The once familiar figure of Claire Williams in the Formula 1 paddock, has not been around those parts since she resigned as boss of the team her father Sir Frank built. She doesn't even watch it on TV because the pain still lingers.
From humble beginnings, scraping pennies to go racing history shows that, since those barrel-scraping days, Frank Williams and Patrick Head masterminded one of the mightiest winning teams in Formula 1 history, as their 114 victories, 16 F1 Drivers’ and F1 Constructors’ world titles testify.
But since their last two titles in 1997 when Jacques Villeneuve won for them, and with Damon Hill together they claimed the team's final F1 Constructors' winner's trophy. As time marched on, first Patrick eventually departed, and then Sir Frank handed over its running to his daughter.
Her time in charge is probably due Netflix mini-series as even from the outside it is a blockbuster needing to be told. The journey began after a spell in communications and investor relations for her Dad's team before in March 2013, she was made deputy team principal. This made her acting team boss as Sir Frank became more of a figurehead to look up to.
But results were not forthcoming, sponsors began to bail and money started to become an issue as the years marched on. A bitter blow suffered by the team was the failure of Paddy Lowe as the technical boss expected to take the team back to its superpower status in F1.
History shows he failed miserably and basically broke the team Sir Frank and Patrick built before he and his failed cabal of engineers left the building. Claire eventually decided it was time to sell and quit as team boss in 2020, following the sale of the Grove-based operation to Dorilton Capital for $175-million. A year later Sir Frank passed away.
Sir Frank and Patrick Head built one of the mightiest F1 teams ever
Speaking for the first time in a long while, to PA Media 47-year-old Williams spoke of life after F1: “You just have to find something to put in its place. But it was very difficult then and three years on, it is still really hard.
“It is just one of those griefs that are really difficult to get over or to come to terms with. Now we have lost Dad, it sometimes feels as though it was just a dream. Did that period in our lives really happen?”
Sir Frank oversaw 114 victories, 16 F1 drivers’ and F1 constructors’ world championships and became the longest-serving team boss in the sport’s history. His death-defying car crash, which left him severely paralysed. His story from them is legendary, as he defied the oddds to oversee his team at their height.
But as Frank aged, his disability increasingly challenging for him to run the team, Claire was assigned the role of acting team principal for Williams. By then the team was already in steady decline. Fittingly though, the last GP victory scored by them in F1 was during her watch. When Pastor Maldonado famously won the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix.
But that was a mirage in a desert of poor results, which rendered the once Greatest F1 Team to backmarker status. Unfathomable for those around to witness how potent Williams were at their height.
Claire: We kept everyone in jobs, no administration, I'm very proud of that
Looking back on her time in charge and the final days of their ownership of the team, Williams recalled: “There was so much that went on in those last few years, which to this day I will never be able to talk about. But I saw the team through three very difficult seasons.
"I was able to hand over something that was still living and still breathing to someone with deeper pockets than us. We kept everyone in jobs, we didn’t go into administration and I am very proud of that. When I have challenging circumstances I bury my head in jobs and when we sold Williams, my next concern was, where did Dad go?
“As much as Dorilton were kind enough to say he could always live at the factory, I needed him close to me. And coincidentally the house next door to us came up for sale, so we moved Dad in. I managed his care team. I made sure he was happy and comfortable in his new home and we went off and did some nice stuff together. He would pick up my little one, Nate, from nursery.
“But then he got sicker, greater care was required to look after him and he passed away. But for the next six months, we organised this wonderful memorial service. We then decided to move house, renovating our old house in Ascot and our new home in South Downs.
“So, I am the master of distraction. Life carries on. And as much as I miss Williams, and I miss Formula One dreadfully, there is a whole other world out there. You have to go and find happy elsewhere. That is what I have done.”
Claire: I tried watching the last F1 race, I lasted five minutes
Understandably, Claire does not watch F1 on TV, not good for her current stressless state but she admitted a peek recently: “I turned on the TV to see Alex had scored a point in Australia earlier this year. Ted’s Notebook was on and Ted [Kravitz] grabbed James and said: Mate, congratulations, you are only Williams’ third team principal and you have got a point. How does it feel?
“And I was like, third team principal? That is Frank, that is Jost [Capito] and that is James, what about me? Ted has just cancelled me on national television! I may not have been called team principal but I operated that way and I have literally just been erased. I turned it straight off and vowed never to watch again."
However, the pain still lingers: "I tried watching the last race at Silverstone. I thought to myself: Right, I am going to do this. Come on. But I watched the formation lap and that was that. I lasted five minutes.
“I don’t know what it is, but if you talk to any person who has worked, lived and breathed Formula 1 – no matter if that is for 20 years or 20 minutes – it does something to you. It absorbs you, and when you leave, particularly involuntary like I did, it is very difficult to watch it and not feel that loss.”
Claire remains the Williams Advanced Engineering ambassador for the team and earlier this year, she launched the Frank Williams Academy aimed to educate and train those affected by spinal cord injuries.
She also told PA Media that Sky F1 opened a door for a punditry position with their team, but Claire was not ready: “It was too soon. It is better when you leave, you leave. Unless someone said to me: Come back and be a team principal and you can have Williams back.
"I don’t necessarily think there is a job I would want, but never say never," added Claire.
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