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RIP Sir Frank
Sad to hear the news that Sir Frank Williams died. Privileged to have worked with him and the eponymous team for about 15 years — his personal letter of appreciation for work I did with the board of BMW on his and Williams GPE behalf is among my most treasured possessions.
Attachment 563881
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.a...9/6829297/amp/
I popped in to the factory at Grove to see him with a young friend not long before lockdown — he was on fine form that day with a mischievous twinkle, wink to me at her surprise when he spoke in her native Finnish.
Nice shot at end of Frank appreciating Montoya’s then fastest ever lap record in the BMW WilliamsF1 — a record that remarkably stood for 14 years:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YqYPU3MNqHw
Condolences to his family.
Steve
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Very saddened to hear this. My fondest memory of him was seeing the video of Lewis Hamilton giving Sir Frank a hot lap at Silverstone. My sincere condolences to his family.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSoQtwbpcGU
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I heard about it at lunch today... VERY sad ... :(
He beat the odds for SO long you expected him to be around forever....:o
RIP Frank Williams.....
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Taken in March 1968 in his new 911 . . .
Attachment 563856
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R.I.P. I met him at the Williams paddocks in the '90s at Monza ... very professional and passionate, a great guy.
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Attachment 563936
This photo of Frank has special significance to me because I was invited to take up a role working with Williams leadership but first had to meet with him. Although I’d been told the role was already mine naturally I was nervous meeting him under those circumstances. I prepared and tried to anticipate all the difficult questions he might have as I didn’t want to blow it — I’d been a fan of the team for decades.
Over a cuppa in his corner office at Grove he only asked me one question (and I’m pretty sure he already had been briefed beforehand on the answer) …
“What had I been doing previously?”
When I told him Group director at Lotus plc and one of two Directors of Lotus Engineering Ltd he just smiled, broadly and showed me this exact photo of him wearing the Rindt tee-shirt and said “I’m sure you’ll fit in nicely”. Ended up doing various roles and special projects over 15 years some were working directly with Frank like the thing with BMW when we flew in his private plane to the 2002 BMW end of year ski party in Kitzbühel Austria where I ran meetings with him and Patrick on an important sensitive matter about the partnership ahead of the coming season with the BMW Board member for motorsport and their motorsport leadership team that Frank refers to in the letter I posted above. As in the meeting about my role he didn’t always say a lot nor waste time — always focussed but with charm and a wicked dry sense of humour; I held him on the highest regard ;)
This was during the years of dominance by the Scuderia and Michael Schumacher but it wasn’t a massive gap just 14 points in the FiA Formula One World Constructors’ Championship in 2003 that soon followed that December 2002 technical partnership meeting:
Attachment 563949
There was some time for some light-hearted fun during the end of year event as reported in Autosport although I was busy working with Frank on his suite we so missed the cow milking mercifully.
Attachment 563951
Event included all manner of BMW motorsport from around the world but the press picked up on F1 with prizes given out to bmw participants who seen success and nice meal etc
Attachment 563946
I reminisced with Frank about this Kitzbühel trip and the similar meetings that followed-on in early 2003 at Grove last time I saw him. Nice memories of just one “work hard play hard trip” that came to mind at this sad time
Steve
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Good'on'ya for those memories Steve......
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Frank gave us some wonderful racing cars and after his life changing accident he just got on with life. RIP and thanks for the cars and engineering.
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Thanks for sharing those memories with us. Steve. Those were very special years for you .