Frank Williams - Team Principal
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After leaving school, Frank started his business life earning £10 a week as a trainee sales representative for Campbell’s soup, yet despite the promising prospects, the job got in the way of his passion for racing and it was not long before one fell by the wayside – history reports, not surprisingly, that the world of clam chowder and scotch broth would have to struggle on without Frank Williams.
As a keen amateur racer Frank took part, with varying degrees of success, in race meetings across the country and it was at one such meeting at Mallory Park, in Leicestershire, that he met a budding racing driver called Jonathan Williams who would be instrumental in introducing Frank to many influential figures in the motor racing business. Years later, when Jonathan went to see Frank at the team motor home at the Monaco Grand Prix he recalled, “He never forgets the old days, which is super. He called out to Damon Hill and said ‘Damon, this is Jonathan. I used to be his mechanic!’ It was completely untrue, he was hopeless – you were lucky if he got the right end of the car!”
Realising that his talents were better suited to the management side of the sport, Frank set about the challenging and difficult task of running his own Formula 2 team. For the next few years, he slowly began to garner the experience and contacts that would be required when, in 1977 along with the promising young engineer, Patrick Head, he set up Williams Grand Prix Engineering.
Based in Didcot, Frank’s infinite determination to make his team a success was rewarded with a major breakthrough when he secured funding for his fledgling Formula One team from Saudia – the airline of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This cash injection was a lifeline for the team and the importance of the moment was not lost on Frank when the executives from Saudia flew in for the launch of the FW06. Anxious that everything went to plan, Frank turned to the throng of pressmen gathered for the big day and flashed a disarming smile as the VIP’s helicopter made its final descent and said, “Don’t let me down lads!” It was testament to the regard with which he is held in the motor racing press that the event was a great success. Indeed in these early days, it was Frank’s desire and enthusiasm that were critical in steering a course through the many difficulties that were inevitably encountered. Ross Brawn, who joined the team in its infancy and went on to enjoy further success at Benetton and Ferrari recollected, “There were a few times when it began to look a bit shaky but Frank would extend himself as far as possible - he had tremendous drive.”
It was not long before the years of hard work and personal sacrifice were to be rewarded, as Williams became the most successful Formula One team of the 1980s, with a plethora of Drivers’ and Constructors’ world titles. Although completely absorbed in motor racing, Frank is fascinated by aviation and has always kept an extensive log book of all the flights he has taken. His log book would catch him out though when a friendly journalist asked to have a look at it during the time when rumours were rife that Frank was about to do a deal with Honda. Frank was happy to hand the log book over but not so happy when the journalist remarked on how many flights he had recorded to Tokyo. Frank was, however, amused that he had been caught out. Indeed, for all his intensity and focus, he has a keen sense of humour as Irishman Derek Daly, who drove for the team in 1982, remembers, “When I was racing for him you could see the sense of humour come out. Frank wouldn’t sit down and chat, but you could really make him roar with laughter, and then he would switch off and get back to business.”
Despite a serious road accident in 1986 that left Frank confined to a wheelchair, his drive and determination have never waned and, having built the team into one of the most admired privately run businesses in the UK, he was knighted in the New Year’s Honours list of 1999. He has also received the Queen’s Award for Export (1981 and 1994) and has been a rare foreign recipient of France’s Legion d’Honneur.
His passion for racing still keeps Frank at the team’s factory long after the workforce have clocked off, but when he does return to his wife and three children in the Berkshire countryside, evenings are often spent absorbed in television history documentaries. In a sport where political and commercial forces play an ever increasing role, the enthusiasm and passion of Frank Williams will ensure that Williams F1 will never lose sight of the core values and sporting principles of Grand Prix racing.
In 2008, Frank will record his 600th race as a Formula One entrant and in starting his 39th year in the sport, will surpass even the record of the legendary Enzo Ferrari.
