Frank Williams Racing Cars
Not to be confused with Williams Grand Prix Engineering, formed by Frank Williams and Patrick Head in 1977 and known today as WilliamsF1.Frank Williams Racing Cars was a
British Formula 1 team and constructor.
Frank Williams had been a motor-racing enthusiast since a young age, and after dabbling in amateur driving, struck up a great friendship with driver
Piers Courage. After Williams backed Courage in a successful 1968
Formula Two season, he purchased a
Brabham Formula One car for Courage in 1969. Courage had a great year, culminating in second place at the
United States Grand Prix.
Their efforts attracted the interest of Argentine sports car manufacturer
De Tomaso, who built a
Formula One chassis (designed by
Gianpaolo Dallara) for the 1970 season. However, the car was initially uncompetitive, failing to finish the first four races of the year. In the fifth, the
Dutch Grand Prix, the De Tomaso 505/38 flipped and caught fire, killing Courage. The death of his friend seriously upset
Frank Williams, and has been attributed to the subsequent distance the team principal placed between himself and his drivers. The team soldiered on, however, first with
Brian Redman, then
Tim Schenken. With no results, the partnership with
De Tomaso was dissolved.
For 1971, Williams purchased a year-old
March 701, and ran
Henri Pescarolo. The team upgraded to a new March 711, but results were difficult to come by. The old car was also entered for
Jean Max at the
French Grand Prix. After the success of 1969, Williams was now low on funds, living a hand-to-mouth existence from race to race. Pescarolo took the fourth spot at the
British Grand Prix and sixth at the
Austrian Grand Prix, keeping the outfit ticking over.
Oil company
Motul came onboard for the 1972 season, enabling Williams to buy a new March, while backing from toy manufactuer
Politoys meant money to build an in-house chassis. From the
Brazilian Grand Prix,
Carlos Pace was entered in the old 1971 car, later taking fifth at the
Belgian Grand Prix. The
Len Bailey-designed Politoys FX3 debuted in the hands of Pescarolo at the British Grand Prix, but the steering failed and the car was heavily damaged.
Chris Amon would guest in the end of season non-Championship
Rothmans World Championship Victory Race at
Brands Hatch, but unimpressed with the chassis, elected not to start.
Motul and Politoys both withdrew their backing at the end of the year. Williams managed to attract backing from cigarette giant
Marlboro and fridge manufacturer
Iso for the 1973 season, with the FX3 reworked as the Iso-Marlboro FX3B. Two new drivers were signed,
Howden Ganley and
Nanni Galli. Local
Jackie Pretorius would sub for Galli in the
South African Grand Prix. For the Spanish Grand Prix, a new car, the Iso-Marlboro IR, was introduced, designed by John Clarke. However, results failed to improve. Galli moved on after the
Monaco Grand Prix, being replaced by a succession of paying drivers -
Tom Belso for the
Swedish Grand Prix, then the returning Pescarolo for the
French Grand Prix, then
Graham McRae for the British Grand Prix.
Gijs van Lennep took over the pay car for the
Dutch Grand Prix, taking 6th place and the team's first point of the season. Pescarolo and Van Lennep briefly alternated in the second car, before Schenken took over for the
Canadian Grand Prix. The Canadian race, however, saw Williams attract a lot more attention. A downpour and a crash led to the first-ever deployment of a
safety car in
Formula One. With no electronic timekeeping devices, the organisers were left with written lap charts to work out the leader of the race, something made near-impossible by most cars making two or more pit stops in the space of a couple of laps. They came to the incorrect decision that Ganley was actually leading, despite
Frank Williams and everyone else saying he wasn't. Ganley then astonishingly led off the leading lights for a while when the race restarted (though the
FIA official lap charts do not acknowledge this, due to the confusion), and he eventually finished sixth.
Jacky Ickx took the second car in the US Grand Prix.
Both Iso and Marlboro left before the 1974 season. The IR chassis was rebranded the FW (a segue - three of these were used, named FW01, FW02 and FW03 - these are chassis numbers, not car models... the next new Williams design would be the FW04). Initially a single car was entered for
Arturo Merzario, who placed sixth at South Africa.
Tom Belso returned in a second car from this race and the next, before Van Lennep returned for the Belgian race. The team then cut back down to a single car for Merzario for the British Grand Prix, before entering three cars in Sweden, Belso and
Richard Robarts taking the other two.
Gijs van Lennep took over the second car for the
Dutch Grand Prix, with the third dropped.
Jean-Pierre Jabouille took over the second car in France, with Belso guesting at the British round.
Jacques Laffite then took the second car for the
German Grand Prix, impressing enough to be kept on. For all the chopping and changing, Merzario's point from the South African race was the only point the team had to show for their efforts.
Merzario and Laffite stayed on for 1975. For the
Spanish Grand Prix, promising youngster Tony Brise briefly replaced Laffite, placing 7th, while Merzario gave a race debut to the new FW04. While Merzario left following the
Belgian Grand Prix, being replaced by
Ian Scheckter, while financial concerns saw
Damien Magee briefly taking Laffite's car for the Swedish Grand Prix. Scheckter's money ran out after two races, and he was briefly replaced by
François Migault. So far the season had been the usual mess of pay drivers, mechanical failures and no progress, but a mix of attrition and tenacious driving saw Laffite take an astonishing second place at the German Grand Prix, bringing much-needed financial aid to a team on the point of collapse. However, it would be the only points finish of the season, and the second car continued to have a succession of pay drivers -
Ian Ashley (in Germany),
Jo Vonlanthen (in Austria),
Renzo Zorzi (in
Italy) and
Lella Lombardi (in the US).
At the start of the 1976 season, Frank Williams Racing Cars was bought out by oil millionaire
Walter Wolf, becoming
Walter Wolf Racing.
