July 19, 1958. Frank Williams stands transfixed. It has taken the 16-year-old six hours to hitch 60 miles from Nottingham to Silverstone, where Peter Collins is about to guide his Ferrari to a popular home victory in the British Grand Prix.
“It was an absolutely beautiful day,” says Frank, “and I reached the circuit just before the end of the touring car race, which preceded the main event. There was nobody on the gate, because I arrived late, so I got in for free, which was an extra bonus. I couldn’t believe the spectacle. Afterwards I hitched a ride home in the back of a Morris 1000 pick-up, which was towing a car from one of the supporting events. I felt like king of the road – and I was completely addicted.”
The young Williams had always been interested in cars and used to pore over motoring magazines. His fascination with motorsport was subsequently aroused during the mid 1950s, when he read about Jaguar’s successes in the Le Mans 24 Hours, and that day trip to Silverstone heralded his first direct contact with the sport. Consumed though he was, the notion that he might ever be able to forge a living through motorsport seemed far-fetched. “At that stage,” he says, “it never occurred to me at all.”
His education complete, Williams spent three months working as a Campbell’s soup salesman. “It was mandatory to wear a bowler hat,” he says, “which was probably very amusing for the customers if less so for me. I was eventually fired for not paying sufficient attention.” He had earned enough money, though, to try his hand at motor racing and in 1961 he drove an Austin A35 in saloon car events, where rivals included future world champion Graham Hill. When the A35 was wrecked, Williams and a friend slotted its engine and transmission into an A40 that they’d assembled from a cocktail of insurance write-offs.
This toe-in-the-water exercise enabled Williams to develop many a paddock friendship and in 1963 – shortly after being dismissed following an unsuccessful three-week stint as a taxi driver – he was offered an opportunity to travel around Europe with young British racers Piers Courage and Jonathan Williams, who needed a helping pair of hands. Frank continued to compete when possible, but late in 1966 he hung up his helmet and established a company to sell racing cars and spare parts. Within a year he had become an entrant, too, and in 1968 he ran teams in both Formula Two (for old friend Courage) and F3.
Acquisition of an ex-works Brabham enabled Williams to set up an F1 team in ’69 and the venture began encouragingly, with Courage taking two second places during the campaign’s course. This promising start led to a partnership with Italian constructor de Tomaso, but 1970 was soured by the loss of Courage, who perished in an accident during the Dutch Grand Prix. Despite losing one of his most cherished friends, resilience has always been a Williams trademark and Frank pressed on in the wake of this devastating personal setback, switching from de Tomaso to March chassis before becoming a constructor in his own right during the 1972 season. The team was rarely settled during the early 1970s, with a frequently changing cast of drivers bringing much-needed sponsorship. There were flickers of encouragement but success was measured in terms of survival rather than results. “It wasn’t easy,” Frank says, “but I loved, lived and breathed F1. It was a case of having a team, some assets and hanging on in there.”
Financial necessity eventually led him to sell a controlling stake to Austro-Canadian businessman Walter Wolf. Williams stayed on as employee, rather than owner, but found it difficult to adapt and early in 1976 walked away from what had been his own team. Shortly before selling to Wolf, Williams had hired a promising young British engineer by the name of Patrick Head – and it was here he turned again in 1977, having found enough sponsorship to set up a new team: Williams Grand Prix Engineering. Their association endures to this day.
The new project’s first season was necessarily transitional, the duo running an elderly March customer chassis while Head worked behind the scenes on his first F1 car. The fruits of his labour – the Williams FW06 – showed frequent promise, but the breakthrough came in 1979, when the FW07 chassis was the class of the field. The team’s rawness compromised reliability, which dented its chances of a title challenge, but Clay Regazzoni scored the marque’s maiden win at Silverstone and paved the way for 25 years of almost unbroken success. Alan Jones secured Williams’s first world title success in 1980 – and the team had amassed 16 in all (nine for constructors, seven for drivers) by the late 1990s.
Frank Williams has been confined to a wheelchair since 1986, as a result of injuries sustained in a road accident, but circumstance has done nothing to reduce his passion or drive. His team’s efforts have earned him widespread recognition, too – he was knighted in 1999, the French made him a rare overseas recipient of a Légion d’honneur and the company twice received the Queen’s Award for Export.
By the lofty standards of recent decades, the Williams team has been through a relatively barren spell of late and, prior to the 2010 season, hadn’t won since Brazil 2004. The will to succeed burns brightly, however, and is driven from the top. “I still love coming to the factory every day,” says Frank. “There are some fantastic people here and it’s a great environment. Everybody shares a common interest – we don’t just want to participate, we want to win.”
In his own words: “I’m a racer, pure and simple.”
