Founder of the Williams Formula 1 team Frank Williams passed away at the age of 79 on Monday morning. PHOTO: Williams Racing

BRENDAN LINES November 29, 2021

FORMULA 1 icon and founder of Williams Grand Prix Engineering Sir Frank Williams has passed away, at the age of 79.

Williams was admitted to hospital on Friday and passed away surrounded by his family on Monday morning.

But before his road accident at the age of 43 that resulted in his tetraplegia which confined him to a wheelchair, Williams had become one of the pioneering figures of Formula 1’s mostly amateur post-war racing era, typified by fast-living and alpha male racing heroics in the rawest yet fastest machinery of the time.

The South Sheilds native founded his own team in 1967 racing in Formula 3, after his short-lived driving career.

It was through Williams’ ‘one man, one vision’ determination that he fashioned one of Formula 1’s most successful teams, without designing a single nut or bolt on his cars.

Williams was among the legendary owner-constructor types including Lotus’ Colin Chapman, Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren and Ken Tyrrell. But Williams differed from his more accomplished engineer counterparts, instead acting as a motivator, tactician and hustler up and down the paddock.

He was on of the sport’s early commercial dealmakers, who was committed to getting the best for his team as much as he wanted them to win on track.

Once crafting his style as a team owner, Williams finally moved into Formula 1 in 1969, after securing a Brabham-built car with the backing of Dunlop and Castrol.

Williams had an eye for talent and teamed up with the now legendary engineer Patrick Head in 1975, a partnership that yielded a combined 16 world drivers and constructor championships.

The success of the Williams team yielded world champion drivers Alan Jones (1980, the teams first), Keke Rosberg (1982), Nelson Piquet (1987), Nigel Mansell (1992), Alain Prost (1994), Damon Hill (1996) and Jaques Villeneuve (1997).

The late nineties and early 2000 saw the team struggle to reach its previous heights, after a brief run of success with BMW, it followed a raft of unsatisfactory engine partnerships which saw the team slump to its worst points tally in 2007.

Williams remained at the helm of his racing empire until 2012, not long after the team’s last win at the Spanish Grand Prix, he then handed the team over to daughter Claire, who held the reigns until 2020 when the team was taken over by new owners Dorilton Capital — the venture capital firm kept the Williams name. 

Williams Racing team principal and CEO Jost Captio said Williams’ passing marked an end of an era for the Wantage-based team and Formula 1.

“He was one of a kind and a true pioneer,” he said.

“Despite considerable adversity in his life, he led our team to 16 World Championships making us one of the most successful teams in the history of the sport. 

“His values including integrity, teamwork and a fierce independence and determination, remain the core ethos of our team and are his legacy, as is the Williams family name under which we proudly race. 

“Our thoughts are with the Williams family at this difficult time.”

WiliIams was married to wife Ginny for 40 years, until she passed away from cancer in 2012.

Williams is survived by their three children, Jonathan, Claire and Jamie, and two grandchildren, Ralph and Nathaniel.