Inside Williams: Unveiling the Unconventional Family Behind Motor Racing's Success Story
Movies are one thing, but recent years have seen a wealth of brilliant racing documentaries hit the big screen and television. Here we celebrate our favourites, from a hair-raising insight into the Isle of Man TT to a personal account of contributing to a factual film. But we start with one of the great true life stories of all time charting the trials and tribulations of one of Formula 1’s most famous families: Williams
There’s a light moment in Williams where daughter Claire affectionately prods her father Frank for his lack of connection to the real world. He hasn’t been in a shop for “45 years”, she says, and asks him how much a newspaper costs today. “15p” he says with a sheepish smile that can’t hide the reality he genuinely has no ballpark idea. It’s one of a string of odd moments in a strikingly revealing, absorbing and often uncomfortable feature-length documentary that offers a glimpse inside the dysfunctional, tragic family that has driven one of motor racing’s greatest rags to riches success stories.
A simple Formula 1 history lesson? No, it’s much more diverting.
F1 people are rarely ‘normal’ in any generally accepted sense. Delve behind the grand prix curtain and you tend to find weirdness driven by astonishing selfishness, an insular ‘bubble’ mentality and a bipolar dedication to winning – and the more successful they are the stranger these characters tend to be. Sir Frank Williams is right up there in the weird stakes.