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.



Five-time Grand Slam Champion Iga Swiatek Accepts One-month Suspension in Doping Case

 Poland's Iga Swiatek returns the ball against Italy's Jasmine Paolini during the Billie Jean King Cup semi-final tennis match at Martin Carpena Sports Hall in Malaga, southern Spain, on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Poland's Iga Swiatek returns the ball against Italy's Jasmine Paolini during the Billie Jean King Cup semi-final tennis match at Martin Carpena Sports Hall in Malaga, southern Spain, on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
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Five-time Grand Slam Champion Iga Swiatek Accepts One-month Suspension in Doping Case

 Poland's Iga Swiatek returns the ball against Italy's Jasmine Paolini during the Billie Jean King Cup semi-final tennis match at Martin Carpena Sports Hall in Malaga, southern Spain, on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Poland's Iga Swiatek returns the ball against Italy's Jasmine Paolini during the Billie Jean King Cup semi-final tennis match at Martin Carpena Sports Hall in Malaga, southern Spain, on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek accepted a one-month suspension after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine, a heart medication known as TMZ, the International Tennis Integrity Agency announced Thursday.

Swiatek failed an out-of-competition drug test in August, and the ITIA accepted her explanation that the result was unintentional and was caused by the contamination of a nonprescription medication, melatonin, that Swiatek was taking for issues with jet lag and sleeping, The AP reported.

It was determined her level of fault was “at the lowest end of the range for no significant fault or negligence,” the IATA said.

Swiatek is a 23-year-old from Poland who was ranked No. 1 most of the past two seasons but is now at No. 2. She won the French Open in June for her fifth major championship and took home a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics in early August.