Williams Page #4

the same slowness of thought

helped me get over my own accident,

"I suppose that is why I'm so calm

about expressing the fact that he's dead."

The former

world motor racing champion,

Ayrton Senna,

has been pronounced clinically dead.

Senna suffered serious head injuries

when his car left the track

and crashed into a concrete

wall.

I remember at Ayrton's memorial service.

Mum said don't you dare cry,

she said this is not your time to be sad,

she said this is not your loss.

Mum was a very loving lady

but she was very much of that mentality,

stiff upper lip, exactly like dad.

I think they both probably

thought that emotion was weak.

Well I mean it's not common

for men to show emotion,

serious emotion,

maybe anger but that's about all,

I mean you should never start crying

or any of that stuff.

Never,

you should never start crying or...?

We, I was, I was,

I shed a few tears

when Piers was killed definitely.

Mm... And when Ayrton,

when Ayrton died,

I mean they're my responsibility.

- When Ayrton died?

- Yeah sure.

But, er, it was out responsibility,

he was in a racing car

operated by us, as was Piers.

Yeah it was a Williams operated car.

And so how did you feel

on that day?

Far from well.

Here he comes down the outside,

that's a brave place to try and overtake.

Oh mama mia, mama mia,

oh they're gonna touch.

Bottas has a line!

They hit! They hit!

- And Raikkonen's off this time.

- Good, f*** off.

We are operating on a budget of

approximately 110 million Sterling a year.

And the likes of Red Bull

and Ferrari and Mercedes

are operating on two

if not three times that budget.

So from a financial perspective

you could call us an underdog,

I think that's the,

the negative connotation for me

is it gives this sense that Williams

are weaker than anyone else,

but we're not, we've been through

a lot more than a lot of teams on the grid

and we've always come out fighting.

And it's Bottas

who finishes in third place,

superb podium for him after

the incident with Raikkonen earlier...

Finally,

a podium for Williams.

So happy, my heart hasn't stopped

going yet, that was quite intense...

Third place from Finland, Valtteri Bottas.

And did

your mum get to see you in this role?

No she didn't, um which...

you know for me is really sad,

it's kind of heart breaking really.

I'm sad about that but Pm more sad that

she hasn't seen the team turn around,

because that was

what she desperately wanted to see

that broke her heart really at the end.

I began to realise that

if I do want a wife

that she was the best

I was ever likely to find.

Well it wasn't, it wasn't a posh wedding,

you know with white stuff everywhere,

it was a, what do you call that thing,

a reg, a reg, registry whatever.

- A registry office.

- Thank you very much.

I think dad had said that

he would son' the registry office out

and never did and would get the rings

but he didn't have any money

so Mum had to borrow money from

um Dave Brodie

I think it was that bought the ring.

So that's it, I went there

quarter of an hour early,

gave them 8.00, never got that back,

didn't expect it back.

It was all over in 15 minutes.

Her parents certainly weren't there,

I'm not sure they approved

uh... of the match.

Out we went

and I said, "Oh this a great day",

let's have a celebration, I'm

gonna buy you all a spectacular lunch."

Frank said,

Not me you're not, I'm working

and he f***ed off, that was it..

I don't know what man

in his right mind

would think that that was OK

but you know Dad did,

and Dad went back to work

and Mum went to lunch

and probably really

didn't think very much of it,

because she was used to it by then.

Dad is a completely different beast

to most normal men.

Frank from when

I first met him was,

always seemed very fit and athletic

and he was forever running, every

night was a long run.

He ran every circuit that

we were at the race track,

he used to run round it

and he felt bad if he didn't,

you know it was like a drug for him.

Frank is very,

what would be called focused,

some people could say narrow,

I mean, some people

find Frank a bit unusual now

and think it's because of the accident,

well it isn't, he was always very unusual.

In Frank

there 's a huge amount of repression,

there's a huge amount of determination.

There's an extraordinary retentive

obsessiveness.

I suppose,

motor racing people in general

are the most intensely competitive people,

I've ever known.

They're not

very mature intellectually or culturally

because they neither read nor think

uh... very much except about

what they actually do to which

they think in an extraordinary degree.

I've never been close to Frank socially.

I mean, we've never...

I don't, I don't think

we've ever been out for dinner together.

He felt that anything

that involved socialising

and having a drink or relaxing

was actually a waste of time.

I am addicted to motor racing",

Frank Williams

declared uncompromisingly,

motor racing is what matters

most in my life and then he goes,

Well I have a family which

I love very much,

but they tend

to take second place to the business,

"there's no question about that".

But did you used to do

the family holiday type thing?

Never done that, never.

Oh it's too late now anyway,

never interested in that.

Oh my god,

well this is embarrassing,

Mum wanted a hotel

to take the three kids to

and family tradition was

to have a picture of all of us

on the balcony with Mum,

so that's me and Mum there,

so would've been when I was

16, look at me, horrendous.

So in total we went to Marbella

with mum 32 times, 32 years.

How many times did your dad come?

Never, not once.

- And that didn't bother you?

- No.

Mum always used to tell us,

there's no point having your father here

because he would drive us all mad,

so we just used to go down there

and we had a lovely time.

Can you get that wheel,

fast as you can, the bottom one.

Joe have we got

another wheel mounted?

Frank endured

a lot of piss taking for his efforts

and you know

he was the poor northerner

that didn't have a pot to piss in

and his cars were rubbish and, you know,

he didn't have half the parts for them.

Frank couldn't afford new tyres

and was racing

with second hand Firestone tyres I think.

I wish they'd ban

tyres, there's just too many.

If Ginny hadn't been there,

Williams wouldn't have made it,

cause a lot of the money

that kept it going was hers.

I remember Ginny gave him 8.00 once

to go out and buy some fish and chips,

I think it was

and he went out and bought

eight Champion sparking plugs

and never came back for three days.

No I don't think my parents were

happy when they learnt

that she'd sold her flat to help Frank

and to give him a bit of the money.

If there was

a common denominator through

the first decade of his relationship

with Virginia, would be penury.

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