RIP Sir Frank

Sad to hear the news that Sir Frank Williams died. Privileged to have worked with him and the eponymous team for about 15 years — his personal letter of appreciation for work I did with the board of BMW on his and Williams GPE behalf is among my most treasured possessions.

Attachment 563881

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.a...9/6829297/amp/

I popped in to the factory at Grove to see him with a young friend not long before lockdown — he was on fine form that day with a mischievous twinkle, wink to me at her surprise when he spoke in her native Finnish.

Nice shot at end of Frank appreciating Montoya’s then fastest ever lap record in the BMW WilliamsF1 — a record that remarkably stood for 14 years:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YqYPU3MNqHw

Condolences to his family.

Steve

Very sad to hear this.

Very saddened to hear this. My fondest memory of him was seeing the video of Lewis Hamilton giving Sir Frank a hot lap at Silverstone. My sincere condolences to his family.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSoQtwbpcGU

I heard about it at lunch today... VERY sad ... :(

He beat the odds for SO long you expected him to be around forever....:o

RIP Frank Williams.....

Taken in March 1968 in his new 911 . . .

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R.I.P. I met him at the Williams paddocks in the '90s at Monza ... very professional and passionate, a great guy.

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This photo of Frank has special significance to me because I was invited to take up a role working with Williams leadership but first had to meet with him. Although I’d been told the role was already mine naturally I was nervous meeting him under those circumstances. I prepared and tried to anticipate all the difficult questions he might have as I didn’t want to blow it — I’d been a fan of the team for decades.

Over a cuppa in his corner office at Grove he only asked me one question (and I’m pretty sure he already had been briefed beforehand on the answer) …
“What had I been doing previously?”

When I told him Group director at Lotus plc and one of two Directors of Lotus Engineering Ltd he just smiled, broadly and showed me this exact photo of him wearing the Rindt tee-shirt and said “I’m sure you’ll fit in nicely”. Ended up doing various roles and special projects over 15 years some were working directly with Frank like the thing with BMW when we flew in his private plane to the 2002 BMW end of year ski party in Kitzbühel Austria where I ran meetings with him and Patrick on an important sensitive matter about the partnership ahead of the coming season with the BMW Board member for motorsport and their motorsport leadership team that Frank refers to in the letter I posted above. As in the meeting about my role he didn’t always say a lot nor waste time — always focussed but with charm and a wicked dry sense of humour; I held him on the highest regard ;)

This was during the years of dominance by the Scuderia and Michael Schumacher but it wasn’t a massive gap just 14 points in the FiA Formula One World Constructors’ Championship in 2003 that soon followed that December 2002 technical partnership meeting:

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There was some time for some light-hearted fun during the end of year event as reported in Autosport although I was busy working with Frank on his suite we so missed the cow milking mercifully.

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Event included all manner of BMW motorsport from around the world but the press picked up on F1 with prizes given out to bmw participants who seen success and nice meal etc
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I reminisced with Frank about this Kitzbühel trip and the similar meetings that followed-on in early 2003 at Grove last time I saw him. Nice memories of just one “work hard play hard trip” that came to mind at this sad time

Steve

Good'on'ya for those memories Steve......

Frank gave us some wonderful racing cars and after his life changing accident he just got on with life. RIP and thanks for the cars and engineering.

Thanks for sharing those memories with us. Steve. Those were very special years for you .

As mentioned Frank had a dry sense of humour and he was quick with his quips. I recall one occasion I was hosting a driving event with the team’s two drivers. Something I did annually with whomever was the driver lineup. Multiple different driving activities in rotation for the invited VIP guests. The team’s drivers were expected to be there this particular year was to give our guests fast laps and some doughnuts in M5 provided by then partner BMW — an F1 driver interaction as a highlight among the other race-car, rally-car and off-road activities we’d laid on for the VIP guests to try their hand behind the wheel. Sometimes we held this at Jonathan Palmer’s facility in Bedford or as on this occasion at Silverstone. I was enjoying participating too but had scheduled a work meeting with Frank at Grove later on that afternoon. Naturally I wanted to stay at Silverstone to indulge in the fun. As the time for me to bail out approached Montoya was having a go in the rally activity over in the Silverstone rally school and he was clearly enjoying the challenge of this different discipline on the loose with a school rally instructor. So much so he was it hard to get him to hand over for my turn behind the wheel. When eventually they came in for the swap I was thinking I should pass and get on the road to my appointment but instead I asked how long I should allow to get from the track to Grove as he had done the journey. This was the era before smart phone sat nav app, normally I travelled direct to the Silverstone from my home. Montoya said 40 mins. So I decided to have my go in the rally car rather than leaving before. Turns out I was late getting to the factory and as I arrived Frank was in the corridor as he often was taking some exercise in his wheelchair. I apologised for being late and explained that I’d taken advice on journey time from Juan Pablo. Quick as a a flash he said said “… don’t worry Steve, F1 drivers always think they are quicker than they really are”. With that and a trademark wide smile / wink we went to his office and got down to business.

It was lovely to see Sir Lewis take Sir Frank on similar road car lap of track recently on a TV feature. Quite a few FiA F1 world championships between to two occupants that day and nice to see them sneak in a cheeky second lap rather like me not wanting to leave the fun when I probably should’ve :) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rT5S8sV9ppY

Steve

Steve - Thanks for finding that Video. tremendous and touching.

Nice to see several of the Williams heritage historic cars doing display laps at this weekend’s race. https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.a...r/6846577/amp/

The reverse of our Williams’ business cards had a silhouette to commemorate the nine FWxx chassis that had won the FiA F1 World Championship titles (not the seven drivers championships).

I found a few in the bottom of my desk drawer — not the full set:

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Frank along with Patrick founded and grew one of the most successful motor racing teams of all time fostering many talented people who had success there (and sometimes fame later elsewhere) such as Ross Brawn Williams employee #11 who went on to a constructors’ championship with a team in his own name and many others whilst with several other teams, other alumni include multiple constructors’ winners Adrian Newey and Toto Woolf who started his career in F1 as a director with Williams GPE before successfully taking the helm at Mercedes racing. Frank launched Williams Grand Prix Engineering Ltd in very modest circumstances and with Patrick overcome many challenges along the way — I doubt we shall see the likes of that privateer team again.

Williams remains one of the most successful Formula One teams of all time and a hotbed for F1 top talent.

The list (in the link below) will be updated soon maybe even following the F1 race results later today but neither of this year’s leading F1 team protagonists will surpass Williams’ second spot in the all time formula one constructors’ championship winner’s list in this season.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.a...6/5367606/amp/

RIP Frank.

Steve