WEBVTT - Williams - The Episode Michael's Been Waiting For 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:08.039 So today I feel like I need, like I don't know, 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:11.160 I need, I need inspirational music playing because today we're 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:18.279 getting to a very anticipated team, and that is Williams. Williams. 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:20.880 We got there. And why is it just because I've 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:23.920 just always it's always piqued my interest. It's you know, 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:29.600 Williams is interesting. They're the perfect example of being okay, 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:32.320 you would make probably a good like NFL or MLB 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:35.040 or some sort of Big four sports reference here. They 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:36.960 are one of the worst teams on the grid currently 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:39.839 but have one of the most like die hard biggest 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:45.120 fan bases. Are the Mets a good equivalent. I don't know, yeah, probably, sorry, 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:47.760 I'm sorry my dad who's a Mets fans, But Williams 0:00:47.920 --> 0:00:51.320 used to be very yes, and the Mets too, So yeah, 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:54.200 that's fair. Yes, okay, I'm glad I nailed that. I 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:56.840 know nothing about the Mets. Apologies to any Mets fans 0:00:56.880 --> 0:01:00.200 who are extremely mad at me now, but so so yes. 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:03.000 So Williams currently one of the worst teams on the grid, 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:06.160 however also one of the most historic, also the one 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:09.840 of the winning ist throughout their their time in Formula one. 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:13.000 What's really fascinating about Williams. That will get into is 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:17.480 that they are a pure hardcore Formula one only team. 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:19.800 We've got that sort of chip on their shoulder going on. 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:24.039 We've got a team founder who was so singularly focused 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:26.440 on this team that he sort of neglected every other 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:28.760 part of his life. And yeah, and we've got a 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:31.759 lot of history. So today on Choosing Sides of One, 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:35.440 we are diving into Williams. Finally. I know this is 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:45.120 a big, a big, big moment for you from I 0:01:45.240 --> 0:02:00.720 Heart Radio and Sports Illustrated Studios. This is Choosing Sides one. Wow, Michael. 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:05.720 We've talked about how you know teams like Mercedes are 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:07.800 on the grid partially because they are a large scale 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:11.880 car manufacturer. Aston Martin obviously has a car brand attached, 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:14.440 you know, Red Bull, not a car manufacturer. But you 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:15.960 get what they are trying to sell you, and that 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:20.520 is touring filled energy drinks. I will never live down 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:22.720 the fact that we know what is what what equatoring 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:25.680 is at this point Alpha Tawy. They sell you clothing. 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:29.400 Williams is not is not here for anything else. They 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:32.120 are they are just here for the F one fund. 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:36.280 So Williams at the center of Williams is its namesake, 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:41.520 Sir Frank Williams, he is knighted, he is British, and 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:46.240 Sir Frank Williams started off having a very very brief 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:49.840 racing career as a as a driver and pretty quickly 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:53.200 realized he was just not cut out for the driving lifestyle. 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:56.640 Though he loved cars, he loved racing, but he he 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:59.959 found that his strengths would be better suited to build 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:02.800 and manage a team rather than be the one in 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:07.520 the car. So he found what's called Frank Williams Racing Cars. 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:10.960 He started. He actually bought a Formula one car from 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:13.120 another team and I told them, now, I'm just going 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:15.000 to use this in retrofit it for a different racing 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:17.280 series and then you like put a driver in it 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:19.639 to drive an F one, which no doubt piste off 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:25.040 the the other teams leadership for very obvious reasons. And 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:27.400 at that the time you know, he had it was small, 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:30.200 it was obviously a very scrappy outfit and had a 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:32.480 bunch of different struggles. On top of that, a major 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:35.480 tragedy at the time was that one of Frank williams 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.960 good friends, Piers Courage, very fun name not as good 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:42.360 as Scott speed but solid, but unfortunately Pierce Courage he 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:45.480 was kind of the driver for version one Williams team. 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:48.880 He dies in one of the cars in nineteen seventy, 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:53.120 so that is is obviously sad Frank Williams. After this 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:54.800 point we kind of talked about this a little bit 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:57.480 with Enzo Ferrari. He does start to distance himself a 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:00.760 little bit, trying to draw that compare us. And also, 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:03.960 I love any story like this, not where someone's dead, obviously, 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:08.600 but it never just happens right away. This success everyone 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:12.480 who's listening that millions of people. It's effort, it's years, 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:16.880 it's time. Yeah, so obviously, yeah, like tragedy occurs, all 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:19.640 these other things happen, and the team is always kind 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:22.400 of struggling, like it's it's it's not really taking off. 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:26.400 And so by around nine or you know, six seven 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:30.119 years later, uh, they need money. Well, Frank Williams always 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:32.080 a need of money is like the ongoing theme here, 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:35.200 and so he partners with a Canadian billionaire named Walter Wolf, 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:38.800 who ends up owning a sixty stake in Frank Williams 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:41.440 adventure And what does he do with that? Replace Frank 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:43.520 Williams as the head of the team by the end 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:47.680 of the season, a wolf in sheep's clothing. Yes, cut 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:51.760 that up. Yeah, okay, thanks for that. So that sucks. 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:55.760 So Sir Frank Williams starts Williams ten years or so, 0:04:56.480 --> 0:05:00.559 Grinds does his best, has needs money, so gives Walter 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:03.279 Wolf a majority steak and Walter Wolf cuts his ass. 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:06.479 Yes dirty, also real like l O l j K moment. 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:09.720 So Frank and a young engineer from his original team, 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:12.320 this guy Patrick Head. They're like, if it, we're going 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:15.560 to create another another team, like it's gonna be us 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:18.480 great And so that actually starts yet the Williams that 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:21.920 we know today. So yeah, this is the late seventies. 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:25.640 They immediately get the reputation for being very scrappy, very 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:27.960 low blow budget and because they don't have the money, 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:31.440 very innovative because they have to find wacky, weird ways 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:34.720 to stretch their budget to make things work. It was 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:41.520 this sort of shoes string inventive innovative operation. This is 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:45.640 Williams super fan bird Pinkerton. They would be doing these 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:52.040 wild cookie hijinks essentially to their car, like trying new 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:55.400 aerodynamic things, like in some ways the cars that we 0:05:55.520 --> 0:06:01.200 have today. Oh a lot to the like experimentation and 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:05.279 just surprising ideas of sort of Williams of old. They 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:07.919 have nothing else going for them. They have nothing to lose, 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:11.320 you know, they're not sitting upon billions and billions of dollars. 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:13.120 So they kind of used that to play around with it, 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:16.640 and it actually starts working out for them. I'm punching through. 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:20.640 It's Clay Riggat Serny taking the lead. That's incredible. It's 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:25.520 the too saudio Williams Cars first corner. Williams Car wins 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:28.480 its first ever Grand Prix in nineteen seventy nine. Another 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:32.119 great thing happened in nineteen seventy nine, Michael Costa was born. 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:34.760 I think this was meant to be you and Williams, 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:42.440 your birth through the birth of my mother's canal. Okay, 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:47.719 uh so, so Williams is now one its first nineteen 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:51.520 seventy nine, roughly ten years since they started in a 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:54.640 lot of different adversity and a death and firing and 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:57.240 a new company. Okay, well, so they just start killing 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:00.880 it in the eighties. They win the nineteen eighty World Championship. 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:02.840 This sets off. I think it's seventeen or eighteen years 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:06.200 of on and off Williams is picking up everything right there, 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:09.960 constantly in the hunt for race wins, for you know, 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:13.960 for the championship, for on both the constructor and the 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:16.640 driver's side. So this is all going on up. This 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:20.320 is Sir Frank Williams's professional life. It's it's very well 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:23.280 known and it's been documented that he was very singularly 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:28.320 focused on his F one team. We have a certain way, 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:31.840 a modus operan by a way of operating, and that 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:35.640 is a fairly informal manner, but it does achieve under 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:39.440 these very difficult conditions, very long hours, does achieve the 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:42.640 right results, and that's how I operate. His wife, Virginia Williams, 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:48.360 talks about like she gave him eight pounds to go 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:52.000 buy groceries and he came back with spark plugs instead. 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:54.560 Or I think on his wedding day as well, he 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:58.679 was like, I'm going to the racetrack directly after getting married. 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:02.520 He never went on any family holidays because he was 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:05.920 so obsessed with the team. What's interesting to me already 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:09.320 about this is that I would have assumed Sir Frank 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:12.920 Williams and Williams with its racing. I would have a 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:14.880 lot of money, you know, I just always said everybody 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:16.680 has a lot of money. But it sounds like they 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:19.360 kind of had a reputation as being scrappy. And you know, 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:21.600 this is Formula one, so even low budget is high 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:24.080 budget for me and you. But it doesn't sound like 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:27.960 it was one of this unlimitedly funded teams. Yeah, and 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:30.960 and they obviously went through phases of better funding than 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:32.800 other times, and especially as we know, you know, the 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:34.240 better you card does, the easier it is to get 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:36.800 sponsors or to get you know, to get more money 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:38.840 from f one. The other thing, Williams had a lot 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:40.440 of took a lot of pride, and the fact that 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:42.400 his stuff was was mostly you know, as much as 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:44.600 they could build all their own stuff, they did, which 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:46.280 considering the fact that again they are not like a 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:49.080 major car manufacturer, they don't have some other kind of 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:54.200 business elsewhere, you know, is pretty remarkable. It was this 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:58.520 project of one man and his and his colleagues and 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:02.800 they're just like law of and devotion for this specific 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:06.120 sport and everything that it could be and everything that 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:09.520 it could mean. And so I think, yes, like they're 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:11.640 at the back of the pack now, they're not where 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:16.439 they used to be, but it's there because it loves 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:22.480 racing and I love it dearly for that. What is 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:25.200 Frank Williams? What I mean, what's the money? What is 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:27.720 their okay? So I'll give some just some quick stats here. 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:33.400 So between nine and seven, Williams won nine constructors titles 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:36.480 and seven drivers titles, and so Williams was in the 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:38.600 hunt for for a lot of the titles and the 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:42.000 glory and all of that. So obviously the royal family 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:44.880 finally says, hey, he's done enough for us to say 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:46.960 that he's very impressive. And they were still when he 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:48.920 got knighted, you know, at this at this real pinnacle 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:53.600 of motorsport. So he was knighted because of Formula one. Yes, 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:56.719 he was knighted. My impression was like this this night, 0:09:57.360 --> 0:09:59.480 you know, came in and it was like I want 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:00.760 to start a form in the one team. No, it 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:03.199 was it was the Formula one that created the nighting. Yes, 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:06.160 and he was knighted in So this was again really 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:08.680 when the team was still very much at the pinnacle. 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:11.040 So it makes sense that they were like, oh, their kid, 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:13.920 they've been killing it for two decades. Let's let's hand 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:16.080 this guy something. So what was it like on it? 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:19.640 I mean, this is if he's obsessed with formula one 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:23.000 these poor kids, yes, and no, I mean I don't. 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:25.880 I don't want to psychoanalyze the individual kids. However, one 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:28.520 of his kids, one of his kids, Claire, actually does 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:31.600 start getting involved in the organization. She ends up working 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:33.760 up the leadership track, doing a lot with marketing and 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:36.640 communications for the team. And we'll talk about in a bit, 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:39.000 but she does summit to kind of this leadership role 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:41.160 on the team by by the end of her tenure. 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:45.040 So unfortunately, Williams does start running into a mix of 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:48.200 some money trouble, some leadership executive team trouble, and some 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:52.040 inconsistencies with its cars as we enter at the two thousand's. 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:53.839 You know, so if you look, if you just look 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:55.840 at their racing stats here here, it's like some years 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:58.120 are great, some years are bad, and it's kind of 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:01.040 you know, again, there's nuanced reasons for all these individual 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:04.120 examples why, but it's sort of isn't quite what it 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:07.720 was in this kind of dominating fashion in the eighties 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:11.440 and nineties, and uh, something that starts to happen because 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:15.040 money is king in cash is king and anything, but 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:17.920 especially in Formula one. Um to relate this to our 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:21.080 discussion of Land Stroll and Daddy Stroll. When we're discussing 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:24.720 Aston Martin, the team Williams has to start forming an 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:29.280 increasing reliance on pay drivers and these sort of sketchier, 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:32.920 weird sponsorship deals or other deals to to keep the 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:36.880 operation afloat. So Williams does start to again, very slowly 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:39.040 over many years, get a little bit of a reputation 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:42.960 for having one, if not more drivers who you're kind 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:46.360 of like, Okay, are they really like a merit pick? Yeah? 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:49.120 That sucks. That sucks, and I'm sure that's not their 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:51.679 first choice, but it is what it is. But as 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:53.679 I said, yeah, they continue to have a mix of 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.920 some solid years, some bad years over the next twenty years. 0:11:57.320 --> 0:12:01.440 Frank basically maintains the role of team principle, even though 0:12:01.480 --> 0:12:04.240 he's less active in it. Claire is the one who 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:06.319 kind of she's a deputy team principle, but it's kind 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:09.560 of running the show here, and she's obviously one of 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:12.360 the only women that high. Yeah, she's a very visible 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:15.240 woman in the paddock, and and you know it is 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:18.880 probably the highest ranking amongst the teams at that point. 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:22.280 So that's where where Claire comes in. Let me show 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:25.560 you actually sir Frank and Claire. Um. So you'll notice 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:28.880 so Frank Williams got into a car accident not while 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:34.160 racing in six and so he actually became a tetraplegic. 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:37.120 So you'll see him in a wheelchair six. He got 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:40.040 in the car accident, and the teams still continued to 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:44.640 to thrive. Y god, that is a lot of adversity. 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:46.920 That would be a good time to say, let me 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:51.000 rethink about my I mean that that's unbelievable. There's a 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:54.520 lot of stories in Formula one of like of there's 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:56.360 a lot of adversity that happens. There's a lot of 0:12:56.400 --> 0:13:00.520 dark ships and it's like, yeah, it's it's kind of depressing. 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:02.120 But also I wouldn't say funny, but it is a 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:05.000 depressing that everyone's like, yes, they really got got going 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:07.599 after their like five friends died in car accident, Like, 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:11.040 oh my god. Yeah, they live, they live high speed, 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:14.600 they do high speed, and when you crash at high speed, 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:16.960 there's a lot of there's a lot of problems. Yea. 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:19.160 So here's him and then there's a photo. He's in 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:21.480 a he's in a wheelchair and a lot of a 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:24.400 lot of later photos. Yeah, that is sir Frank Williams. 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:28.560 Even his wheelchair looks fast, you know. And that's his 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:34.240 daughter Claire and they're both smiling. They're looking at some results. Cool. 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:37.280 I love it. You know, it's a win win. She 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:39.040 gets to spend some time with dad. He's at the 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:43.520 garage anyways, and sounds like she's climbing up the ranks. 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:46.120 And let's go Formula one. Let's get everybody involved in 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:48.640 this sport. Yeah, there we go. So, you know, it 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:50.439 is a weird team in the sense that it is 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:54.040 it is still very much centered on a singular man, right, 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:56.800 like Frank Williams at the center of everything. There's something 0:13:56.880 --> 0:14:00.240 really appealing about this young, scrappy team. That's just they 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:02.720 just really love racing and they love Formula one racing, 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:05.120 and that that also builds them a really die hard 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:08.640 fan base. Early on money, but gets money, they get momentum. 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:14.440 Even after Frank's accident and subsequent disability, they continue to 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:16.600 win more and more for over a decade after that. 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:21.360 So it's amazing and there's something very attractive about a small, 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:24.520 scrappy group that's like, we're here to race. Yeah, that's it. 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:27.200 We're not promoting our energy drink, We're not trying to 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:30.080 get you to buy our street cars. We're here to race. Yeah, 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:33.120 they're pretty hardcore. There's like a there's a there's almost 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:35.720 like a purity to it. Well, what's that I'm now 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:38.920 paralyzed through a car accident. We're still here to race 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:41.640 and we're still gonna kick your ass exactly. And that's 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:45.040 what they do. And they're also a very British team 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:47.600 through it all sensing that, Yeah, they give you her 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:51.800 I mean, he's a night right, So yeah, they're British there, 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:55.600 you know, leaderships British, the founders British, everything's based in 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:58.600 in Britain. So how does the car even look British? 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:01.320 You know, mean because they all look the same, but 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:03.640 it just the colors, the cut, I don't know, it's 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:06.520 just it screams British to me. It's very dignified and 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:09.200 refined in a way that the Brits like to be. Yeah, 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:11.760 but also you know, we talked about Aston Martin. It 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:15.400 didn't scream British to me, even though that's a British brand. 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:19.040 Something about Williams. So we're gonna skip ahead to the 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:23.040 end of the tens again. There's some really inconsistency in 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:25.400 the twenty Tents. There's some years where you've got drivers 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:27.640 finishing P four, P five in the championship standings, and 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:29.840 you've got years where they are completely like a rock 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:33.160 sinking to the bottom of a pond, like just completely 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:37.320 every everything's aft, and they reach a real low point 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:42.840 though they finished in last place in the standings, in 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:47.280 the entire season goes by and they only earn a 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:51.040 single point to yeah, so really not good, and then 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:57.960 they finished with zero points. So there, Oh, Claire, it's 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:01.000 been a tough few months. But actually, in reality, it's 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:04.040 probably been a tough fee is if we're honest. So 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:07.480 things are looking mighty fft at this point, and you know, 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:09.720 Williams again has a lot of pride in the fact 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:13.240 that they are this family team, their family oriented, they 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:15.800 build everything themselves, and over the years they started to 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:18.800 kind of let up on that that whole ethos. But 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:20.440 you know, by the end of the twenty Tents, they 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:22.680 have to admit that things are looking really bad. If 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:25.200 they want the team to survive in any form, they're 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:27.280 going to have to sell at least some stake of it, 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:30.840 or maybe the whole thing. So the Williams family sells 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:34.600 the team to a private equity firm called Dorleton Capital, 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:38.800 office is very close to here in New York. You 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:44.080 wanted to peruse. Yeah, they sound like Darth Vader. Yeah, 0:16:44.080 --> 0:16:47.280 I know. Anytime like private equick gets involved, it's like, yeah, 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:50.880 how it starts playing. So Frank and Claire end up 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:54.760 leaving the team. This is a hard, hard business. I've 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:58.320 given it my owl, and I've done that because I've 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:01.600 wanted to protect my Emilie's legacy in this sport. I've 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:04.800 done it because I'm my dad's daughter and I felt 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:07.960 almost it was my duty to do it. However, they 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:11.360 do make a deal with the new owners, like can 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:13.080 you keep the name because you know the legacy of 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:15.240 the name. So they agree to so it's still Williams Racing, 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:18.320 despite the fact that the Williams family is not legally 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:23.640 on paper involved anymore. That's a big loss, Yeah, enormous, 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:26.000 enormous loss. People are obviously really upset. There's a lot 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:30.320 of retrospectives and then the following years. In November one, 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:34.160 Frank Williams passes away at the age. Of course he does, 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:38.280 because this was his life. It was his life, and 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:40.600 he was older and and probably had some health stuff 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:45.440 going on, but he but it doesn't it doesn't help, 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:48.880 doesn't help. So yeah, so Frank passes away, the team 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:51.080 obviously dedicates a race to him. There's a there's a 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:53.760 one minute moment of silence on the grid for this hero, 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:57.280 Sir Frank Williams in the sport so definitely left his mark. 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:01.919 Um okay, so Doralton, cap it all takes over. Williams 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:08.200 keeps the name. What happens a good question? So rolls around. 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:12.840 You know, Mercedes out here fighting for their eighth constructors 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:15.040 in World title in as many years, you know, Red 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:17.600 Bulls trying to beat them, and then you have Williams 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:19.919 like we just want to score a point, where like 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:21.879 we just want our drivers to get out of Q 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:26.240 one and qualifying, like completely different set of standards here. 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:29.280 And yes, so George Russell still on the team at 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:32.720 this point and they get some lucky breaks. So we 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:35.160 talked about with espon Ocon. He won his his first 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:38.200 Grand Prix in this very bizarre Hungarian Grand Prix where 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:40.520 it was like, yeah, like bowling pins being knocked down 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:43.200 at the start in the rain. So in that same race, 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:47.399 the two Williams drivers, George Russell and Nicholas Latifi, somehow 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:49.440 dodge all of this madness because they're at the back 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:53.480 of the grid. Yes guys, yes, yes, yes, and end 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:56.120 up being able to come in and both score points 0:18:56.200 --> 0:18:58.000 in this race. So it's the team's first points in 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:02.880 literal years. It's absolutely fantastic both causing the points. We 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:05.840 could not have expected that. Thank you so much, great job. 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:09.879 The entire team lost their goddamn minds like it was 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:14.479 life changing. They were so excited and like George Russell 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:24.040 was crying, there was because he knew what it meant. 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:29.360 Four years of this team striving and working and trying 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:34.600 for something, everything just means so much more to them. 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:39.560 And what's not to love about watching a team claw 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:45.800 their way back from a pit. It's a joy, quick 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:50.320 break and we'll be back. So this year it's been 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:52.720 a little bit tougher for Williams, but I mean new regulations. 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:55.320 They were barely barely keeping afloat with the old ones, 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:57.959 so it's definitely gonna be an adjustment period. They may 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:02.040 have to find some new some new motivation or some 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:04.159 new leadership that's going to work for them. Yeah. I mean, 0:20:04.200 --> 0:20:08.280 I don't want to call any multi bazillion dollar motorsports 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:10.119 operation a mom and pop shot, but it is a 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:12.760 mom pop shot being overtaken by drivate equity, which is, 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:15.080 you know, Americans will understand a little bit about that. 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:18.439 All right. Well, I probably am leaning towards liking the 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:24.480 old Williams as opposed to Dorleton Capital. But but it's 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:26.880 good to have all this information there you go. Yeah, 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:30.240 let's talk about drivers. I love George Russell, but he 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:34.359 doesn't race for Williams anymore. He does not, I will say, 0:20:34.400 --> 0:20:37.200 he was replaced with a driver who who I think 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:41.600 embodies a lot of the ethos at Williams. So this driver, 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:46.040 YOHI suggested a tagline of the driver with nine Lives, 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:49.399 which I think does does really have some merit to it. 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:54.280 So first driver we're talking about is Alex Alban Hi Alex. 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:57.200 Hello to Alex, his family, I will say, off the bat, 0:20:57.200 --> 0:20:59.959 they have a bijillion pets. I follow their pets Instagram. 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:02.280 It is a delightful corner of the internet. You know. 0:21:02.359 --> 0:21:05.359 Sometimes I see these accounts of like a pet of 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:08.679 a famous person. And I think, who in God's name 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:11.800 follows these accounts? Me? I follow all of them? Do 0:21:11.880 --> 0:21:15.920 I also follow Louis's dog Roscoe's account? Yes? I do so. 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:19.119 Alex's dad was a British racing driver, albeit in a 0:21:19.160 --> 0:21:22.840 completely different series. And then his mother is actually Tie 0:21:22.960 --> 0:21:26.159 and so Alex is British. Sound you know? He has 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:28.399 a British accent. He's lived in Britain for most of 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:31.480 his life. He chooses to race under the Taie flag 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:34.720 in motorsports. No ship, Yeah cool, he's respecting of his 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:38.520 mom's nationality. Yes, much love, exactly exactly. So tragedy does 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:42.280 strike for Alex. In two thousand eight, his mom gets 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:48.879 arrested and yeah, gets arrested and incarcerated for fraud. She 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:52.600 ran a ten million a nearly ten million dollar car scam. 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:56.840 What is up with these with these stories? A car scam? Yes, 0:21:57.080 --> 0:21:58.840 kind of a Ponzi scheme of buying and selling and 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:02.879 promising certain things to investors. YadA, YadA, YadA. She she 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:06.200 gets caught and and incarcerated for this, and she is 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:09.879 sentenced to six years and is released about three years later. Uh. 0:22:09.960 --> 0:22:12.160 And if you look at and Alex has talked about 0:22:12.160 --> 0:22:13.720 this only a tiny bit. He really doesn't like for 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:16.040 obvious reasons to discuss it. But if you look at 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:19.400 his racing history, he struggles during this time period where 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:22.960 understandably he has a parent who's incarcerated, which would affect 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:26.359 any very young person. Yeah for sure, Yeah, for sure. 0:22:26.440 --> 0:22:29.400 So Alex has a hard time, and he's got several siblings, 0:22:29.440 --> 0:22:30.880 they've got all these pets. Like, there's just a lot 0:22:30.920 --> 0:22:32.440