Williams stars hail Sir Frank's achievements

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A new video from Mobil 1 The Grid sees some big names from the 40-year history of Williams F1 paying homage to the team's iconic founder, Sir Frank Williams.

"I think Frank is a big racer," said current driver Felipe Massa. "The only thing that he thinks is about racing, about just being the best. He's really a nice character as well.

"It is a team that's really a joy to work for," He added. "It is a very family thing. I'm really proud to be part of his team, but also part of his history!"

Massa joined the team for the 2014 season. He retired at the end of last year only to be recalled when Valtteri Bottas headed to Mercedes over the winter.

Dickie Stanford's association with Williams goes back much further. He joined Williams as Nigel Mansell's race mechanic in 1985. He rose to the position of chief mechanic in 1990 and then became team manager in 1995.

"We call him Mr Motor Racing," said Stanford, who stayed in the post for ten years. he remains a long-time friend and colleague of Sir Frank's to this day.

"He is living, breathing motor racing," Standford said. "Whatever happened yesterday, forget that - it doesn't matter. It's tomorrow. What are we thinking about tomorrow. And that's been driven through the whole team by Frank.

"He is the leader of the team, pushing the team forward for what's new tomorrow."

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"What a character he is," added former chief technical officer Pat Symonds, who left the team at the end of last year. He had joined in 2013, having previously worked for Benetton, Renault and Virgin. He's now a technical expert for Sky Sports F1.

"This independent team has been going for so long, operating at the front line," Symonds said. "Frank's held it together, and really a figurehead for the whole of the team. And the whole of the company."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.