Claire Williams awarded OBE for services to F1

Claire Williams has been awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to Formula 1.

Daughter of team principal Sir Frank Williams, Claire has been the deputy team principal since 2013 having previously been head of communications. The 39-year-old has helped oversee a Williams recovery in recent years, with the team improving from ninth in the 2013 constructors' championship to finish third in each of the past two seasons.

Williams described the award as "a tremendous honour" having been named in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.

“Today is a very proud day for me, but this is also a bit of a surprise," Williams said. "To be recognised in this way is a tremendous honour but one everyone at Williams can take credit for.

"I’m extremely lucky that I get to do a job that I love. To be able to play a role in a family legacy is an enormous privilege and one I don’t take for granted.

"Formula One, and Williams, are great success stories for the UK and I will continue to use my role to help showcase what a great sport Formula One is, what a brilliant platform for this country’s expertise in high class engineering it is, as well as a place that welcomes women across all of its disciplines.”

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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.