Frank Williams Racing Cars

Early years

Frank Williams grew up obsessed with motor racing. After driving in saloon cars and Formula Three, and making money by dealing in racing cars and spare parts, he accepted that he had gone as far as he could behind the wheel. So he began putting other drivers in cars, starting with his friend and former flatmate Piers Courage. Williams backed Courage through a strong 1968 Formula Two season, then bought a Brabham Formula One car for him in 1969.

Jack Brabham was reportedly annoyed, because he had sold the car expecting it to be used in the Tasman Series and then turned into a Formula 5000 machine. Courage had a brilliant year, finishing second at both the Monaco and United States Grands Prix. That success caught the eye of Italian sports car maker De Tomaso, which built a Formula One chassis for 1970, designed by Giampaolo Dallara. The car struggled badly, failing to finish the first four races.

At the fifth, the Dutch Grand Prix, the De Tomaso 505/38 flipped and caught fire, killing Courage. The loss hit Williams hard, and the emotional distance he later kept from his drivers is often traced back to this tragedy. The team carried on with Brian Redman and then Tim Schenken, but with no results the De Tomaso deal fell apart. For 1971, Williams bought a year-old March 701 and entered French driver Henri Pescarolo.

The team later got a new March 711, but good results stayed scarce. The old car was also given to Max Jean for the French Grand Prix. After the high of 1969, Williams was scraping by financially, living race to race. Pescarolo kept the operation afloat with a fourth place at the British Grand Prix and a sixth in Austria.

Frank Williams Racing Cars (1969–1975)

In 1972, French oil company Motul joined forces with Williams, funding the purchase of a new March 721 for driver Henri Pescarolo. Meanwhile, backing from Italian toy maker Politoys allowed the team to construct its own car. At the non-championship Brazilian Grand Prix, Carlos Pace drove the previous year’s March 711, later securing fifth place at the Belgian Grand Prix. The in-house chassis, designed by Len Bailey and called the Politoys FX3, was a straightforward Cosworth-powered machine with a Hewland FG400 gearbox. It made its debut at the British Grand Prix with Pescarolo, but a steering failure caused heavy damage. Pescarolo returned to his March 721 while the FX3 was repaired. For its final outing as the Politoys FX3, Chris Amon drove it at the non-championship 1972 World Championship Victory Race at Brands Hatch, qualifying 20th and retiring with engine trouble.

Both Motul and Politoys pulled their support after 1972, but Williams secured new sponsorship from cigarette brand Marlboro and Italian sports car maker Iso Autoveicoli for 1973. The Politoys FX3 was reworked into the Iso-Marlboro FX3B, and a second car was built. New Zealand’s Howden Ganley and Italy’s Nanni Galli were signed as drivers. At the season opener in Argentina, Galli qualified 16th and Ganley 19th and last.

Galli’s engine failed on the first lap, while Ganley finished but was unclassified, 17 laps behind. In Brazil, the team improved: Ganley placed seventh and Galli ninth. Galli then injured himself testing a sports car and was replaced for the South African race by local Jackie Pretorius, who retired the FX3B at half-distance with overheating. Ganley finished tenth, six laps down.

The FX3B soon became obsolete due to new deformable structure rules and was replaced by the Iso-Marlboro IR. Still, it appeared in two non-championship events: at the 1973 Race of Champions, Tony Trimmer drove an FX3B to fourth place while Ganley retired with handling issues. Ganley also retired the FX3B at its final race, the 1973 BRDC International Trophy, due to low oil pressure.

Wolf–Williams Racing (1976)

In 1976, Canadian oil magnate Walter Wolf acquired a 60% stake in Frank Williams Racing Cars, rebranding it as Wolf–Williams Racing while keeping Frank Williams on as team manager. Harvey Postlethwaite soon joined as chief engineer. Around the same time, Wolf purchased the assets of the recently departed Hesketh team. The operation remained based at Williams’ facility in Reading but relied heavily on Hesketh’s former cars and equipment.

The Hesketh 308C, used in the final races of 1975, was rebranded as the Wolf–Williams FW05. The Williams FW04 also got a new name, becoming the Wolf–Williams FW04, though it appeared only at the season opener in Brazil. By the end of the year, Wolf restructured the team, replacing Frank Williams as manager with Peter Warr, previously of Team Lotus. Disillusioned, Williams left entirely in 1977 to found Williams Grand Prix Engineering with Patrick Head. Wolf then bought the remaining shares of Wolf–Williams Racing, and the outfit became Walter Wolf Racing.