Frank was already the longest serving Formula One entrant, with more races to his name even than the late Enzo Ferrari, who died in 1988.

Australian Alan Jones, Finland's Keke Rosberg , Brazilian Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill, France's Alain Prost and Canadian Jacques Villeneuve were all Williams champions.

"He really is the last team principal in the pitlane that goes motor racing for its true essence, and that's to race,"- says Rosberg senior.

Confined to a wheelchair since 1986 when he was paralysed from the neck down in a car accident, Williams made clear that he intended to add quite a few more races to his tally. Returning to the winners' circle, for the first time since 2004, is the immediate priority.

Williams' first world championship Formula One race was in Spain in 1969, when he entered compatriot Piers Courage in a Frank Williams Racing Brabham BT26 at the old Montjuic circuit in Barcelona. An engine problem cut short that race but the pair finished second in Monaco two weeks later. Courage died the following year in a fiery crash in the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. The early years were a struggle, with Williams conducting some of his business from a public telephone box, but the arrival of Patrick Head as team co-owner and designer in 1975 changed everything.

The death of Brazil's triple champion Ayrton Senna in a Williams in 1994 provided the biggest regret while the first win, with Switzerland's Clay Regazzoni at Silverstone in 1979 and the first championship with Jones, have been highlights.

Source: Formula1.com