Home F1 Video: Hamilton takes Sir Frank Williams on a Silverstone hot lap

Video: Hamilton takes Sir Frank Williams on a Silverstone hot lap

14/07/2019

Lewis Hamilton took Sir Frank Williams on a hot lap at Silverstone circuit ahead of the F1 British GP race in a Mercedes.

In a celebration of 50 years of Frank Williams in F1, the 77-year-old was taken on a special lap – or two – by the reigning champion Hamilton in a Mercedes-AMG S 63 at Silverstone circuit during the British GP weekend.

With his health an issue, Frank doesn’t visits many races anymore but he is at the Williams factory at Grove more often than not. He is still the team principal with Claire taking up the deputy team principal role, while Patrick Head remains co-founder.

It hasn’t been the season what Williams would have hoped for but the team continues to fight and push through and keep its heritage alive in F1. The run was already in the plans for Hamilton, whose father Anthony took him around on the parade lap with his brother.

Ahead of the run, Frank thought Hamilton will not show up but he did and they went against the rules to do two laps when instructed to do one. Hamilton also did a donut at the final corner to end the run, which Claire joked was to convince him to join Williams.

When you're about to have a hot lap with a @F1 World Champion…

Thanks @LewisHamilton – that certainly put a smile on the boss' face! #BritishGP pic.twitter.com/0WYL97dMbT

— ROKiT WILLIAMS RACING (@WilliamsRacing) July 14, 2019

Speaking about her dad, Claire said: “He doesn’t talk about it regularly, but he doesn’t talk about a lot of past memories in F1. For Frank, it’s all about the future, but that was the start of what has been a phenomenal career for Frank in this sport.

“He’d fought long and hard, really, truly long and hard to achieve that. He started his own career racing himself, realised quite quickly he wasn’t any good at it – didn’t quite understand where the brakes were – and decided to be a constructor. It took him a decade to get that first grand prix win here. He fought incredibly hard.

“He had no money; he came from nothing. He had to sell the team at one point and then he had to again start from nothing. But he never gave up and we talked a lot about that with the team, Frank’s resilience, his tenacity, and he really deserved that victory in 1979.

“I think a lot of people around him at the time thought it would never come but as we all know Frank loves this sport. Victories are great for Frank but really, truly, it’s about being in this sport and competing.”