Plato: a full-on approach both at and away from the track
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For any aspiring racer hoping break into an F1 team in 2024, the most likely route is through a team’s junior programme – but even that’s no guarantee of a grand prix seat.
Back in the ’90s though, things were a bit more fluid. Before landing on Frank Williams’ factory doorstep, future touring car legend Jason Plato had been through the usual junior racing rollercoaster – from race wins, to dud teams, accusations of cheating and everything in between.
Then, after two years of no competition in 1995 and ’96, Plato resurrected his career through the one-make Renault Spider series and thought he was on a one-way ticket to Renault’s BTCC programme, run by the Williams F1 team.
Plato had to go the extra mile to save his racing career
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But the team owner wasn’t interested, opting for an established name instead. As the tin-top ace explains in the March 2024 issue of Motor Sport, extreme measures had to be taken to save his career – again.
“I’d won the series and done my test in the Laguna touring car which had gone well,” says Plato.
“[Head of PR at Reanult UK] Tim Jackson, who’d become a really strong mentor and without whom we wouldn’t be sitting here now, said, ‘I’ve spoken to Frank [Williams], all good. Leave it to me.’ Next thing I get a letter from Frank saying it’s a no but that he’d like me to come and see him so that he could explain in person why it’s a no. Which I did. He explained that I’d never had a chance of getting the drive because they needed someone with a profile. I went away, called Tim, who said he’d see if he could get me a privateer drive.”
Plato is renowned for a gung-ho style on track, and this approach has served him well off it too. Plato wasn’t going to settle for a indie touring car drive.
“About two weeks later I woke up really raging and decided I’d go and bloody see Frank and have it out. Security let me in because they recognised me from before. ‘I’ve come to see Frank,’ I said to reception and they said fine, take a seat. Then scary Nicola, who was Frank’s PA and gatekeeper came down the stairs and said, ‘What do you think you’re doing? You can’t just do this.”
Plato’s BTCC career ultimately took in 23 seasons
James Roberts
“And then she let out a gem, I think on purpose, by saying that, anyway, Frank wasn’t coming in until lunchtime. So I went and sat in the car park for three hours, eyes glued to the security gate, and smoked myself to oblivion. At last Frank’s car came in and I was out the car sprinting across the car park in my suit with a briefcase with nothing in it. I practically slammed into the side of his car. Frank was in the front seat and just stared up at me while I wondered what on earth I’d done. I pleaded with Frank to give me five minutes; he said he was too busy; I begged some more and he eventually agreed. I think actually that scary Nicola had tipped him off that I was waiting in the car park and what was likely to happen.
“After 45 minutes of sitting outside his office I was called in. Frank said, ‘Right, what can I do for you?’ and I just poured my heart out, told him that he didn’t want some failed F1 driver in his team just because the guy had a profile and please, please give me a test, let me have a chance. I can do the job. I was even banging on his desk. ‘OK, thanks for that,’ said Frank, ‘thanks for coming but I’ve got to get on.’”
Though it first appeared as though Williams may have just dismissed Plato’s last-gasp appeal, he soon found out it had the desired effect and was summoned to a test two weeks later at Snetterton.
The young Brit aced the test, in which he was put up against Gianni Morbidelli and Jean-Christophe Boullion , and was offered a three-year contract at the Williams Renault BTCC team from 1997.
Plato had achieved his dream – but that didn’t stop from angling for a win bonus: “Frank leaned forward and whispered, ‘that’s what we’re f***ing paying you to do,’” he remembers.
This became the launchpad for an incredible, 23-season BTCC career, encompassing two championships and 97 wins. All after turning up in the Williams car park.
Read Jason Plato’s brilliant full interview in the March 2024 issue of Motor Sport here.
