgiving for Williams took place atWestminster Cathedral in London on 4 July 2022, attended by more than 600 individuals.[37] The Frank Williams Memorial Trophy for Masters Racing Legends race for 3.0-litre Formula One cars that competed between 1966 and 1985 was held in tribute to him in theSilverstone Classic at Silverstone late in August 2022.[38]
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