Williams

1

Do you still get

the same buzz out of it Frank?

Absolutely.

Truth is I love it,

the Formula 1 stuff, the real stuff,

the speed they're going

through the corners,

it's super men so I really believe

these guys meta morph

when they get into the cockpit you know.

They're immensely quick,

and the grip round the corners

is just astonishing.

If you're a pilot flying a jet,

that's wonderful work isn't it? Why?

Because I'm flying supersonic,

twice supersonic.

It blows my mind, the speeds

at which they can control these cars.

What was it, Top Gun,

what did Mav say to Goose?

He said I feel the need,

the need for speed",

I've never forgotten that.

- And you've always had that?

- Sorry?

You've always had that?

Well I've always been

a little boy for a start,

always enjoyed speed too.

That's why I finished up in a chair,

going too fast.

We didn't sit round

the table as a family

and discuss it and go

this is how we're gonna deal with it

or you know

mum needs some counselling,

the kids need counselling,

dad needs counselling to get through it.

We've never talked about it

as a family, dad's accident, ever.

If it wasn't for Mum

I personally don't think.

Williams would necessarily be around.

I'm a really firm believer in Williams

is not just always about Dad,

it's as much about Mum,

she stood by him through thick and thin,

I mean she saved his life.

Williams is unique now

in that it is

the last of the old style teams

where the team owners

all had their name over the door

and Williams is the only one left.

Frank's very rare

at interviews nowadays

so he doesn't seem as

approachable or accessible

from a, from a fan on the street.

Whether we see enough

of him nowadays

and whether

that's because of his health...

We didn't see him this weekend,

we saw Claire Williams

knocking about on Friday.

She's a great face on the TV as well,

where, you know being interviewed

and the like,

it's interesting to have

a lady as Principal as well.

I think I may have

had like the odd grand dream

but I never thought I would be given

the keys to the shop ever, ever, ever.

I think a bit of it's because

I'm a girl and you know

I can't possibly understand

anything about a car

and you know it's Dad's train set

and he doesn't wanna

hand it over to anybody else.

The Marussia of Will Stevens

gets out the way of Valtteri Bottas

and Max Verstappen

but Verstappen's all over

the back of that Williams.

What about Williams?

Where do you reckon

Williams will place today?

Uh... might get a point.

One of the top ten maybe.

Do you think they're

contenders anymore?

No, no.

Definitely not this year. No chance.

But Jacques,

you were the last driver

to win a World Championship

for Williams.

Yeah that's true, that's true.

- How long ago was that?

- Uh... '97 so 20 years ago.

- Yes.

- Long time.

Too long really, yeah.

In comes Bottas,

goes for another set,

he's just given up,

there's nothing they can do really

and I'm afraid that Williams

are gonna come away

from Monaco with nothing.

It's really frustrating,

it literally is banging your head against

a brick wall, what do we have to do?

You know I have to walk around

with my head held high

and I want to be able to do that um

and I don't feel that I can at the moment.

Do you think Frank feels it

as acutely as you do now?

I'm sure he does,

he's trusted in me

and I don't want him to ever doubt

that trust that he's put in me.

Do you ever doubt it

yourself or...

Um not right now no,

I've got a lot of fight in me left.

Claire is a tough piece of work,

whatever she sets out to do

she always achieves it,

she's a bit like her mother,

her mother was like that,

didn't make a lot of fuss,

just did things.

I love this time of the year

with the Autumn coming.

These are my mum's blossom trees

that we planted.

They look a bit dead now.

These were the ones that we

planted on her,

the anniversary, two year anniversary

of her passing.

I wanted something here

that I could come to and chat to.

- And do you do that?

- Yeah I do, a lot.

I come and ask her why

we can't fix our um,

the wheel nuts on our pit stops

and pray to her that

she might help the guys in R&D

that have been working

so hard on them.

Right.

I've got a whole box of

press clippings in there

from when I was made

Deputy Team Principal.

I thought I would frame them

and put them up

and be all proud of myself, but now

they've just ended up in the shed.

This is a lovely picture

from when we won

the race in Barcelona with Pastor.

Was this the last time

you won a race?

Last time we won a race,

Barcelona 2012.

So there's another picture of dad,

someone sent that to me,

it's amazing, him lifting two wheel nuts,

how buff was my dad? It's amazing.

It's was phenomenal how fit he

was before his accident.

Oh this is an awful article that came out

when mum did an extract from her book.

After the accident,

I think Ginny was

on the edge of a nervous breakdown

and she found communication,

on an emotional level,

very difficult with Frank,

Frank didn't do emotion

and she perhaps felt that

a book might be one way of

getting the story across to him.

"I'm not usually given

to making New Year's resolutions"

but at the end of 1988 I decided that

I would spend the following year

setting down everything

that has happened to Frank and me

"in the last two decades."

Yes.

These are the little micro tapes that,

they took about 6 hours of conversation.

That goes in... there.

How long is it

since you listened to these?

Probably not since

I first transcribed them, which, so it is,

it's 25 years ago and

I mean she sounds so alive today,

25 years later

I can relieve that conversation.

I feel very sad that

she's not here anymore.

- Hello Pamela.

- Hello...

- How are you?

- No need to ask who you are.

I feel I should hug you

or kiss you or something.

- Oh!

- I feel I know you so well already.

- Well looking at you...

- I feel I know you so, really yes.

Is it a bit weird.

- It is weird yes.

- Really? Do I look like mum?

You do.

It was so weird

because I didn't,

she obviously didn't tell

anyone in the family,

but there was all this kind

of quite suspicious behaviour going on,

kind of sneaking out or you know

I find the Dictaphone in her glove box.

I was convinced she was having

an affair and confronted her with it

and she still didn't tell me that

that's what she was doing.

She actually met Frank

about three months

before she was due to get married

and that her fianc

introduced her to Frank

and there was an instant sort of

electric connection

between her and Frank,

she was only, I think 20,

she was very young

and she thought, What can I do?

"The flowers are ordered,

the wedding oh..."

Well she was blonde, blue eyes,

beautiful thick head of hair,

beautiful manners, beautiful clothes,

came from quite a wealthy background.

She had

this lovely way of speaking.

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