Frank Williams, the last craftsman of Formula 1, is dead

Formula 1 legend Sir Frank Williams passed away on Sunday November 28 at the age of 79. Ennobled by the queen, the Englishman gave his letters of nobility to the “mechanics” of F1 with his eponymous team. Starting from nothing, he won nine constructors’ world championship titles and offered seven coronations to his pilots. Frank Williams had handed over the reins to his daughter Claire in 2013. The Covid-19 got the better of the financial health of his team, sold in September 2020 to the American investment fund Dorilton Capital.

It is a figure of F1 who is gone. A man like no other and who could tackle the Commendatore Enzo Ferrari with a team of paltry means. A man concentrating on his wheelchair, walking the paddocks or scrutinizing the screens. A general like those who went to war and whose stories he loved so much to read. Nothing was above the team and its soldiers, not even the pilots, even if they were world champions.

And then there was death. The one who has so often prowled around Frank Williams. She staked out her life and hardened this man with the steely gaze. That of his friend Piers Courage with whom he made his debut in Formula 1 in 1969. Him at the helm of a young penniless team and Courage at the wheel of a modest Brabham-Cosworth. A year later, the unhappy marriage with De Tomaso was shattered on the tracks of the Zandvoort circuit with the death of his friend. A tragedy that Frank Williams relived on May 1, 1994 on the Imola circuit with the accident of Ayrton Senna, an unrivaled F1 icon. A fate shattered by the rupture of the steering column which sent the Brazilian’s Williams-Renault into the wall and almost buried his team in an interminable trial ended with an acquittal. A death that he too had come close to in a car accident in March 1986 and which would nail him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Crazy about speed but unable to ease off, he has seen himself stay there so many times.

“Honestly I was driving like crazy“, he said in Release in 1997. “I even considered getting a driver or doing club errands at Brands Hatch to calm myself down. But the accident happened. To regret does not help. And then, I was still the owner of a Formula 1 team, I was neither rich nor poor. I had had an exciting life, girlfriends then a wife and three children, a great family. The next day my brain let me know I was going to stay paralyzed and helped me come to terms with it. I was 43, I screwed up and voila. Above all, I had avoided the worst.”

In retro, Williams could indeed boast of having climbed the highest peak in motorsport. Faced with the biggest manufacturers, the Englishman had made the “mechanics” triumph, these enthusiasts penniless but not without idea. His first stroke of genius was to partner with Patrick Head in 1969.

In 1972, he released the Brabham chassis to design his own single-seaters. Despite the large part given to “DIY”, money is already lacking and financial associations are too risky for the team to take off. He had to be reborn for the first time in 1977 to get closer to the podiums with Alan Jones. It is in 1979 with FW07 wing-car of Clay Regazzoni and Jones that the victories follow one another. Too fair to dethrone Ferrari, Williams waited only one season to win his first world titles, constructor and driver, with Alan Jones (1981). Two new crowns followed for the team (1981 and 1982) and the pilot title for Kéké Rosberg (1982).

Building on his successes, Frank Williams can now link up with the big names in the automobile industry. Honda for the turbo period, Renault when returning to the atmosphere with at least one title each time. The accident on the roads of the Var in 1986 only took him away from the circuits for a few months, but in no way affected his motivation.

Known by the queen in 1986, Frank Williams then reached the height of his glory. Between 1992 and 1997, his cars outrageously dominated the competition. Behind the pit wall or at Grove – where the team manufactures its single-seaters – he maintains his reputation as a strong man where his love for his pilots pushes him to part with them, or not to hold them back, afterwards. every world title. This will be the case for Piquet, Mansell, Prost and Hill. Jacques Villeneuve brought him a last moment of glory in 1997, his 7th pilot title and 9th as a constructor. No independent team has done so well.

The 2000s marked the decline of Williams who, with BMW, Toyota and Renault, did not find the means to regain the heights. Despite several proposals, Frank Williams refuses to give in to the sirens of a large manufacturer and is content to prepare for the future with his daughter Claire, integrated into the team in 2002. She takes the reins in 2013 until the sale of the stable to a pension fund in September 2020. A final heartbreak for its founder and the end of a 43-year adventure. F1 was his whole life. His toy sold, what’s the point of watching a Williams spinning around, which isn’t really one anymore.