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Frank Williams, Founder of Formula One Team, Dies at 79

FILE - Team principal of Williams F1 team Sir Frank Williams waits during the third training session at the race track in Spielberg, Austria, on June 21, 2014. (AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson, File)
FILE - Team principal of Williams F1 team Sir Frank Williams waits during the third training session at the race track in Spielberg, Austria, on June 21, 2014. (AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson, File)
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Frank Williams, Founder of Formula One Team, Dies at 79

FILE - Team principal of Williams F1 team Sir Frank Williams waits during the third training session at the race track in Spielberg, Austria, on June 21, 2014. (AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson, File)
FILE - Team principal of Williams F1 team Sir Frank Williams waits during the third training session at the race track in Spielberg, Austria, on June 21, 2014. (AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson, File)

Sir Frank Williams, the founder and former team principal of Williams Racing, has died. He was 79.

Williams took his motor racing team from an empty carpet warehouse to the summit of Formula One, overseeing 114 victories, a combined 16 drivers’ and constructors’ world championships, while becoming the longest-serving team boss in the sport’s history.

“After being admitted into hospital on Friday, Sir Frank passed away peacefully this morning surrounded by his family," Williams Racing said in a statement on Sunday.

Williams driver George Russell remembered Williams as a “genuinely wonderful human being.”

Williams’ life is all the more extraordinary by the horrific car crash he suffered in France that left him with injuries so devastating doctors considered turning off his life-support machine.

But his wife Virginia ordered that her husband be kept alive and his sheer determination and courage — characteristics that personified his career — enabled him to continue with the love of his life, albeit from the confines of a wheelchair.

He would remain in his role as Williams team principal for a further 34 years before F1′s greatest family team was sold to an American investment group in August.

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Israeli Soccer Team Prepares for Closed-door Match in Hungary

Clashes erupt in Amsterdam after a soccer match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax near Amsterdam Central station, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 8, 2024, in this still image obtained from a social media video. X/iAnnet/via REUTERS
Clashes erupt in Amsterdam after a soccer match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax near Amsterdam Central station, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 8, 2024, in this still image obtained from a social media video. X/iAnnet/via REUTERS
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Israeli Soccer Team Prepares for Closed-door Match in Hungary

Clashes erupt in Amsterdam after a soccer match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax near Amsterdam Central station, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 8, 2024, in this still image obtained from a social media video. X/iAnnet/via REUTERS
Clashes erupt in Amsterdam after a soccer match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax near Amsterdam Central station, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 8, 2024, in this still image obtained from a social media video. X/iAnnet/via REUTERS

Israel's Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team returned to Europe on Wednesday for the first time since its fans were assaulted in the Netherlands earlier this month in attacks that were condemned as antisemitic by authorities in Israel and across Europe.
The team will face off Thursday against Türkiye’s Besiktas in an Europa League match that was relocated to Hungary. The contest at Nagyerdei Stadium in the city of Debrecen will be played without fans due to security concerns following the violence in Amsterdam on Nov. 7 that resulted in five people being treated in hospitals and dozens of detentions.

Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach Zarko Lazetic told a news conference on Wednesday that his team was focused on its game, regardless of what tensions may exist elsewhere, The Associated Press reported.
“It’s not a question for me what happened outside of the stadium. We saw some videos and everything, but we really try to focus on football,” he said. “We’ll see tomorrow what is the effect.”
The violence in Amsterdam came after local authorities banned pro-Palestinian demonstrators from gathering outside the stadium where Maccabi was playing Dutch team Ajax.
A large crowd of Israeli fans chanted anti-Arab slogans on their way to the match, video showed. Afterward, youths on scooters and on foot crisscrossed the city in search of Israeli fans, punching and kicking them, according to Amsterdam’s mayor.
The city's police commander said the incidents had “an antisemitic character."
Maccabi press officer Ofer Ronen-Abels said Wednesday the events in Amsterdam “had nothing to do with football."
Before the assaults, Besiktas had requested its home game against Maccabi, originally scheduled for Istanbul, to be moved to “neutral ground” over security concerns.
The club later said on social media that Hungary was the only country willing to host the match and that Hungarian authorities requested it be played behind closed doors.
Hungary has hosted several home games for Israel's national team for security reasons since the war in Gaza began.
Maccabi held its final practice session at the Kiryat Shalom training complex in Tel Aviv on Wednesday before departing for Hungary, the team said on its website.