Tears for Sir Frank Williams, the ‘true giant of F1’
Sir Frank Williams, who helped steer two of Britain’s greatest motor racing drivers to championship glory, has died aged 79.
Described as a ‘true giant’ of the sport, Sir Frank was the founder of the team behind Formula One superstars Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill.
His F1 team dominated F1 in the 1980s and 1990s – a feat all the more remarkable given this success came after Sir Frank lost the use of all four limbs in a car crash in 1986. Williams racing won 114 F1 races, the drivers’ title seven times and the constructors’ championship on nine occasions.
Born in South Shields in 1942, Sir Frank began as a mechanic and driver, setting up Frank Williams racing Cars in 1966.
The team enjoyed their first F1 win at the 1979 British Grand Prix at Silverstone with Clay regazzoni at the wheel. Their first drivers’ and constructors’ championships followed a year later.
But within six years Sir Frank was confined to a wheelchair.
Dashing from a racing circuit to Nice airport so he could take part in a half marathon in London the next day, he lost control of a hired Ford Sierra, which hit a stone wall and rolled over in to a field.
Despite the life-changing injuries Sir Frank sustained in the crash, he was back at the helm of his team within nine months.
Over the next 11 years, five further drivers’ championships – including those for Mansell and Hill – followed.
But in 1994, Williams was hit by another tragedy when the Brazilian racing star Ayrton Senna, driving in just his third race for his new team at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, hit a concrete wall at 145mph and was killed. Following claims the crash was caused by a fault in the car’s steering column, Sir Frank, the team’s technical director Patrick Head and chief designer Adrian Newey were all charged with manslaughter – though they were all acquitted.
After Senna’s death, Sir Frank, who was knighted in 1999, and his team were never able to rediscover the dominance of the sport they enjoyed in the early 1990s.
Sir Frank’s wife Virginia died in 2013. His daughter Claire assumed the day-to-day running of Williams racing that same year until last year when it was sold to an American investment group for £136million.
Bernie Ecclestone, 91, who ran F1 for 40 years, said yesterday: ‘One wonders that if people like Frank had not been around in the early days whether Formula One would have survived today.’
Current F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton said: ‘Until his last days he remained a racer and a fighter at heart. His legacy will live on for ever.’
Three-time world champion Sir Jackie Stewart said: ‘He was a great man for British motor-sport and always did the right thing.’
in a statement, the Williams team said: ‘it is with great sadness that on behalf of the Williams family, the team can confirm the death of Sir Frank Williams CBE, founder and former team principal of Williams racing, at the age of 79.
‘Sir Frank passed away peacefully this morning surrounded by his family. Today we pay tribute to our much-loved and inspirational figurehead.’