THE END OF AN ERA

More than 50 years ag o, Frank Williams started with nothing in F1 and eventually led his charges to multiple w orld titles. We remember the last of the gre at team principals

- Maurice Hamilton

Frank Williams started with nothing more than once - but eventually came to lead a Formula 1 team that won 16 world titles and 114 World Championship Grands Prix. Along the way, his enthusiasm, tenacity and ability to provide championship-winning cars for seven different drivers endeared Williams to motorsport fans like no other team principal.

Imbued with a love of speed and cars from an early age, initially, Frank set out to become a racing driver, but a succession of crashes and incidents in saloon cars and Formula 3 brought the realisation that optimism seriously outweighed skill.

Living hand-to-mouth as a wheelerdealer in racing car parts, a skill in several languages led him to become an entrant for Piers Courage. Following race wins for the dashing young English driver, he eventually contemplated stepping up to F1 in 1969. The way he did it was typical of Frank.

Since no one wanted to sell an F1 car to such a potentially competitive combination, he kept his ear to the ground. He discovered that Brabham had sold one of its latest F1 cars, the BT26, to a wealthy enthusiast in the understandable belief this man would not be Grand Prix racing. When Frank persuaded the enthusiast to part with the car for a reasonable sum, Jack Brabham was outraged. His anger was justified when Courage finished second at Monaco and in the money-rich United States Grand Prix.