All language subtitles for Williams 2017 (Williams 2017) (ENGLISH)

Do you still get the same
buzz out of it, Frank?

Absolutely.

Truthfully, sir, I love it.

It's the former ones, sir.

The real stuff.

The speed they're going
in through the corners.

It's Superman, sir, really.

I believe these guys metamorph
when they get into the cockpit, you know?

Because they were
immensely quick.

And the grip around the
corners, it's just astonishing.

A

pilot flying a jet.

That's wonderful work, isn't it?

Why?

Because I'm flying.

Supersonic, twice supersonic.

It blows my mind how
rare are the speeds.

I wish 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 never forgot that.

And you've always had that?

You've always had that?

Oh, I've always been
a little boy for a start.

And I always enjoyed speed, too.

That's why I finished up
in a chair going too fast.

We didn't sit around the
table as a family and discuss

it and go, this is how
we're going to 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.

I was trying to
fight panic, I think.

I was clinging onto
that life by a thread.

He was actually dying every day
for six weeks, which is a long time.

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.

Like a mental quadripedic
was sort of on my mind.

I was sort of alone and I
was in a very bad state.

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 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, being interviewed and the like.

It's interesting to have a
lady as principal as well.

I think I may have had 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.

He doesn't want to hand
it over to anybody else.

The Mauritian of Will Stevens gets
out of 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?

Er, might get a point.

One in the top ten, maybe.

Do you think there are
contenders any more?

Er, no, definitely
not this year.

Maybe.

No chance.

Jack, you were the last driver to win
a World Championship for Williams.

Yeah, that's true, that's true.

How long ago is that?

Er, 97, so, er, 20... Years ago?

Yeah.

Yes.

Long time.

Not 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 going to
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.

Erm, and I don't feel
I can at the moment.

Do you think Frank feels it
as acutely as you do now?

I'm sure he does, yeah.

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?

Um, not right now.

No.

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

Claire was a
tough piece of work.

Whatever she sets out to
do, she always achieves it.

She's been like her mother.

Her mother was like that.

Didn't make a lot of
fuss, just did things.

I love this time of year,
though, with 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 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.

I don't know.

They've got a whole
box of Prescott things in

there from when I was
my deputy team principal.

And I thought I would flame 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 Pasta.

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 was amazing,
lifting two wheel nuts.

How buff was my Dad?

It was amazing.

It was phenomenal how fit
he was before his accident.

Oh, this is an awful article that came out
where Mum didn't 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.

These are the
little micro tapes.

They took about six
hours of conversation.

That goes in there.

THEY CONFER

How long since you
listened to these?

Probably not since I
first transcribed them.

Which, so it is,
it's 25 years ago.

I mean, she sounds
so alive today.

25 years later, I can
relive that conversation.

I feel very sad that
she's not here any more.

Hello.

Hello.

I don't need to ask who you are.

I feel I should hug you
or kiss you or something.

I feel I know you
so well already.

Looking at you, I feel
I know you so well.

It's a bit weird.

It is weird.

Really?

I look like Mum.

You do.

It was so weird because I didn't... She
always didn't tell anyone in the family.

But there was always kind of
quite suspicious behaviour going on,

kind of sneaking out or, you know, I
found a 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.

I

can't remember which
year it was that Frank set up

a company that looked
after young guys racing cars.

And I was due to marry this guy and
get a new little car into Frank's stable.

And we went together to see
the car, to see the mechanic.

And that was when I saw Frank
in a very grotty garage in Plough.

She actually met Frank about three
months before she was due to get married.

And her fiancé
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.

Oh.

I didn't know what to do.

And there's this guy with
his eyes boring at you.

And you couldn't speak.

You couldn't articulate a word.

I wanted to be terribly intelligent
and say things about cars.

And I couldn't do it.

Once I saw him, that was it.

Well, she's blonde.

Blue eyes.

Beautiful thick head of hair.

Beautiful manners.

Beautiful class.

Came from quite a
wealthy background.

She had this lovely
way of speaking.

A great sense of humor.

And she loved motor racing.

She understood motor racing.

She had a very good
feel for racing drivers.

Frank probably thought,
you're not going to believe it.

She went to a finishing
school in Switzerland.

They've got Labradors
in the garden.

I've cracked it.

I suspect that's what
he told his mates.

I mean, she was just
a fantastic girl to talk to.

It's like talking to a fella.

But, you know.

With wearing Chanel No.

5.

It's just brilliant.

But in those days, to
back out of a marriage or

a looming wedding was
almost impossible to do.

You know, invitations had
gone out and stuff like that.

And it would have been very
tough for her to pull the plug on it.

Anyway, she went
through with the wedding.

But this attraction
didn't go away.

It was the charm.

It was the Frank
Williams charm, I think.

That smile and
the big green eyes.

And Mum just...

went loony.

You know, I remember going across
the road and she's sitting in a minicar.

I said, what are you doing here?

I said, bro, don't say
anything to anybody.

And she had a flask
and sandwiches.

And she'd been sitting there
for 9 o'clock hoping Frank

would go across the road and
buy a paper at the newsagents.

And she'd go down
and say, Oh, Frank!

Fancy bumping into you here.

And she didn't do it once.

She did it all week.

I mean, from then on, my whole occupation
was either looking for Frank or driving to

Slough or making sure
that when we were at a

race that I put myself
in a prominent position.

It was a real magical world.

The world Frank started racing.

It was this, you
know, boys' club.

And I think Frank, he
loved being a part of it.

And maybe because he
hadn't been a part of a gang,

a group, when he was,
you know, in his childhood.

He doesn't ever talk about it, but his
mother... He was pathetic, my father.

And his mother was very poor.

My father left.

He was a bomber pilot.

That was my mother.

My mother brought me up.

She did bring me up
pretty much single-handedly.

They lived in Jarrow
in South Shields.

That was a difficult
environment.

Difficult to make
your way out of.

And my grandma made the choice.

She would sacrifice
the normal life.

It was a more home
environment in order to try and give

Dad a better chance in life
by giving him this education.

My first memories were being
sent to a Roman Catholic convent.

I was about just
coming up for five.

And I used to run away at the railway
station and they used to ring up and say,

he's here again, please
stop, it's happening again.

Whenever I got back to
the school, they took my little

trouser down and hit me with
a weight with a coat hanger.

I didn't mind.

I was quite happy at the school.

You were happy at school?

I was happy at the school, yes.

And why did you run away then?

Because I wasn't that happy.

No, but it was... And also I
loved trains and movement.

I was always trying
to get a ride in a car.

When someone's dad turned up
with a car, I was all over the car

and sometimes they gave me
a ride up and down the road in it.

I was nuts about cars by then.

The track was confined in
Dunfreeshire for the whole of

his education from the age
of four until, I think, at 16.

I did qualify for uni by then.

I had no interest, because I
was in a convent for three years.

One year in a day school, then
another nine years locked up as well.

I was kind of keen on freedom.

I bought for £80 a racing A35.

It was a hot little
ship, I can tell you.

A very quick car.

And that's how I got
into motor racing proper.

He was totally obsessed
by motor racing.

I mean, to a degree
that was ridiculous.

Ridiculous.

Nothing else mattered.

I don't think he's ever been
in a supermarket in his life.

Frank, when he first went there,
there wasn't any room for him,

so he slept in the lock-ups down
the side there in a sleeping bag.

Everybody had a nickname.

Roger Bunting was Bunt.

Charles Lucas was Charlie Luke.

Piers Courage
was called Porridge.

And Frank's was called Wanks.

Is Wanks around?

No, he'll be in later.

Yeah, OK.

So, there were all aristocratic,
wealthy guys who wanted

to go motor racing, and
Frank was mixing with them.

And he wasn't either
aristocratic or wealthy.

And they all owed each other.

And I think for him, it must
have been such a different world.

Well, all the other guys that lived
in that flat had hereditary incomes.

Frank didn't, nor did I.

So, Frank had to
earn some money.

So, the way he earned money
was to buy and sell parts.

And every waking moment, he
was chasing around the country,

buying stuff for a pound
and selling it for two pounds.

He called himself Frank
William Racing Cars in the end.

The motivation behind the organisers
wanting certain drivers was that in France

they had to have mattresses, they had
to have baltois and servos, Gavin starting.

Italy had to have a
Ferrari on the grid.

And I guess England
particularly wanted a BRM.

He seemed to me to be
the ultimate wheeler-dealer.

And then he expanded and expanded,
and pretty soon he was selling a lot of

cars to European
drivers, particularly in Italy.

So, Frank would get a phone
call from an Italian customer.

Hey, Franco, what are you
going to give me for my car?

I need a new Brabham.

I'll give you X for it.

OK, I'll come and get it.

He's got an order from the same
customer for a brand-new car.

He'd then take that car apart,
repaint it, re-electroplate it,

repolish it, and it would be, three
months later, a totally immaculate,

brand-new-looking car
with a brand-new chassis

number that he got out
the back door of Brabham.

The guy would then get
the car back, and what

he actually got back
was the original car.

I know one guy had the
same car for at least three

years, but he thought he'd
got a new car every year.

I think that I was
always likely to rebel.

It might have been that I was looking
for a bit of what's worth, a bit of scrap.

Ginny had grown up in a
very sheltered environment.

And suddenly there was this man who didn't
go by the rules, and he was very exciting.

We'd go to parties on Saturday
night, and Frank's dancing with Ginny.

And it's getting obscene.

And her husband has got
daggers coming out of his eyes.

And I walked up to Frank and said,
Frank, what the fuck are you doing?

I said, you can't be doing this.

Have a normal dance.

I mean, you know, the only thing
he wasn't doing was having sex.

And Frank said,
no, I hadn't noticed.

And Ginny said,
well, I certainly hadn't.

What everybody else said.

And, of course, the show was
on the road there with them two.

And she moved into a flat.

And then she thought, how do
I let Frank know that I'm here?

Because I mustn't let him know that
I've left my first husband because of him.

That would scare him off.

So he didn't drink.

But what he loved
was fresh orange juice.

So she wrote a letter.

If you fancy some fresh orange
juice, it's now being served at...

And she put her new address.

And a day or two later, the doorbell
rang and he turned up at the door.

Looking for some orange juice?

Looking for some
orange juice, obviously.

HE CHUCKLES

I thought Frank Williams, like
a very good star from the back,

is now in third place from
about the third row of the grid.

That's very good indeed.

Back then, his whole thing was to be
the greatest racing driver in the world.

And who's the yellow car?

Frank Williams.

It's Frank.

Look at him.

What a battle for
the third saloon.

He was racing saloon cars.

But for some reason, he
never had an inbuilt limit.

He would just go faster and faster
and faster and fly off the circuit.

And who's off there?

Frank Williams.

Frank Williams tried too hard.

Frank always very
fast but very hairy.

He's living up to it.

When I started doing Formula 3,
sometimes I would encounter people who

would say to me, do you
know that chap Frank Williams?

Yeah, I know Frank Williams.

Oh, he's so fast and
he crashed here and he

overtook here and he
did all kinds of things.

So Frank had this amazing reputation
as someone who was lightning fast,

not always staying on the road.

There were a lot of races
he would have won, but

he ended up spinning the
car and having accidents.

He just didn't have a limit.

And that extended to
his road driving as well.

Well, what was that like?

Diabolical.

Where did you learn to drive?

In my mother's Morris 1000.

She was very
reluctant to lend it to me.

And she was right because in
the end I did roll it on his roof.

But you've rolled a
few cars in your time.

Not that many, no.

Oh, it's just that every
time we talk about

a car, it seems to be
one that you've rolled.

Well, I haven't talked
about that many cars.

But didn't you... What
was your first racing car?

A35.

What happened to that?

I got rolled.

He was nothing but competitive
against himself in a road car.

It was almost at the point
where he would start a stopwatch

to see if he could beat his
previous time from A to B.

In fact, every night he used to come in
and say, 33 and a half minutes tonight,

Ginny, because I'm going to cure
myself on that road if I'm not careful.

And I used to sweat and say, if you kid
yourself, I'm not coming to your funeral.

It used to make me so cross.

Frank was a... He was
a suicide lane driver.

And I think it dawned on him that
pretty soon he was going to hurt himself.

You can't have that many accidents
on the road and on racetracks.

You know, you end
up hurting yourself,

especially back then
when the cars were lethal.

What got me into Formula 1 was the fact
that after two or three years of racing

rather dangerously around the continent,
it became apparent that I might have lots

of courage, but nothing
like enough skill to go with it.

At the same time, I became very friendly
with a young man called Fierce Courage,

who was a brilliant driver.

And the opportunity
came for Frank to build a

Formula 1 car, and
Piers agreed to drive it.

And then Piers
and I set off in 1969.

Piers Courage was an ebullient,
fashionable, Formula 1 driver that

captured the imagination of
everybody who loved Formula 1.

And Piers was just Frank's idea of
what a Grand Prix driver should be like.

He was just bouncy,
easily charming, and a

beautiful wife from half
of London was chasing.

Apart from being a great-looking
fella, never had a hair

or a piece of hair, always
the clothes out of place.

He was always the smartest guy.

Button-down blazer,
grey flannels, Gucci shoes.

He looked almost holy.

And I remember
him making a speech.

He had a slight sort of English
public-school stammer, and I remember the

interviewer saying, so, Piers, how's
your car going to go this weekend?

And he said, well, I think it'll go
like an absolute b-b-bomb, actually.

Second

place in last year was
Piers Courage in the

very promising Frank
Williams' back de Tomaso.

I remember last
year, my right foot...

really cramping, cramping
it, and also the great

blisters on my hands
from the gear changing.

I kind of adored Piers
in many ways, but in

those days, it was
just, Piers is wonderful.

You know, that's just my mate,
and I thought the world of him.

Piers and Frank
were great together.

They were almost made
for each other, I think.

You had Piers, who was really
developing as a driver, and

Frank was really developing
as a team-owner constructor.

Second place at Monte
Carlo, can you believe that?

Second place at the US
Grand Prix, can you believe that?

Fifth at Silverstone,
felt a great run.

Everybody wanted to be a racing
driver, and Piers was on his way.

He'd beaten Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark,
and he was a really, really good driver.

And suddenly, he dies in this
horrendous accident in Frank's car.

Wow.

I was in the race, and it was a terrible
accident involving us knowing that it was

Piers that had the accident,
because his helmet came off.

And when you heard the news,
how did you hear the news?

Well, all I will say is
that it was a major shock.

I was very young.

You didn't expect
a shock like that.

And I remember, I went to the race
organiser, a man called John Cauchemire,

and I said, John, just
tell me, is Piers dead?

Are you sure he's dead?

And he said, I'm sure.

And I said, tell me that again.

And he told me, he is
dead, Frank, three times.

I said, OK.

Then I had the job of
telling his wife, Piers'

wife, and I'd rather
not talk about that.

His wife, Sally, was
in a terrible state.

Wives in motor racing, I think, have had
a much tougher life than any driver has.

And I remember going to the
funeral, and Frank was fantastic.

He stood at the entrance
to the church and welcomed

everybody in, and there
were a lot of people.

Shook hands with everybody,
thanked them for coming.

And then after the
ceremony, I couldn't find him.

And I walked back into the church, it
was deserted, and Frank was standing

behind a big stone pillar,
absolutely destroyed,

standing there,
weeping his heart out.

And I said, come on,
love, let's go home.

And it was like, that happy-go-lucky
scene we had just dissolved like that.

But I know that it wasn't
really mentioned, and

Piers wasn't mentioned
terribly much at home.

I'm not sure Dad ever...

I'm not sure how you would
get over a driver dying in your car.

This ability of Frank to carry on, for
me, it's fairly standard in motor racing.

Knowing racing people, most
of them only think of tomorrow.

Very rarely do they look
back, and very rarely do

they allow emotion to
come into their motivation.

There was a very high
mortality rate, stupidly high.

And it was just accepted that you
probably weren't going to survive.

I personally did not
think I would survive my

Formula One career, and
the odds weren't very good.

On the second
lap, disaster strikes.

One trips, loses control.

But the race goes on.

Those cars were
effectively death traps.

You had a head on one of those, they
folded up round you like an envelope.

You didn't get out of them.

The cars were so
readily caught fire.

The fuel systems in a minor
impact nearly always sprung a leak.

And the fires were the thing.

We had a series of deaths, one each
weekend for four consecutive weekends.

Four of our friends died.

The ethos of Formula One was
back then, if this happens, it's appalling,

but we, you know, we're
going to the next race, it's

like falling off a horse,
you climb back on again.

So this is an article,
gosh, this dad did an

interview with the
Times after Ayrton died.

Formula One, one of the most powerful
figures in Formula One, bears his soul on

his star driver's death
and the revival of his team.

Dad says, it hasn't
all sunk in yet.

You see the fact
of Ayrton's death.

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 is 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.

He said, this is not
your time to be sad.

He said, this is not your loss.

Mum was a very loving lady.

She was very much of
that mentality, stiff upper lip.

It was 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, show serious emotion.

Maybe anger,
but that's about all.

They should never start
crying or any of that stuff.

You should never
start crying or...?

I was... I shed a few tears
when Piers was killed, definitely.

And when Ayrton died,
it was my responsibility.

When Ayrton died?

Yeah, sure.

But it was our responsibility.

He was in a racing car
operated by us, as was Piers.

You know, 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, mamma mia, mamma mia.

Oh, they're going to touch.

Vontaze has a line.

They hit!

They hit!

And Raikkonen's off this time.

Raikkonen goes out.

We are operating on a budget of
approximately 110 million sterling a year.

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 negative
connotation for me, is it

gives the 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 on.

Finally, a podium for Williams.

So happy.

My heart hasn't
stopped going yet.

That was quite intense.

In third place, from Finland,
the Vantalli Love Dance.

Woo!

Woo!

Did your mum get to
see you in this role?

No, she didn't.

Which...

..you know, for
me, is really sad.

It's kind of
heartbreaking, really.

I'm sad about that, but I'm 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.

We've been living
together for two years.

I don't think he considered
that he had any obligations.

I don't think he had any
obligation towards me.

And there was a limit to how long
I felt I wanted to go along with that.

I did get pregnant with
the idea of forcing the issue.

I began to realise that
if I didn't want a wife,

she was the best I
was ever likely to find.

When he was leaving, and he said,
he said, I think it would be a good idea

if we got married,
what do I think?

And I was told.

I couldn't believe it, really.

Everyone was
hopping about with joy.

Well, it wasn't a posh wedding,
you know, with white stuff everywhere.

It was a... What do
you call that thing?

A regis... Regis... Regis...

Registry office.

Thank you very much.

I think Dad had said that he would sort
the registry office out, and never did,

and would get the rings, but didn't have
any money, so Mum had to borrow money from

Dave Brown, from Brodie, I
think it was, that bought the ring.

So that's it.

I went there, called round early,
gave them £8, 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 of the match.

Out we went, and I said, this is a
great date, let's have a celebration.

I'm going to buy you
all a spectacular lunch.

Frank said, not me, you're not.

I'm working.

And he fucked 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, cos
she was used to it by then.

Dad is a completely different
beast to most normal men.

Frank, from when I first met him,
always seemed very fit and athletic.

And he was forever running.

Every night was a long run.

He ran every circuit.

We were at the racetrack,
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 is 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 very much except
about what they actually

do, to which they think to
an extraordinary degree.

You were always
fairly antisocial.

I think motor racing
people are fairly insular.

I've never been close to Frank,
so... Socially, I mean, we've never...

I don't know, 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.

He hasn't got any
interest in motor racing.

He doesn't read.

He really doesn't have anything going on
in his life at all apart from motor racing.

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.

This would have
been when I was 16.

Look at me.

Horrendous.

So, in total, I've served
my bear 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.

That

wheel past the
kind of bottom one.

Yeah.

So, we got another
wheel mounted.

Which were the years that someone
described as Frank at that time was...

The least successful.

72, 73, 74, 75, 76.

I mean, it used to be a bit
of a joke amongst the drivers.

If you wanted to wreck
your career, drive a Williams.

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 banned
tyres, there's just too many.

If Ginny hadn't been there,
Williams wouldn't have made

it because a lot of the money
that kept it going was hers.

You were very hard up
when you first got married.

I think I did have... I
had a sort of running

allowance, which was, I
don't know, £40 a month.

It sounds pathetic, but, in fact, in
those days it wasn't that pathetic

because you could certainly feed
yourself on a fiver a week with two people.

It was insignificant, but
it just kept us ticking over.

I remember Ginny gave him £8 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, it would be penury.

Frank had such a bad
reputation with the Vax and

he'd bounce cheques for
sort of ten years on people.

In fact, I mean, nobody would
take a cheque from Frank.

He used to bounce cheques on me.

I used to say, look, I've got you some
money, I'm going to give you 20 quid.

He used to bounce it.

Frank Williams' team
is at its lowest end.

The cars are well down the
grid in seventh and ninth places.

If you're on the eighth
or sixth place, you

could get a win if you
haven't got the money.

And if you haven't got
the money, you can't win.

So we were in big,
bad shape financially.

Frank came round to see me
and said, Brode, I can't carry on.

And he had a bit of paper with
the debts on it, and they were huge.

And then overnight, this guy who'd been
creeping around with Frank and giving him

little bits of money,
Walter Wolff, did

something that happens
in business all the time.

Walter bought out Frank's debt and took
control of the Williams Formula One team.

Walter was clearly a
pretty clever businessman.

He had made a fortune, many,
many tens of millions by himself.

I thought, let's
give this a crack.

But by halfway through, 1976, it was
very plain to Walter the race team wasn't

running well and that Frank didn't
have the capability to turn it around.

And then Frank went to the
factory, put his key in the front door.

Wouldn't work.

Then the side window opened and the
guy said, Frank, that's your things there.

You can't come in the factory.

You're banned
from the factory now.

You couldn't believe he'd been
locked out of his own factory.

It was his life.

His life was in that box
and inside that factory.

And then six weeks later, with
Frank's car, which was renamed a Wolf,

went down to South
America, won its first race.

The thing that Frank had
been living for for all those years.

We heard the result.

Somebody phoned
through the reception.

I was devastated.

I mean, what is, how
is one supposed to feel?

And I hated, above all else, seeing
Frank the Williams of Corner Wolf.

I hated it.

One day, Ginny phoned
me up and she said,

Brode, I've got a lot
of problems with Frank.

He's in a fit of depression.

He hasn't got out of his
pyjamas for six weeks.

So I turned up at 11
o'clock and I looked at him

and I said, what the fuck's
going on here, Frank?

You've got your pyjamas on.

And he said, Brode, I can't quite
get my mind together about things.

And I knew what was killing him.

Depression certainly wouldn't be
in his, it's barely in his vocabulary.

And what I think he is ashamed that
he should perhaps think for himself.

In this case, there is
reason to be depressed and

we've got to go through
depression to get out of it.

I said to Frank, well, there must be some
way you can get into Formula One again.

And he said, well, I don't know.

I don't know.

He said, but I've
been thinking about it.

And I might be able to get 185,000 out of
a Belgian beer company called Bellevue.

But we'd have to have a Belgian
guy called Patrick Neve as driver.

I said, so what?

That's the start of a
new Formula One team.

Do you think so?

I said, yeah, Frank.

I said, get out of them poxy
pyjamas and go to work.

Do what you're best at.

I think it gave Frank a kick to realise,
hang on a minute, I'm going to do it.

He sat at my kitchen table
and I said, right, you do

a list of Formula One
team names and I'll do a list.

And what was the name
that you came up with?

It was really
tough, really testing.

It was very brain-stretching,
but we kept William's Grand Prix.

I said, right, I'm
taking two days off.

We're going to go
and find a factory.

It was very much hand-to-mouth,
but I loved what I was doing.

I'm very optimistic and I
thought it would all come right.

At the end of the day, when
you're a racer, it's a bit of a bug.

A bug?

Can't see him.

140,000 fans packed
into Silverstone.

So Hamilton's on the
right as we look at it.

Nico Rosberg on the left.

The British Grand Prix
about to get underway.

Lights out, away we go.

And who's it going to be?

It's a good start from the second
row, the Williams and Massa.

Williams getting both
cars past both Mercedes.

Massa leads Bottas trying
to get second from Hamilton.

Hamilton a bit of trouble,
but he's fighting back.

But we have a race on our hands.

What a start from
the Williams guys.

I think Valtteri is quicker.

He's quicker, he should pass it.

He should pass it.

Careful, be careful.

And he's off.

Hamilton goes off in his
attempts to try and rest the lead

and that might give an
opportunity here for Valtteri Bottas.

Bottas goes into second place.

And up front, it's Williams,
one and two at the moment.

Can't watch it.

I can't.

I'm not bearable.

My heart can't take it.

I've got heart attack.

Bottas comes in from the race lead as
Lewis Hamilton continues around the track.

Let's see how the stop
goes for Valtteri Bottas.

It's pretty good.

Hamilton's already along
the start-finish straight.

He's alongside.

Hamilton retakes the lead.

And where does
Bottas come back out?

He comes back out behind
his teammate, Felipe Massa.

Hamilton is pulling
away in front.

Lewis Hamilton wins
the British Grand Prix.

He had to fight for it.

Ultimately, Williams have
to settle for fourth and fifth.

But you have to
feel for Williams.

I think

he's always showed a
sort of terrific fighting spirit.

And that really, the fighting spirit
was stronger when things were difficult.

But I think that he did
have a terrific drive.

But I still think he was fighting
for the whole thing as a whole.

Rather than the winning.

He was fighting for Formula One.

Patrick Head is the technical
genius inside Williams.

The engineer swat who bestows
power on the charismatic leader.

I met Patrick, which is the best thing,
apart from marrying the wife I married,

the best thing that ever
happened to me in my life.

He was a gifted engineer.

Patrick is a...

He's a person who... He
doesn't suffer fools gladly.

He's a bully.

If he wanted it and it wasn't
coming, he bullies way through.

A lot of people are
frightened of him.

You know, he's a broad guy and
he can be quite aggressive looking.

But his character is not one that
junior employees found comfortable.

You know what I mean?

They knew when
they'd made a mistake.

I think most of my father's
forebears were military.

One of them, General Michael Head,
had been a soldier under Wellington.

I think not wanting to fail
was a very strong motivation.

This car's half a second slower
on stopwatch than the other car.

I think at this point Frank had fairly
high hopes and expectations of Patrick.

The thing that was unique
that Patrick brought to

the show, he was responsible
for making Formula One.

It was reliable.

So Frank's cars almost instantly finished
races, which they hadn't been doing before.

And that's where life
changed for Williams.

The British teams have kept ahead with
innovative designs, the most recent being

the aerodynamic skirt, a rigid panel that
scrapes along the ground between the front

and rear wheels, creating a
phenomenon called ground effect.

For Frank Durney, a
simple graph shows the

rise in suction under
the Williams with skirts.

If you remove the skirt, you
actually get so little flow in this area.

The thing that really made a big
difference was a fairing along the side of

the engine, which allowed the flow to
remain attached all the way to the back.

And I tested that in a wind tunnel
test just before Silverstone in 1979,

and it was the biggest gain of
performance I've ever seen on a car.

So I rushed back from the
wind tunnel and drew the parts,

and we got them made so we
could use them at Silverstone.

I remember going out
there and hopping in it

for the first time and
thinking, bloody hell.

What was the
difference with the car?

It was better.

It was just better.

Don't start getting me
trying to be technical,

because I'll look like
a complete goose.

We went to the test, and in the morning
everybody had been running, and I think

the best lap time would have
been, I don't know, 12.9 or something.

And Alan went out, I
remember the time, he

did a one minute
11.88, just like that, bang.

And the rest of the pit
lane were doing mid-13s.

And it was most peculiar,
because you were standing there

with your thing, and everybody
went and looked down at us.

They couldn't, they
just could not believe it.

I would say that when the Jonesy
thing came together in 1979, we were all,

everybody was as
surprised as everybody.

I mean, I think that was as
equally surprised as anybody else.

Impressive.

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.

An Aussie is 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.

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 motorsport, there's two good
reasons to have a bit of a drink.

One is to commiserate,
one is to celebrate.

So you're pretty safe either
way, you're going to have a beer.

Two Williams in
the first two rows.

The incredible veteran, the
Swiss driver, Clay Rigazzoni.

Well, Clay's not as
quick as he used to be.

He's now very much
a number two driver.

He's number two to Alan
Jones in the Williams team.

We all sort of expected Rigazzoni to
be quicker than Jones, but he never was.

And Jones turned
out to be much, much

better than any of us
had realized, I think.

Now, all in.

All ready for the 68th
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 Jaboui.

Jean-Pierre Jaboui
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 disappeared, Patrick

and I were just counting
the laps, praying for the laps.

To keep reducing.

Because there was a new car
that wasn't necessarily reliable.

And when this is what's
about to be a major event

for the team, it's
beginning to look like reality.

And Alan Jones pulling away now.

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.

That is the way he's coasting.

It looks as though
he's burst his engine.

And I should have hung around for
the end of the race, but I was a fist off.

I just jumped in my car and went back
to London at about 300 mile an hour.

So, Clay Rickinsoni is the new
leader of the 33rd British Grand Prix.

Clay Rickinsoni almost home to win the
first race ever for the Saudia Williams.

And Frank Williams will
be beside himself with joy.

And Clay Rickinsoni 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 the 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.

It was the first win
for Frank Williams.

Frank Williams in Formula One since
he started over a decade previously.

Frank Williams, this must be the
happiest day of your motor racing life.

No doubt about it.

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.

Thank you, Frank.

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.

Yeah, relief.

Because a lot of people would
think, well, Frank, bloody Frank.

I had no 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 Grands Prix.

Won the Dutch Grands Prix, the Austrian
Grands Prix, and the German Grands Prix.

And Jones has done it,
and he is the world champion.

He's

the world champion of
1982, Hickey Crossburg.

He was suddenly a superstar.

And it becomes easier
for superstars, doesn't it?

It's so important.

It's difficult for blokes
when they're superstars.

They've got these wonderful, sort
of pretty girls who are all over them.

I think men can be
terribly stupid sometimes,

and they're probably
terribly flattered.

I think this is it for them.

Yes, this is an extra prize.

Yes.

But I think that was inevitable.

I think there were
bound to be girls that

would try and get their
clutches into Frank.

Well, he has an eye
for the ladies, Frank.

He's always liked a pretty girl.

I like Frank.

And women literally
thrown 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.

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 One 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 One.

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.

I can remember finding out about somebody
and being desperately upset about it.

I think probably I used
to overreact to Franks.

Because I don't think
they were ever a fair.

Yes, I used to overreact.

Which I think used to annoy him.

Did he used to say to
you they're not important?

No, he used to deny it.

He used to lie to tell the
most dreadful whoppers.

Although she was a perfectionist, she knew
that life is always full of compromises.

And that was
probably one of them.

And she had fallen for Frank.

But she had 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.

I wouldn't.

Did friends of yours ever say, particularly
early on, why do you put up with this?

Oh yes.

Could you explain it to me?

No, because I mean I
think that they tended to

think that I only like
being kicked in the teeth.

Could you imagine at that time
a woman being team principal?

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's a huge
body of people with influence.

And that's what's happening
in 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 in our sport.

And that's not just in
the high profile position.

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?

Formula 1, this role was not
my ambition from a little girl.

However, circumstances changed
and a job became available.

And I was asked to
do it, not by my dad.

And in fact, when he was asked, he
said, no way is she working for my company.

So in your private life, in which
situations do you enjoy being a woman?

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 that people find it

surprising that a girl
might be doing this job.

It really kind of annoys me.

Heritage is sort of a
nice to itself department.

We have some support from people in the
factory, but it's mostly just me and Dicky.

So yeah, it's
mostly just us here.

Just getting down here to
some of the bigger components.

You can see much heavier there.

They're actually buckling
the shelves in here.

That box isn't lumbered.

Has Claire ever
come over here, Jake?

No.

I don't think she
knows this room exists.

I don't.

No, nobody comes over here.

I don't think.

Me and Johnny.

Jonathan wearing his...

Johnny used to like
playing soldiers quite a lot.

How are things?

Not the best.

Can you talk about that?

Johnny is, you know, it's...

I suppose some families just have,
you know, always going to have,

you know, some
issues, aren't they?

And unfortunately,
Johnny and I do.

Which I think is
something that I will regret

and be very unhappy
about my whole life.

And is that to do
with work or...?

Yeah.

Yeah, it is.

Unfortunately.

Because you got the position
that you did and... Yeah.

He did it.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Yeah, I'm not...

I'm not the oldest
and I'm not a boy.

That's me and Claire.

You two look pretty
close in that one.

That was about 30 years ago.

It's horrible.

He thinks that I was ambitious and
that I put myself in the shoes of a man.

And in the position and, you know, I
lobbied, I, you know, cajoled my way in

and couldn't be... The situation
could not be further from the truth.

It's something their mother
would be deeply unhappy about.

And I think it's something
that she could have

sorted in a way that
probably nobody else could.

I don't believe Frank
could sort it out.

I think Frank has always thought that women
are better judges of character than men.

And I think Frank used to very
often make sure that somebody

he was thinking about and wasn't
sure about would wield my way.

This was drivers or... Yes.

Oh, yes.

Drivers or anybody else.

Yeah.

Yes, we had a lot of people
through the house and you

would ask what I thought,
what my opinion of them was.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

I think I just thought
it was so real to them.

And I was like,
that's really funny.

How would we go about this
thing when we were young?

Well, we went to the
hospital at the time.

I was worried.

I was worried, because I
knew it was going to be awful.

Yeah.

If you were to go to Williams, what
would you have to say about that?

Williams?

Williams?

Who are they?

When Nigel was in top form, he was
as good as any driver I've ever had.

I would say it was
hard work out of the car.

But in the car, he
was really superb.

Nigel is three people in one.

He's an absolutely fantastic
racing driver who is just

astoundingly good when it
comes to overtaking people.

And Mansell moves to the
outside and Mansell's going through!

Nigel Mansell takes the lead
and neatly boxes out at Sonner.

As a family man,
he's just the nicest guy.

He's got a lovely family.

He adores his children.

He's faithful to his wife,
unlike quite a few racing drivers.

But as a person out of the
car, he's an absolute arse.

You know, he's just a
difficult bloke to work with.

Drive slow.

Get it together.

It's a fucking nightmare.

That was why, generally
speaking, we all liked

Nelson quite a lot and
found Nigel a bit too much.

Nelson Piquet replaced Keke
Rosberg for 86 and he was

hired because Frank loved
the idea of Nelson Piquet.

He'd already won two
world championships.

And he loved Nelson's
Brazilian flair, his girlfriends,

the way he looked, the
way he carried himself.

He had a private yacht and he had a
helicopter on the yacht and he had a

Citation 10 jet, which at that time
was by far the fastest jet in the world.

And he was flying it.

Nelson was a brilliant love
life and was a very cool guy.

Nigel was cheese and chutney sandwiches
and hot milk before he went to bed.

I thought at that time
Nelson was the best driver in

the world, so I was thrilled
to bits he was coming.

He was very keen to join Williams
because he felt that we were the quickest.

Nelson felt with that package around him,
he could win another world championship.

We were doing the last of the
pre-season tests, the Paul Ricard circuit.

So we had both Nigel Mansell
and Nelson Piquet there.

Frank had come out to the test because
he was very excited about the performance.

Dad was away.

He was at a pre-season test.

And it was a kind of spring afternoon and
mum suggested we go out on some bikes.

And took a little picnic
and found a field like you do.

And it was a really lovely day.

And then we just got back and
waiting for dad to come home.

But he never did.

The test was going very well.

I think Frank was full of the joys of
spring and thinking, right, we're going to

go out and show them we
can win the world championship.

He was due to run a half marathon
on the Sunday morning afterwards.

Frank, keen to get back.

There was a half
marathon he was doing.

It was a county half marathon.

He was that good.

And so he and Peter
Windsor, who was the marketing

guy at the time, they
went to the airport.

And he had his Avis Ford Sierra.

He said, right,
come on, let's go.

And then a spot of get-home.

I've never heard
of get-home-itis.

When you want to just get home.

You've got to go home, must you?

Must catch the last flight.

He took a little twiddly row down
through the back of the circuit.

And it was a very,
very twisty, narrow road.

And he was in this
1600 Sierra, throwing the

thing around, braking
as late as he could.

I do remember saying to Frank at one
moment when the back end skipped out under

braking into a tight left-hander, are
the brakes OK on this thing, Frank?

And he said, with a sense of trepidation,
Frank, you always drive like this,

and beating, and you
can't really tell your bosses.

If it was, slow down.

I remember him saying, yeah,
yeah, brakes are fine, brakes are fine.

I was rushing and
rushing and rushing.

Suddenly, we were in Clear Road.

The road was downhill,
and there was a fast

left-hand kink about
300 yards ahead of us.

And I remember seeing through the
windscreen a stone wall on the inside.

It looked like we were just
going to hit the end of this wall.

My reaction was just to bury
myself in the footwell area.

As we hit the back of that
wall, the car went up in the air.

There was just silence.

Just a terrible silence.

Then this massive
thump and crash.

There was really a
whack in my neck.

Sharp, sharp, pain, pain.

Rolling over
doesn't hurt like this.

I remember Frank saying, after about
10 seconds, are you OK, are you OK?

I can't move, I'm
trapped, I'm trapped.

Get me out, get the ignition
off, get the ignition off.

Because already there
was a smell of fuel.

I'm suspended about three,
four inches from the floor.

Upside down.

And there was a lot of blood,
because he'd taken a direct

blow on his head when the
roof had come down like that.

Sue undid the belt, so of course I fell on
my bleeding head right on my neck again.

The only thing I could remember was to try
to stabilise his head and neck and try to

pull him out by holding
him under the armpit.

And then he started to say, you
know, Peter, I'm a Roman Catholic and if

anything happens, I want to
see if we can get the last rights.

We were just looking
at packing up when a

French youth arrived on
a moped asking for me.

And he explained that Frank Williams
had gone off the road and wanted some help.

But Nelson said, oh
shit, that's a twisty road.

I know the road,
let's go down and see.

We didn't know exactly the damage, but
we knew it was something very dramatic.

We raced to the scene
as quickly as we could.

And at that time, Frank's
life was in the balance.

And that's when Nigel delegated himself
really to go into the ambulance with

Frank, basically hold
Frank's hand and be with him.

I had a tremendous fear for Frank's safety
and his wellbeing and life at that time.

So certain people needed to be
energised to do the right thing quickly.

But by then it was
pretty clear that there was

a very good chance
that he's broken his neck.

When I phoned Patrick Head, I told
him that it looks like from the X-rays that

Frank's spinal
column has been cut.

And it was pretty...

I think I said to him,
I think he's fucked.

Like, you know, he
looked really bad.

The next day, Ginny and I flew
down to Michigan, to Marseille,

and she was pretty shattered,
but she was a brave woman.

I was trying to
fight panic, I think.

He was cleaning
on to life by a thread.

I threw myself at Peter.

I think I did.

I sort of collapsed
on his shoulder.

The first time that I knew that
things were going to be really serious,

was when the doctor in charge of the
intensive care unit called Ginny and I

into his office and said, when do you
want to move Frank back to England?

Which I immediately took
to mean they think he's going

to die and they don't want
him to die in their hospital.

He said to me, just
how much more effort do

you want us to make to
keep your husband alive?

Sort of crossly.

If anybody's crossing me, I
tend to be crossing them back.

It's my only method of defence.

I think he thought that
he should be left to die.

So I said that.

I told him to make every
bloody effort that he could.

At that stage, when Ginny got the message
that the frogs were going to let Frank

die, she organised a plane,
flew him back to Heathrow.

An ambulance took him
to the London hospital.

20 minutes later, he was
hooked up to English machines.

And he was in a shocking state.

Shocking state.

The first thing that happened to
Frank was that he had a tracheotomy.

Operation in the
London hospital.

And the operation went
well in the sense that

suddenly Frank had
relief and he could breathe.

He could get the
fluid out of his lungs.

And I remember Ginny
learnt how to operate the

extraction of the fluid
and would help the nurses.

And was able to do that on
her own within a day or two.

Her approach was, I'm
going to manage these nurses

around Frank's bed here the
way Frank runs a race team.

I also wanted to mark my corner.

I wanted to make it quite clear.

It was that sort of, like a dog.

I mean, almost
that sort of feeling.

You know, a dog
marks its territory.

I wanted to make it quite
clear this was my territory.

Ginny was literally
his guardian.

He clinically died three times.

And without Ginny jumping on top
of him and pumping his lungs out and

resuscitating him, not
the nurses and the doctors,

but Ginny herself, he
would have been dead.

I remember I was often told, and Ginny was
on duty, as she called it, the head of the

unit came out and said, normally,
Mrs. Williams, in this situation,

we would turn
the life support off.

But we need the
family's permission.

And I asked Peter whether, does
he think we should let Frank die?

But he said, Ginny,
no, Frank wants to live.

He'll have to make major
adjustments, but he has his children.

There are trees,
there is sunshine.

He's a determined character.

Everybody loves him.

He's very special.

He won't want us
to give up that easily.

Did you ever doubt whether
Frank should be kept alive?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I actually said to him,
Frank, I'm your best pal.

I'll do anything for you.

You want a bang over your head?

I'll do it for you.

I promise you, I said this.

I said, but you'd have to convince
me first why your kids want you around.

In any condition.

I said, don't ask me to do anything
that your kids wouldn't approve of.

So he said, I won't
do that, David.

That was when he was speaking.

He said, I'll never do that.

So this is a book that I
wrote when I was little.

I wrote, I thought that
it would be a good idea

to start a kind of scrapbook
all about my father.

Above all, I wanted somewhere
to write down all my memories

of him before my mind had
the chance to forget them.

Hopefully, I'll never forget what he
used to be like before his accident.

Everyone thinks
their father is the best.

I'm not an exception.

I worship my father.

It sounds silly,
but he's my hero.

I started taking CDs
and things like that for

him to listen to, to
fill in the time a bit.

Because you have to remember,
he was a marathon runner.

You know, he used to run 12 miles
every day and felt bad if he didn't.

And it was a
spectacular experience.

It was actually a big change of life
for Frank when he had his accident.

And so what kind of music
did you introduce him to?

Bach.

Well, I thought that my
pal Frank was indestructible.

You know, he got
away with everything.

Frank would be all right,
but he wasn't on this one.

And I'd go and see him
three or four times a week.

I always gave him a kiss.

I had to.

Lean over, give him a kiss on the forehead
and say, your old mate Brode's here, mate.

And he used to
flicker his eyelids.

He couldn't speak.

Stuff in his mouth, up his nose.

That was a horrible sight.

I mean, I was in a lot of discomfort
and pain in the very early days.

That's just inevitable when such a major
part of your body gets a kick in the arse.

But I can't say what was...

It's not in my mind.

I don't remember much of that.

The body's got a great
many ways of protecting

itself when there's a
bit of pain or bother.

First thing I said,
broken your neck.

Long recovery period.

How much you'll
recover isn't sure.

Of course, they knew
I wouldn't recover.

But you don't quite tell a person when
he wakes up your arse, mate, for good.

Probably for the first time in
front of me, Virginia, she lost it.

It was a sort of
an awful moment.

And I remember putting my arms round her
and she was saying, Frank's going to be...

He's quadriplegic.

He can't walk, Jamie.

He can't do anything.

And I was saying,
it's going to be OK.

But I had this sort of feeling, I wasn't
sure at all that it was going to be OK.

For a long time, maybe three, four months
after the accident, there was no real

certainty that he'd ever be
able to leave the hospital.

And to all intents and purposes,
he was dead to the team.

You know, there we were.

We were the fastest car.

We were going to
win all the races.

We got two fantastic drivers
and everything was going.

And then all of a sudden,
the boss, the figurehead,

the main man, had
had this horrific accident.

And it really was
a massive change.

I think then it sort of dawned on
us all, where do we go from here?

What's going to happen in 86?

We await the start of the Brazilian
Grand Prix in the 1986 season.

Sadly, Frank Williams, boss
of the Williams team, isn't here.

After a major road
accident in France.

But for the whole team, that's
an added incentive to do well.

Well, they went to
work with a vengeance.

Instead of them all moping
about, they said, you tell

Frank, he doesn't have
to worry about a thing here.

We're going to win
the next races for him.

And it's go.

A superb start for Nigel Mansell,
who has already passed Nelson Piquet.

And it's Senna, Mansell, Piquet is the
running order at the present moment.

Mansell's touching
wheels with Ayrton Senna.

We went to the first race and
Nigel crashed on the first lap

whilst trying to overtake
Senna in a very stupid maneuver.

Mansell appears
to be out of the race.

So up into second
position, it's now Piquet.

Now Moretto is
up into third place.

And through into the
lead goes Nelson Piquet.

Nelson Piquet
leads on lap three.

This one is for you, Frank.

Nelson Piquet wins the
1986 Brazilian Grand Prix.

And you will hear the
crowd go absolutely mad.

I can say it was a
very special day for me.

I think it's a good
present for Frank.

I think he's there lying in bed.

And I think he'll be
happy to watch the race.

And we hope God
help Frank Olsen.

It was clear we
had the best car.

And the only thing that was going to come
between us and winning the championship

was lots of intra-team rivalry
between Nelson and Nigel.

I think that was used
actually to motivate Frank.

We need you, Frank, to manage
these two guys because there's

going to be problems if we
just let them race free rein.

And we need to get on
top of this quite quickly.

Nelson claimed that Frank had
said, you will be number one driver.

You will always
have the spare car.

And the team will
revolve around you.

I came there to win
the championship.

I came there as a
number one driver.

Problem was, Nigel didn't
sign as a number two driver.

So he drove as fast as he could.

And quite a lot of the time, that
was faster than Nelson was going.

Nigel used to drive straight at him
because Nigel was pretty aggressive.

I mean, a couple of times, Nelson said
to me, I had two choices, be second or die.

I must have been a
nightmare to drive with as

a number two, being as
quick as I was at times.

I mean, that was horrendous.

You know, they hated each other.

Nelson insisted that we went into the
hospital and saw an almost dead croaking

Frank saying, Frank, you said that this
and whatever and Patrick is running the

team so that we're equal number ones with
Nigel and that's not what you said to me.

And Frank was... I mean, I don't
think Frank could reply to him.

He was almost out of it.

When things didn't go as well as they
should have for Nelson, in other words,

when Nigel was quicker, Nelson
assumed that it could only be because Nigel

Mansell had been given
preferential treatment.

100% the English team
want to win the English driver.

Williams for sure wanted to make
the English champion, not me.

Nelson thinks that there was a bias
towards Nigel because he was British.

I think that's not true.

There could have been, but
Nigel was such an arse that

it was very difficult to
have an actual bias to him.

I mean, on one occasion, I do remember
he was whinging about something.

Oh, did he see what
he did to me then?

On the radio.

And Patrick said on
the radio, for fuck's sake,

stop whinging, Nigel,
and switched his radio off.

Patrick carried the
business by absence.

It was very hard on him.

Paddy was left numbered
with an enormous

amount of responsibility
he wasn't ready for.

I was up to my eyebrows
with two guys that both were

dead and determined to
be world champion that year.

And were not going to take for me
saying, sorry, I can't make a decent job of

running your car because I'm
too worried about Frank Williams.

So it was a very stressful,
very difficult time in the team.

And everything went
completely disaster for me.

But Frank was not there.

And I couldn't come
to the hospital and say,

Frank, it's happened
this, it's happened that.

It's not fair.

His problem was much
more than my problem.

Frank was still in
intensive care and he

remained in intensive
care for quite a time.

And it was another, I think it was 12
weeks before he eventually came home.

But they were the longest
weeks you could imagine.

We all were just relieved
and thrilled that Dad

made it and he was home
and we got him home.

Yes, it was a
very difficult time.

It was a very
different kind of life.

But we had Dad still.

And we were a family still.

And he still had Formula One.

And that's what kept him going.

Frank Williams is quadriplegic.

From his shoulders down, he has no
control over the functions of his own body.

Less than six months after the accident,
he had ruthlessly forced enough movement

into his partly functioning
shoulders to push himself along.

But his arms are just pistons of
flesh and bone, with no feeling.

He's paralysed from his
shoulders, literally downwards.

He can lift his arms and he can, for
example, if he wants to crash him in

his face, he pushes his
hands against his face.

But he can't use his fingers.

Why does it say
hell on the wheel?

It's because Dad's life
is hell in a wheelchair.

He's always in a lot
of pain all the time.

I don't think people realise
that, how much pain Frank

is in every day of his life,
every minute of every day.

You wouldn't know
it, though, would you?

No.

He wouldn't think he has
anything to complain about.

Dad never does think he has
anything to complain about.

It's a lovely picture of Mum
and... Well, I'm not so good at Dad.

Lovely of Mum.

And what about Ginny?

How did Ginny react?

I don't know.

Well, she's a tough,
tough, very tough lady.

But she didn't fall apart.

She took very good care of me.

It must have been
very hard for her.

Suddenly not to have a
proper husband any more.

And they have to spend
all the time looking after him.

It's very difficult for anyone who hasn't
lived with a quadriplegic to know what

it's like to almost lose
your husband, but not quite.

Whatever was it like not
being able to sleep with Frank?

I mean, we're not
talking about sex here.

We're just...

You're an old husband.

Yes.

I can just remember thinking, my God,
not to sleep the same day with Frank.

It's not fine.

Although I'd spent lots of nights without
him in my life because he'd been away,

the reality was hitting me.

I'd probably never spend
a night with him again.

Well, their relationship
clearly was likely to change in

that Frank needed care at
all times of the day and night.

So if it was a different
kind of life for Frank, it was

going to be an equally
different kind of life for Virginia.

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, both before and after the car

accident which left him permanently
paralysed from the neck down.

I felt it might act as an
exorcism, a way to put

it all behind me and
start to look forward again.

Reading it, it was
like, Jesus Christ, she

went through this and
she didn't tell anyone.

You know, she didn't share
that burden with anybody.

Why do you think
she shared it then?

She says that it was a
cathartic exercise for her.

Because Dad's
the star, isn't he?

Dad's the one in the spotlight
and Dad's the one that everyone

goes, Frank Williams is amazing,
Frank Williams is wonderful.

And for all those years, Mum
had been in the background.

I didn't think she did it.

She didn't want to do it because
she wanted fame or adulation.

She just did it because she
wanted... people to know the full story.

His memory of the early days after
his accident is blurred and vague.

He has never asked me what it was like
in France or in the London hospital or what

it has been like for me
these past few years.

Now he will know.

Have you... have
you read a book?

No, I don't want to.

Why do you not want to read it?

Then that's a peculiar emotion.

I think I would
like him to read it.

Because I think that
it would be respectful

to Mum to understand
what she did go through.

But I just, you know, I think...

I don't know, I just think it's
probably too much for Dad to read it.

He doesn't feel any need to.

But I wish he would.

Do you think you
ever will read it?

Maybe.

Before I die, but not
imminently, that's for sure.

That picture must be Frank's
first Grand Prix after his accident.

Big change of
life for all of us.

When Frank appeared in the
wheelchair, the crowd just went crazy.

Back at the track, Frank
Williams savoured his

team's success for the
first time this season.

PK and Mansell took first
and third places in practice.

He did a really sort of symbolic visit, but
he was determined to be there because

he wanted the world of
Formula One to know that he

was still around and
ostensibly still in control.

But he played no part at all and
was very much a show appearance.

But my father only attended
on the Friday, the practice

day, and that was all
he was physically up for.

The lights for red and go!

And PK leads.

Mansell is second
in two clear ways.

The two Williams cars in
their battle for leadership,

toe to toe, eyeball to
eyeball, almost wheel to wheel.

Nelson and Nigel really, really
started to slug it out with one another.

Nigel wasn't afraid to be half an inch, an
inch away from anybody if he had to be.

And he was.

And it was serious motor racing
between the two Williams Honda drivers.

And there he goes.

Nigel Mansell leads
the British Grand Prix

from the man that is
his greatest competition.

PK's going for it as they go
down into the right-hander.

And panic.

And Mansell's absolutely
on the racing line.

There are no orders
between these two.

On the pit wall, that was
the first time I remember

not actually enjoying the
race because I was so sweaty.

I was sweaty palmed as to what
might happen between the two of them.

And I think Frank was back
home watching it on TV probably

as nervous as the rest of
the team was at that point.

PK going through on the inside but
he's going to be blocked and he has been.

And Mansell holds the lead.

Great stuff.

Nigel Mansell
exits the last corner.

Crosses the line.

And Mansell is the winner.

Great stuff.

Wonderful drive.

But he's left.

He is.

And just listen to the crowd.

After the race, it
wasn't normal for a team

manager or team representative
to be on the podium.

But on this occasion, because Frank had
been there for the test and because it was

Nigel and because it was
Brands Hatch, Ginny was invited

up to take the Constructors'
Trophy on behalf of Frank.

Now, behind Emma Frost,
the woman is Ginny Williams.

You'll just see her
in a minute, I expect.

There's Ginny Williams and Patrick Head,
the designer of the winning Williams car.

Oh, what a day.

And there is Ginny
holding up the trophy.

To me, that photograph is one of my
favourite photographs of Ginny because

she's got this expression on
her face where it's just like, yes!

It was a tremendous moment because
of what Ginny had gone through.

Because the accident just didn't
happen to Frank, it happened to everybody.

But the closest person it
happened to was his dear wife.

Hi, Preston.

How you doing there?

Jimmy Topp, the new.

Biggles under control, is he?

Very hard work, isn't it?

If you can only say
that I was looking for

him, it's not urgent,
you can call me tonight.

OK.

And the best therapy Frank ever had was
being back at his desk with a phone that

Nelson gave him, actually, which allowed
him to tap numbers on, big numbers on a

pad, and he had a headset on,
and make his own phone calls.

Mentally, he said, so
long as I'm on the phone,

so long as I can talk,
I'm going motor racing.

This is called Basil Hill Road.

It's an exotic place in
the middle of nowhere.

Thank you.

Mentally, how do you think
the disability has affected Frank?

I did ask him a couple of times when we
were alone in the car if sometimes things

are running again and stuff like that, but
he said he gave that thought up completely.

He's completely in
peace with the situation

and I think this is also
what you get from him.

He's not sitting there and thinks,
oh, shit, I should have, I should have.

Just got on with it.

I can truthfully, and I'm not bragging,
I had a major business on my mind,

a racing team, because I
have a hard-on all my life.

It's like having a
hard-on all your life.

I'm like, do you want
to listen to what I do?

I run a real pre-team.

I run a real pre-team.

I run racing cars and
world-famous drivers all of the time.

I think it's a great privilege.

It's Jamie's
birthday today, Dad.

Dad, you need to choose
which card you want to give him.

It's on my finger.

I'm about 28.

He's about 32,
actually, don't you know?

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's my signature.

It's a bit drunk, but...

Jamie.

You know, I don't... It took
Dad two hours to do this, Jamie.

So Dad always gives
us money for birthdays.

All the time.

I'll give you some money.

I'll give you money.

You're giving him money.

I've organised it.

So if Dad had his way,
because he has no idea how...

the value of money anymore, because
he hasn't been into a shop for about...

45 years, he would
give us all 50p.

That's absolutely untrue.

It is true.

But you don't really know what
things cost anymore, do you?

Not really, no.

How much does...
a newspaper cost?

Um, what do... 15 pence.

15 pence?

I personally just wanted to say, along
with, I know, my Dad, just thank you

so much for all the work that
you've done... so far this year.

I know it's been a really, really
long season for everybody.

I know maybe there's a little bit of
disappointment that we weren't a little

bit better this year, but I think
everybody needs to really remember where

we came from, and it's only been two years
since we were ninth in the Championship.

When Williams were third in the
Championship in Abu Dhabi, I went into the

garage at the end of the race,
and I stood at the back until the TV

cameras had finished with Claire,
and I said, I think Mum is in here.

And she's watching over
you, and she's thrilled.

Just saying to Dad, it feels like
forever since she's been gone.

I think Mum would have been a
brilliant team principal, you know?

I think she would have
been probably the best team

principal Formula One had
ever seen if you'd just let her.

I think secretly she would
have quite liked to have been TP.

Nell was an extremely
good race engineer.

Nell was his car setter.

He had a very good set-up.

He was going to get in the car, and
perhaps everybody's going to have the

new automatic transmissions, and,
you know, there are things that you're

just going to be just one
step behind everybody else.

Virginia was diagnosed with
cancer in the summer of 2010.

I think she knew in her
heart of hearts that it was

going to get her, and it
was just a question of when.

She was sort of taken for
granted inasmuch as, you know,

she was hale-hearty and fit
and well and Frank wasn't.

So it was not in anyone's
mind, I guess, that

she was as vulnerable
as she obviously was.

I miss her.

She was a lovely lady.

And I don't know how Frank
copes without her because he

doesn't have a lot of people
to go home to talk to anymore.

It's quite sad, really.

I think it affected
him very deeply, more

deeply possibly, than
he would have imagined.

And I think that he
probably came after her

death to realize just
how much he loved her.

She was the foundation of
Frank's life outside motor racing.

It was the only thing, you know.

And he did say, I'm not
bothering to go home anymore.

Now, Ginny's gone.

He was just sleeping
in his flat in the factory.

He didn't bother to go home.

Why bother?

I think I kept down the card.

Now, the card was
most likely to wake.

Down the card or in the factory?

Yeah.

How are you?

Good, actually.

Pretty nicely covered.

It's lovely and warm
in here for you, Dad.

Turn the heating up.

Well, you haven't read
the book, have you, Pops?

Yeah.

I must make the
effort to do so, yeah.

You should.

You should make the effort.

It's an amazing book.

So you must read it.

Yeah, I will.

Yeah, OK.

You should do.

Although it is quite sad.

It is quite sad.

Sometimes I dream that Frank is
running through the Berkshire Lanes.

Everything is alright.

Early in the morning in that split second
between sleeping and waking, I sometimes

forget, as one might forget what
day it is, that Frank is paralysed.

Then the knife blade
of reality twists sharply

in my stomach, jerking
me back to the present.

How must Frank feel in that same
moment of semi-consciousness?

What a nightmare to wake up to, to
be a prisoner within your own body,

not even to be able to get out of
bed until someone else moves you.

Frank also dreams.

He says that usually in his
dreams, too, he is running.

He has made a magical recovery and
everyone is astonished to see him return

to fitness and turns to
watch as he races past them.

We are, and always have been,
two quite different characters.

Frank has never wasted
his time bemoaning the past.

It is one of his many strengths.

The past means nothing to him,
whether it's a world championship won or

lost, or a road accident
that crippled him.

It's yesterday, it's boring.

Today and tomorrow, what counts?

I, in contrast, am
happiest with the past.

I prefer the past to the future.

That frightens me now.

What happened to my dreams?

I wanted us to
grow all together.

I wanted to die in Frank's arms.

I'm going to stop crying.

We have both grown as
a result of the experience.

But if a fairy godmother offered to wave
her hand, her magic wand, and take us back

to the way things were when I first married
Frank, I would not hesitate for a second.

I would happily exchange the houses,
the executive jets, the smart hotel rooms,

the gold Rolexes, for just one night in a
scruffy bedroom anywhere in the world with

the selfish, funny, unsympathetic,
unreliable, charismatic man I married.

I laugh much
more than I used to.

It helps to stop me crying.

It's a tough story for him.

I haven't read it
since Mom died.

And it's about how she will go to her grave
heartbroken over what happened to you.

You should be very proud.

I still think that somehow he was happier
in those struggling days than he was in

the days when we were flying the
flag at everyone and winning every race.

Sounds odd to say, but I
think he does need a challenge.

I think he thrived on it.

He's in racing to be in racing.

I think he's in it
for the love of it.

What about going to the races?

Do you think you'll still be able
to go to the Grand Prix's this year?

Why not?

I don't know.

Doctor's orders.

I'm fine.

I'm in paradise, but I'm in...

I probably... I spent...

I haven't had a day
off work in years.

I just don't get it all.

Never have done.

Frank's personality
hasn't changed.

What he can physically do has.

But his approach to his racing, his
love of Formula One, his obsession

with it is just the same now as it
has been as long as I've known him.

So how does a
man like that retire?

He's not going to retire.

He's going to die on the job.

Well, Frank will never stop.

He will stop when
he closes his eyes.

Do you think you'll see Williams
on top again in your lifetime?

Yes, certainly possible.