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Best of the Spectator

Women With Balls: with Claire Williams

Best of the Spectator

The Spectator

News, Society & Culture, Daily News, News Commentary

4.3827 Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2021

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Claire Williams OBE is the former Deputy Team Principal of Williams, family-run the Formula One racing team set up by her father, Frank Williams. On the podcast, she talks about what it was like to be seen as 'Frank's daughter', the struggles of trying to turn around an ailing F1 team and how none of her family actually passed their driving test, first time.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

The Spectator magazine combines incisive political analysis with books and arts reviews of unrivaled authority. absolutely free. Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher.

0:22.6

Hello and welcome to Women with Balls, where I, Katie Balls, speak to today's trailblazers.

0:30.6

My guest today was born in Windsor. She studied politics at Newcastle University before she started

0:35.6

a career in motor racing as a press officer

0:38.6

at Silverstone. In 2002, she joined the family business. Her father, Sir Frank Williams,

0:44.6

was the founder and principal of the Williams Formula One team, one of the most successful

0:48.6

teams in the history of the sport. There, she climbed up the team's ranks, and in March 2013

0:54.1

became deputy team principal.

0:56.0

In its 44 years in F1, Williams has won 16 world championships and more than a tenth of all Grand Prix.

1:04.0

A 2017 documentary called them Formula One's greatest family.

1:08.0

In May 2020, as coronavirus brought F1 to a halt, the Williams family

1:13.3

decided to sell the team. In September, in the Italian Grand Prix, it had its final race

1:18.8

under family ownership. Explaining her decision, she said, it takes a lot out of you this sport,

1:24.5

and I want to go and build myself back up a little bit. Work at who

1:27.8

I am away from Formula One. I'd like to just go away and be my own person, see what that feels like.

1:33.2

My guest today is Claire Williams. Thank you very much for having me on today. It's weird actually

1:39.0

listening back to things that I did say over that race weekend in Monza, because obviously it was

1:44.0

quite a

1:44.7

traumatic and emotional weekend for us, and for me, in particular, with a family, leaving

1:51.1

the sport that we love and have been in for so many years. So it is quite odd hearing, you know,

1:56.8

things that I said over the weekend, because to be honest, I don't remember a whole lot of what I

2:00.2

said. But yeah, it's true. You know, as I said that weekend, we've, we had a wonderful four decades in Formula One.

...

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