Monday 29 November 2021
On the death of Frank Williams
Formula 1 is now missing one of its greatest
As a private person, Frank Williams founded his own racing team, won a total of 16 world championship titles in Formula 1. He barely survived a private stroke of fate, and was hit even harder by Ayrton Senna’s fatal accident in 1994. With his death, Formula 1 lost a legend.
Frank Williams had to overcome challenges time and again in his life, he never complained. He had goals and daring ideas, but above all Frank Williams had one great passion: racing. His death at the age of 79 affects motorsport and especially Formula 1, which has lost another formative face from the past. “He was a real giant in our sport,” said Formula 1 boss Stefano Domenicali. “His remarkable achievements and personality will forever leave their mark on our sport.”
As a driver, Frank Williams failed early because there was no money. He worked as a mechanic and tried to improve finances by selling used cars. In 1977 he founded his own Formula 1 racing team with Patrick Head. Just three years later, Williams triumphed, winning both the drivers ‘and constructors’ championships.
The beginning of a successful sporting era, which is also marked by black hours. On May 1, 1994, the Brazilian Formula 1 icon Ayrton Senna had a fatal accident in a Williams racing car on the Imola race track. A blow that hit Williams more than its own fate. The Italian judiciary then investigated the team responsible for suspected negligent homicide, only three and a half years later the proceedings ended with an acquittal.
Nickname “Wheelchair General”
Frank Williams experienced a personal blow of fate in 1986 on the return trip from test drives in Le Castellet, France. He was on his way to the airport and wanted to run a half marathon the next day. He came off the road with his car. “After six or seven rollovers, I felt a sharp pain in the neck. I wanted to grab the seat belt, but I couldn’t,” Williams once said. He injured his spinal cord and would never be able to walk again.
Williams is then dependent on help. The skin is pale, the voice is mostly thin and always a bit shaky. Williams spoke softly. Williams spoke slowly. But Williams still had something to say. He liked to make his drivers tremble. He was also called the “wheelchair general”. It was only 20 minutes before the BMW-Williams racing car was presented in January 2005 that the Mönchengladbach-born Nick Heidfeld found out that he would be one of the two regular drivers in the following season. “When team boss Frank Williams told me that, I didn’t want to believe it,” Heidfeld said at the time.
Heidfeld, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Ralf Schumacher, Nico Rosberg, Nico Hülkenberg – German drivers were very popular with Williams for a long time. From 2000 to the end of 2005 Williams worked with the Bavarian car manufacturer BMW, in 2002 and 2003 the drivers Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya were the first challengers to Michael Schumacher, who sometimes appeared untouchable in the Ferrari. The team is currently getting the engines from Mercedes. The success of yesteryear is history. One that you can feel when you visit the team’s headquarters in Grove, England, near Oxford.
“Ginny” must have saved his life
There they are, the world championship cars of the team that is currently miles away from its former heyday. The Williams team won the last of the seven world championship titles for drivers and nine for constructors in 1997, when Jacques Villeneuve fought against Michael Schumacher’s ram in the legendary season finale in Jerez. The team achieved the last of 114 victories in May 2012 in Barcelona, when Pastor Maldonado drove sensationally to first place. Nice moments in the vita of a man who gave everything for Formula 1.
Williams’ influence had diminished over the years, his daughter Claire more and more took over the operational business. In March 2012 they made the change at the head of the racing team, even if Frank Williams remained team boss on paper. Williams’ wife Virginia, called “Ginny”, whom he married in 1974, died of cancer in 2013 at the age of 66. After his serious car accident, she had ensured that Williams was immediately relocated from France to England, which presumably saved his life.
Monza then marked a turning point in 2020. Claire Williams announced the family’s withdrawal from Formula 1 after the Italian Grand Prix. This was preceded by the sale of the racing team to a US investment company. After 739 Formula 1 races in more than four decades, it was over. The investment company Dorilton Capital, based in New York, spoke of a “new chapter” in the team’s history. Williams didn’t want to stand in the way. It was the end of an era.
Frank Williams was admitted to hospital on Friday. His family announced that he “died peacefully” on Sunday. “It was a real honor to race for him and to be a small part of the incredible legacy he leaves behind. A legacy that will forever live in the heart and soul of this team,” wrote Williams driver George Russell zum Taking leave. And the new owners had repeatedly emphasized in the course of the takeover that they wanted to keep the Williams name.