Last weekend in Italy we sadly had to say goodbye to a family who can consider themselves true titans of the world of Formula 1, the Williams Family. The Williams name has been associated with F1 for over 50 years, starting back in 1969 with Sir Frank Williams’ first team, Frank Williams Racing Cars. In 1977 he set up his current team, Williams Racing.
Williams is the second most successful F1 team of all time with nine Constructors Championships, seven Drivers Championships, 114 race victories, and 312 podiums to their name. Throughout the team’s history Sir Frank has always remained as Team Principal. While in 2013 his daughter Claire Williams became the Deputy Team Principal. It would be amiss to let such an iconic family of the sport leave without honouring their incredible legacy. And without sharing just what it is that makes this family so special in the hearts of many F1 fans.
Sir Frank Williams set up his original F1 team Frank Williams Racing Cars in 1969, though the team themselves were never very successful. Tragically for Sir Frank and the team they suffered the death of their star driver Piers Courage at the 1970 Dutch Grand Prix.
By 1976 Sir Frank was in masses of debt with his team and sought out a business partner to help. This partner came in the form of Canadian businessman Walter Wolf. Wolf was quick to assure everyone that Sir Frank would stay on as team manager, but after the end of the 1976 season Wolf felt that Sir Frank didn’t have the ability to turn the team around. He brought the remaining shares and fired Sir Frank.
Undeterred by what had happened with Wolf Sir Frank, along with a former engineer from his previous team Sir Patrick Head, set up Williams Grand Prix Engineering which entered its first race at the 1977 Spanish Grand Prix. It is this team, operating at the time out of a former carpet warehouse in Didcot, which would go on to become the Williams Racing team that we know today.
Williams began to focus on their reliability issues with their cars, and very soon were finishing races. But it was the advancement in aerodynamics, particularly the ground effect phenomenon that Head and his team perfected, that put Williams onto the winning formula. The team won its first race at the 1979 British Grand Prix with Clay Regazzoni, and went on to win the rest of the races that season.
By the end of the 1980 season the team had finally achieved their first double in the sport with Australian driver Alan Jones taking their first Drivers Championship, while Williams took their first Constructors Championship. The team would follow this up with a Constructors Championship in 1981, and a Drivers Championship for Keke Rosberg in 1982. By the mid 80s the team were a force to be reckoned with.
On the 8th of March 1986, after leaving the Paul Ricard circuit in France where the team had been conducting a pre-season test, Sir Frank was involved in a near fatal road car accident. While on his way back to Nice Airport Sir Frank lost control of his rental car on a left-hand corner, causing the car to topple over the eight-foot drop beside the road and roll. As a result of the accident Sir Frank suffered a fracture in his neck that left him quadriplegic and wheelchair bound for the rest of his life.
For many this would be the end of not just their career, but their lives. However Sir Frank was resilient in the face of adversity and defied everyone, including the doctors who left him for dead after his accident in France. With help from his family, the team, and doctors back in the UK, he made a recovery from the brink of death. Just four months after his accident he attended the 1986 British Grand Prix to a standing ovation. While the Williams team would secure the 1986 Constructors Championship.
Sir Frank continued as Team Principal of Williams after his accident in 1986. Watching as the team collected more Drivers Championships in 1987 with Nelson Piquet, 1992 with Nigel Mansell, 1993 with Alain Prost, 1996 with Damon Hill, and 1997 with Jaques Villeneuve. They also won the Constructors Championship in 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, and 1997. At the 2019 British Grand Prix tributes were paid to Sir Frank as he became the longest serving Team Principal in F1 history.
Throughout his tenure as Team Principal of Williams racing Sir Frank has had a determination to see the team succeed and win races as well as Championships. He has also shown that he believes in the idea of promoting young talent into the sport. Drivers like David Coulthard, Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg, Nico Hulkenberg, and most recently the likes of Lance Stroll, and George Russell all owe Williams and Sir Frank for their first drives in the sport. Elsewhere some of the most well-known and talented engineers of their generation got their start at Williams, including Ross Brawn and Adrian Newey.
Sir Frank’s legacy in the sport is undisputable with his numerous Constructors Championships, Drivers Championships, and his dedication to supporting young talent. But beyond the titles, the trophies, and accolades he has, Sir Frank remains to many a symbol of hope and resilience. He is living proof that even when the odds are against you and everyone has given up, you can never stop fighting or believing in yourself. And most importantly you should never give up on your dreams no matter what happens.
In the March of 2013 it was announced that Claire Williams, the only daughter of Sir Frank, would be stepping into the role of Deputy Team Principal. It had been made clear to all the Williams children that they would not simply get jobs at the team just because of their surnames. At first Sir Frank had been incredibly against Claire joining the team, but eventually he relented, and in 2002 Claire joined the family team as a communications officer. By 2010 she had risen steadily up to become the head of communications for the team, before being made Deputy Team Principal in 2013.
Initially Claire didn’t want to become Deputy Team Principal of Williams, but it was Toto Wolff who told her that this was the ideal role for her. Going as far as to refuse to leave for Mercedes until she agreed to the position. Eventually Claire was persuaded into the role by Wolff and then Chairman of Formula 1 itself, Bernie Ecclestone.
While 2013 was not a memorable year for the team, 2014 saw the beginning of a renaissance of sorts for Williams spearheaded by Claire and the new team she’d help to put in place. Taking full advantage of the new rules and regulations for 2014, along with a new title sponsor for the team, as well as powerful Mercedes engines, Williams found themselves catapulted up the Constructors Standings. They achieved nine podium finishes, third in the Constructors Championship that year ahead of Ferrari, and the only non Mercedes team pole position of the year at the Austrian Grand Prix.
In 2015 they again finished third in the Constructors Championship, this time ahead of Red Bull. Many fans and pundits of the sport were quick to praise Claire as the instigator of the changes brought in to bring Williams back to the top.
In 2016 and 2017 the team finished fifth in the Constructors Standings before reaching a steep decline in 2018 onwards, finishing bottom in the Constructors Championship the last two years. While undoubtedly the last two years have been tough for the team, Claire has remained steadfast in her belief that the team can turn it around and get back to their former glory days. She has tried to do everything to save the DNA of the Williams team, as well as the numerous jobs associated with it.
Claire took the brunt of the criticism from both fans and critics of the team for the issues that have arisen, even though some of them arguably date back further than her appointment as Deputy Team Principal. She has remained at the team throughout the trying years, even though it could have been easier for her to walk away from it all, proving just how dedicated to her family’s legacy and the team she was.
Outside of Claire’s impact on the team, and on their history in the sport, she is also a pioneer for women in motorsport. When she was announced as the Deputy Team Principal in 2013 she was the second most senior female in F1, behind then Sauber Team Boss Monisha Kaltenborn. When Kaltenborn left in 2017 Claire became the most senior female.
During her tenure of the team she has helped to promote several female drivers, including W Series Champion Jamie Chadwick, and former Williams test driver Susie Wolff. When Wolff took to the track for Free Practice 1 at the 2014 British Grand Prix in her Williams, she became the first female driver in 22 years to partake in an F1 weekend. Claire has continued to show her commitment to helping the next generation of female talent come through to F1 with her ambassadorship of Dare to be Different.
While her time at Williams may not be as impressive as her father Sir Frank’s, Claire has undoubtedly carved her name into the history of Williams. Credited with the Williams renaissance of 2014 and 2015 she showed the team is not beyond saving. With the right rule changes, and with the right decisions made, the team can be back at the front again. In a male dominated sport, she has stood out as a role model for many young girls out there who dream of working in F1. Her push to champion females in motorsport will have a lasting impact on not just Williams, but Formula 1 as well.
While a lot of focus is placed on Sir Frank and Claire’s involvement in the team thanks to their official titles, there is one uncredited member of the Williams family who helped to shape the team that we know today. That member of the family is Frank’s late wife, and Claire’s mother, Lady Virginia “Ginny” Williams.
Ginny first met Sir Frank in 1967 when she was engaged to a young F3 driver. Though she did marry the driver, her love for Sir Frank was obvious to everyone. She divorced her husband, and went on to marry Sir Frank in 1974 in a gap between two F1 races that season. Ginny bought into Sir Frank’s racing dream from the very beginning, even selling her flat in Knightsbridge to fund his first F1 team Frank Williams Racing Cars. Once they were married, and Sir Frank set up Williams Racing, Ginny continued to support her husband and the team playing a largely uncredited role.
Sir Frank often sought out Ginny’s opinions on various aspects of the team, including who the team’s drivers should be. Back in the day he would often invite perspective drivers to stay with the family overnight so Ginny could get a feel for them. In a story that has now gone down in F1 legend Ginny told her husband that the driver he invited to stay the night lacked the killer edge needed for F1, and therefore would never make it as a driver. Her reasoning behind this, he had made his bed the next morning. She felt any driver who would do such a mundane task could never make it in the cutthroat world of F1.
When Sir Frank had his accident in France in 1986 Ginny flew out immediately to support her husband. She found Sir Frank was on a bed in the hallway of the hospital, and it became apparent that the French doctors thought he was beyond saving. Ginny fought for her husband’s life and to get him the care he needed. She organised the repatriation of Sir Frank as well as the hospital to take care of him. She stayed by his side in the hospital, and even saved his life on several occasions. Without Ginny, then there is a very real chance Sir Frank wouldn’t be here today.
A constant behind Sir Frank during his recovery from his accident and the team, Ginny would get her own unique chance to make F1 history at the 1986 British Grand Prix. As previously mentioned, this was the first race Frank attended following his near-fatal accident. He only attended the Friday practice session as this was all he could handle at the time, while Ginny attended the whole race weekend. On Sunday the Williams drivers of Mansell and Piquet finished the race first and second respectively. The team decided that it should be Ginny who would go up on the podium and collect the winning Constructors trophy. She obliged, and in doing so became the first female in F1 history to accept a trophy on the podium.
In 1991 Ginny released a book called ‘A Different Kind of Life,’ a memoir of the sacrifices she and the Williams family had made in pursuit of F1 glory with their team. The book doesn’t try to sugarcoat anything, and it is an honest account from Ginny about what it is like being married to a man like Sir Frank who is utterly fixated on Formula 1 and the expense of everything else. It also spoke candidly about the way her life changed following Sir Frank’s near-death accident in France. It was this book that became the basis for the popular Williams Documentary.
Ginny supported her husband as well as the team throughout everything that happened to them. Both her and Sir Frank stayed together until her death in March 2013 at 66 years old from cancer. The Williams cars since then have carried a small tribute to Ginny at each and every race, showing just what she meant to the team as well as her family.
The saying goes that behind every great man is a great woman, and Lady Virginia Williams is absolute proof of that. Williams would not have existed in the form we see today had it not been for Ginny’s tireless support for the team, and her husband’s dream too. While she is an uncredited member of the Williams team, she deserves to be remembered for everything she did for them.
Many Williams fans will have their own opinion on what their favourite win for the team is. But the final win for Sir Frank as Team Principal at the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix will remain one of the most special wins for the Williams family. The race took place over the weekend of Sir Frank’s 70th Birthday, with the team throwing a big celebration for him. Both Ginny and Claire attended the race along with Claire’s older brother Johnathan Williams.
The race was not straight forward, with the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso putting an incredible amount of pressure on the Williams of Pastor Maldonado, but the Williams driver soaked it up, and gave the team their first win since the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix, much to the delight of the Williams family. The team and the Williams family celebrated what was the best gift for Sir Frank’s birthday. Tragically, but also rather fittingly seeing as the team won, this would be the final race that Ginny Williams would attend before her death in 2013. It remains the team’s latest win, and one of the most special.
You cannot begin to discuss the history of the Williams team, without including the Williams family. From Sir Franks resilience in the face of adversity both in the early days of his team and his accident. To Claire’s determination to see through her family’s legacy while becoming a role model for young girls everywhere. To Ginny’s unwavering support for the team and family throughout the years until her death. The Williams family’s story is entwined with the team’s history.
When the family walked out of the paddock on Sunday night after their final race in F1, they could walk out with their heads held high. The Williams family are true titans of F1, and the paddock will certainly be lonelier without them.
Feature image credit: Williams F1 Racing Press Release
