Television viewers of last Sunday’s Formula One (F1) Italian Grand Prix were fortunate to bear witness to the very rare event of the double changing of the guard in a discipline.
In the race itself, six-time world champion and current points’ leader, Lewis Hamilton,
appeared to be coasting to his sixth win of the season and the 90th of his career, when he committed the uncharacteristic error of missing a closed pit sign, with the safety car on the track. Hamilton was served with a ten-second penalty, and effectively had to drop to the back of the field after one lap of the restart.
As Hamilton, driver extraordinaire, expertly manoeuvred his way through the pack to eventually place seventh, a chilling battle for supremacy raged up front among the younger generation of F1 drivers. In the end, the young Frenchman, Pierre Gasly took the chequered flag to score a stunning upset, as his team, Red Bull Alpha Tauri, secured only their second Grand Prix win in twelve years. McLaren’s Carlos Sainz and Racing Point’s Lance Stroll, both of the young brigade, occupied the other two places on the podium. In a season where Hamilton in the superior Mercedes car seems to be waltzing to yet another title, it was good to see some sort of parity return to a sport, where the big-moneyed spenders or the ‘haves’ continue to dominate the small budget teams of ‘have-nots.’
Whilst casual viewers of the sport savoured the thrilling race, it was a bittersweet day for the hearts and minds of F1’s dedicated aficionados. The Monza race was the final appearance of the Williams Racing team, with the Williams family, the last of the family-owned outfits, at the helm. It is the sad end of an era in F1 racing, as the Williams name joins the likes of the past stalwarts, such as the Cooper, Tyrrell and Lotus garages who could no longer compete against the financial might of the big manufacturers. F1 has evolved to the point where extremely expensive research and development is required just to remain competitive, or even gain the slightest of advantages.
The romantic idea of family-owned teams whose only source of income is derived from racing itself, competing against manufacturers, funds, consortiums, and companies is now a past delusion. According to a Forbes survey, the total amount spent by the ten F1 teams in 2019 was US$2.6 billion. The budgets ranged from US$484 million for Mercedes and US$434 million for Ferrari, to the other end of the spectrum, the tenth team, Williams Racing, spent the paltry sum of US$132 million. It was pretty obvious that Williams Racing was out of its depth.
The past few seasons were a terrific struggle for the historic Williams Racing team which has won only one Grand Prix in the past sixteen years. In addition to finishing last in the Constructors Championship the past two seasons, the team also suffered a loss of £10,000,000 during the 2019 campaign. With the departure of significant sponsorship money and the team drifting further behind the pack, the writing was clearly on the wall. Williams Racing was put up for sale in May and acquired by the US Investment firm, Dorilton Capital last month.
Williams Racing was founded in 1977 by Frank Williams, a racing enthusiast, whose earlier unsuccessful foray into the world of F1 had ended with Williams having to sell the team due to financial constraints. In partnership with an ambitious young engineer, Patrick Head, Williams began the uphill battle of competing in F1, from the humble location of an empty carpet warehouse in Didcot, Oxfordshire. Beginning with a single car in 1978, Williams Racing made a meteoric rise through the most expensive form of racing, despite facing severe financial constraints.
Williams acquired his first main sponsor by double parking his F1 cars in front of a swanky London hotel and pitching the benefits of advertising on his cars to Saudi royalty. With Fly Saudi adorning the tail fins of their cars, Williams Racing was up and running. In only its second season, the team notched its first Grand Prix win, and finished second to Ferrari in the Constructors Championship. In 1980, Australian Alan Jones, in the FW07B car won four races en route to securing Williams’ first Driver’s Championship, as the team performed the double and secured the Constructors Title.
The Williams team became a leading force in the world of F1 racing in the 1980s and the 1990s. When Frank’s daughter, Claire, the principal of Williams Racing handed over the reins last Sunday, Williams had evolved into the third most successful team in the history of F1 racing, behind Ferrari and McLaren. The record of 114 Grand Prix victories in 739 starts, seven Driver’s championships and nine Construction titles are secure in the history books. Williams’ engineers under the watch of Head, revolutionized the sport with their cutting edge technology and innovative developments, as the team often led the way in new changes, which in turn led to modifications in the rules, since their series of FW cars were just too good for the rest of the field.
It is quite easy to get carried away in the wins and the success of the Williams Racing team, and miss the real story, Frank Williams. Here’s man of indomitable spirit and resilience who lived for racing. The heart and soul of the team, Williams had an uncanny eye for racing talent and was a tremendous motivator to his drivers. In 1986, on his way to an airport in France, following testing of a new car, Williams was severely injured in a car accident. Doctors advised his wife Ginny to pull the plug on the life support machine, which she refused to do. After willing himself to live, Williams returned to the team, where he became the longest serving team principal in F1 history.
Knighted for his service to the sport, the 78-year-old Sir Frank Williams is the world’s longest surviving tetraplegic. Here’s a man who has spent almost half of his life in a wheelchair, needing continuous care and yet has managed to defy all the odds stacked against him. According to Head, “His [Williams’] resilience is phenomenal. He will look at whatever situation is in front of him and work out how to make the best of it.”
Hats off to the legacy of Frank Williams and the Williams Racing team.
