Frank Williams

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Sir Frank Williams

Sir Francis Owen Garbatt "Frank" Williams , CBE (born April 16, 1942 in South Shields , England ) is a British entrepreneur and main owner and team leader of the Formula 1 racing team Williams F1 . Williams has been involved in Grand Prix racing since the late 1960s and has led his team to over 100 Grand Prix victories and numerous world championships to this day .

Life

Early years

Frank Williams grew up as the son of an officer in the Royal Air Force and was enthusiastic about motor racing from an early age. From 1960 he worked initially for a car dealer and later as a sales representative for the Campbell Soup Company . At the same time, he tried his hand at driving an Austin A35 and an Austin A40 from 1961 onwards , but always struggled to finance his equipment. From 1962 he traveled through Europe with the racing driver Jonathan Williams , with whom he was close friends. Jonathan Williams took part in various Formula Junior and Formula 3 races as a private driver and later for the Anglo-Swiss Racing Team , while Frank Williams worked as his mechanic and organizer. According to their own words, both lived hand-to-mouth at the time; they made their living mainly from the entry fees paid by the organizers of the races. In 1964 Williams worked temporarily with Anthony "Bubbles" Horsley : Horsley, who ten years later became the driving force of Hesketh Racing , bought two Formula 3 racing cars from an inheritance, one of which he left with Frank Williams.

Starting in 1965, Williams shifted increasingly to the trade in racing car accessories. As a traveling salesman, he sold everything that was available to him. At the end of 1966 he finally decided to give up his ambitions as a racing driver and founded the company Frank Williams Racing Cars , which initially sold used racing vehicles and spare parts.

Frank Williams Racing Cars

In October 1967 Frank Williams Racing Cars used his own racing car for the first time: He started with Piers Courage at the wheel of a Brabham BT21 in the Formula 3 race at Brands Hatch. In 1968 he tried his hand at Formula 2 with courage ; At the same time, however, he continued to use cars in Formula 3. In 1969, the decisive step into the highest motorsport class, Formula 1, took place. Williams bought a Brabham-F1 with the latest technology and thus led Courage to two second places in Monaco and Watkins Glen .

In 1970 Williams worked with the Italian sports car manufacturer De Tomaso , who had decided to become involved in Formula 1. De Tomaso manufactured the vehicles designed by Giampaolo Dallara , while Williams organized the racing. At the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort , Williams' driver Courage was killed in a serious accident due to a broken suspension. For lack of success, De Tomaso withdrew from Formula 1 at the end of 1970. In 1971 Williams relied on a March customer chassis which he had prepared for racing for Frenchman Henri Pescarolo . In the following year he even ran two cars with March chassis and Ford engines, but in the middle of the season he had his first own chassis, called the FX3, designed, which Pescarolo destroyed during the first test. In 1974 Williams received support for the first time from a major sponsor: the American tobacco company Marlboro financed Williams' designs, the title sponsor of which was the Italian car brand Iso . After no success this time either, Williams teamed up with the Austro - Canadian businessman Walter Wolf at the end of 1975 , who had made money through oil deals and was ready to invest millions in Formula 1. Wolf bought into Williams and renamed the team at the beginning of the 1976 Formula 1 season to Walter Wolf Racing .

Williams quickly realized that he had given up economic and sporting control of his team. He left Wolf with engineer Patrick Head and together with him founded a new team in Didcot , Oxfordshire : Williams Grand Prix Engineering .

Williams Grand Prix Engineering and Williams F1

In 1977 Williams first resorted to an old March chassis and developed the Williams FW06 for the 1978 season at the same time . In addition, Fly Saudia was able to find a financially strong sponsor who accelerated development. At the US GP '78 in Watkins Glen, Australian Alan Jones , who was newly signed before the season, finished second for the young team for the first time on the podium. Further sponsors such as Albilad or TAG came along, so that the plan matured to use two vehicles from 1979. Clay Regazzoni won the first Grand Prix for Williams in Silverstone, followed in 1980 by Alan Jones' first drivers' championship title and the first constructors' cup. Frank Williams' team developed into one of the most successful teams in the formula up to the end of the 1990s and won numerous other world championships. Driver greats like Nelson Piquet , Nigel Mansell , Damon Hill and Alain Prost achieved victories and titles in one Williams. In addition to many highs, there was also a low: In 1994, the Brazilian Ayrton Senna had a fatal accident in a Williams Renault.

Accident and paraplegia

In early March 1986, the Williams team took part in test drives on the Le Castellet circuit in the south of France , to which Frank Williams had also traveled. On March 8, 1986, Williams went to the airport with the then team manager of his racing team, Peter Windsor , to fly back to Great Britain. On the route, Williams with his rental vehicle, a Ford Sierra , came off the road due to excessive speed, hit a rock and overturned. The dented roof of the car compressed Williams' spine so that he suffered paraplegia . His co-driver Windsor was uninjured. As a result of the accident, Frank Williams is permanently dependent on a wheelchair and requires constant medical and nursing care.

Honors

Williams was beaten in 1999 by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to British motorsport to the Knight Bachelor ("Sir").

Private

Frank Williams was married to Virginia "Ginny" Williams (* 1946, † March 7, 2013) since August 1974. The couple had three children. The son Jonathan Piers Williams, born in 1975, is named after the now deceased racing drivers Jonathan Williams and Piers Courage . He works for the racing team in the field of youth development. Williams' daughter Claire Williams , born in 1976, has been Head of Marketing and Communications since April 1, 2012 and a member of the Executive Board since April 1, 2013. James “Jaime” Williams, the youngest child, works for a London advertising agency.

literature

  • Maurice Hamilton: Frank Williams. The inside story of the man behind Williams-Renault . London 1998. ISBN 0333717163 .
  • Virginia Williams: Your pain runs through my life . Bastei Lübbe 1992 ISBN 340461223X
  • Leopold Wieland: How does the vice boss tick? Interview with Claire Williams in: Motorsport Aktuell, issue 18/2013, p. 10.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Maurice Hamilton: Frank Williams. The inside story of the man behind Williams-Renault, p. 11.
  2. ↑ Maurice Hamilton: Frank Williams. The inside story of the man behind Williams-Renault, p. 15 f.
  3. ↑ a b Mario Fritzsche: "Frank Williams:" I knew my accident would happen "". Motorsport-Total.com, September 3, 2014, accessed September 4, 2014 .
  4. ↑ Hamilton: Frank Williams, pp. 130 ff.
  5. ^ News from March 8, 2013 on the website www.motorsport-total.com
  6. ↑ Maurice Hamilton: Frank Williams, p. 51
  7. ↑ a b Motorsport Aktuell, issue 18/2013, p. 10.
  8. ↑ Claire Williams joins Williams F1 team board (English)
personal data
SURNAME Williams, Frank
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Williams, Francis Owen Garbatt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British entrepreneur, team principal and co-owner of the Williams F1 racing team
DATE OF BIRTH April 16, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH South Shields