Williams Page #6

they couldn't,

they just could not believe it.

In practice,

Alan Jones in the Saudia Williams

has slashed an incredible

seven seconds off the record,

and that's a lot these days.

Alan was a man's man,

he was an Aussie,

it's all you expect from an Aussie,

maybe you know big character,

strong personality,

took no nonsense from anybody.

He liked his fun, he liked to drink,

though I think he always had a bit of

a struggle keeping his weight down.

After a race

you'd nearly always see him

pouring a beer down

his throat or two or three.

In motor sport there's two good

reasons to have a bit of a drink,

one is to commiserate

and one is to celebrate,

so you're pretty safe either way

you're gonna have a beer.

Two Williams in the first two rows,

the incredible veteran,

the Swiss driver, Clay Regazzoni.

Well Clay's

not as quick as he used to be

he's now very much

a number 2 driver

he's number 2 to Alan Jones

in the Williams team.

We all sort of expected Regazzoni

to be quicker than Jones

but he never was.

Jones turned out

to be much, much better

than any of us had realised I think.

Now all ready

for the 68 lap British Grand Prix.

And punching through,

it's the two Saudia Williams cars,

first into Copse Corner and

they're coming through, that's Jabouifle.

Jean-Pierre Jabouille

is going to go through,

he's got tremendous speed

and power here.

510 horsepower and it is still,

Alan Jones leads now.

When Alan took the lead

quite quickly and just disappeared,

Patrick and I were just counting the laps,

praying for the laps to keep reducing

because it, there was a new car,

it wasn't necessarily reliable,

and witnessed what was about

to be a major event for the team.

This became a reality.

And Alan Jones pulling away now.

Well I was leading very

comfortably but then all of a sudden,

in the rear view mirrors

I saw a hell of a lot of smoke

coming out of the back of the car

and I thought there was

something wrong for sure.

And that is trouble for Alan Jones

and he, the way he's coasting,

it looks as though he's burst his engine.

I mean I should've

hung around for the end of the race

but I was that pissed off

I just jumped in my car

and went back to London

at about 300 mile an hour.

So Clay Regazzoni

is the new leader

of the 33rd British Grand Prix.

Clay Regazzoni almost home

to win the first race ever

for the Williams team and Frank Williams

will be beside himself with joy.

And Clay Regazzoni

goes across the line

and he has won the British Grand Prix.

We were so much quicker

than anyone else,

even though Clay

was nowhere near as fast as Alan

and of course

when Alan broke down he won.

We won a British Grand Prix,

I mean you couldn't put it in a book,

it was incredible.

Clay, what is

so good about this Williams car?

Everything, everything

flaughsL.

It was the first win

for Frank Williams in Formula 1

since he started

over a decade previously.

Frank Williams,

this must be the happiest day

of your motor racing life.

No doubt about that,

you're right yes.

Frank, what were your feelings

during those last few laps?

Well sheer terror

that the car wouldn't finish,

we'd lost Alan and I was terrified of

losing Clay but the car was very sweet.

Frank we've watched you struggling,

if I may say so,

in motor racing since 1969.

Frank Williams,

a man who's kept trying for Britain,

many congratulations Frank,

thank you very much.

I think my parents just,

after everyone had gone,

just sat there,

just on the sofa

of the caravan arm in arm

and just didn't want the day to end,

it was, it was surreal.

So what did that feel like?

Well relief I suppose, a relief,

because a lot of people would think,

oh Frank, bloody Frank hasn't got a clue

what he was doing but I pressed on.

For me personally I felt,

about bloody time.

From that moment on in the season

I think we were totally dominant,

we were a second or two a lap quicker

than anybody else everywhere.

I went on and won

the next three Grand Prix's,

I won the Dutch Grand Prix,

the Austrian Grand Prix

and the German Grand Prix.

And Jones has done it,

and he is the world champion.

He's the world champion of 1982,

Keke Rosberg.

Well he has an eye for the ladies,

Frank, he's always liked a pretty girl.

I, like Frank, had women

literally throwing themselves at me

and you can't help every now

and again pick one up can you?

I used to get notes put on

my windscreen wiper of my car,

there were groupies

going around the circuit

and they were parading

up and down the pits,

unreal, we called

them screwdrivers, and they did.

With any sport you get

a following of glamorous women

who are just there for the action

and they will appear

at the parties in the evening,

sometimes in the hospitality areas

and a lot of the sponsors

employ promotions girls,

all tall and long legs

and very glamorous.

Formula 1 is

a heady cocktail

of strutting temperamental egos

and a deep undercurrent

of male sexual domination.

When I started

there were very

few women working in Formula 1,

some of the teams had a female caterer,

maybe a husband and wife team,

there were press officers

who were women,

women were considered

to be irrelevant, they made the tea,

booked the flights or provided

glamorous accompaniment

to drivers and team owners.

Although she was a perfectionist,

she knew that life

is always full of compromises

and that was probably one of

them and she'd fallen for Frank

but she'd fallen

for Frank as a complete package.

And because she was completely

besotted and head over heels

that was it and she dealt with it.

Um I wouldn't.

Could you imagine at that time,

a woman being

Deputy Team Principal or-

No, absolutely no way,

women, men in motor racing are sexist,

they're possibly

the most sexist people in any sport.

Women are always going

to come under more scrutiny

because there was a huge body

of people within Formula 1

who still don't believe

women can do the same job as men.

I think Formula 1 traditionally

has been quite a male dominated sport

but there are so many more women now

that work um in our sport,

and that's not just

in the high profile positions,

so we've got female engineers,

female aerodynamicists

so things are absolutely changing.

So your father is an icon

when it comes to Formula 1,

was it harder to prove your skills

because you're a woman

or because he's your father?

Um Formula 1, this role,

was not my ambition from a little girl,

however kind of circumstances changed

and a job became available

and I was asked to do it, not by my dad,

um and in fact when he was asked

he said no way is she working

for my company.

So if you're,

in your private life,

in which situations do you enjoy

being a woman?

Um...

I get asked

that female question a lot,

I was asked it last night at dinner,

I was asked it in

four interviews I did yesterday,

but I still find it quite odd

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes