Walter Wolf Racing
Walter Wolf Racing was a
Formula One constructor from
1976 to
1980.
In 1975, the
Slovenian-
Canadian businessman
Walter Wolf had started to appear at many of the F1 races during the season. A year later, he bought 60% of
Frank Williams Racing Cars while agreeing to keep Frank Williams as manager of the team. Simultaneously Wolf bought the assets of the
Hesketh team that had recently withdrawn from F1. The team was based in the Williams facility at Reading but used most of the cars and equipment once owned by Hesketh Racing. The Hesketh 308C became known as the Williams FW05 and soon afterwards Dr.
Harvey Postlethwaite arrived as chief engineer.
Jacky Ickx and Frenchman
Michel Leclere were hired to drive. The team however was not very competitive and failed to qualify at a number of races during the year. Leclere left after the
French Grand Prix and was replaced by
Arturo Merzario while Ickx failed to perform and was dropped after the
British Grand Prix, to be followed by a string of pay-drivers.
At the end of
1976, Wolf decided that the team needed restructures. He removed
Frank Williams from the manager's job and replaced him with
Peter Warr from
Team Lotus. Disillusioned, Williams soon left the team, taking
Patrick Head and several others to set up
Williams Grand Prix Engineering. Postlethwaite's WR1 was a conventional
Cosworth package but with
Jody Scheckter hired from
Tyrrell, the new-look team presented a strong package. No-one, however, expected that the team would win its first race in
Argentina. It was in many respects a lucky win with Scheckter starting tenth with six of the cars ahead of him retiring. During the 1977 season, Scheckter went on to win the
Monaco Grand Prix and the
Canadian Grand Prix and also six other podium finishes which enabled him to finish second to
Niki Lauda in the
World Championship and gave Wolf fourth place in the Constructors' Championship.
 |
Keke Rosberg (on the left) with Wolf Racing Crew at Monaco GP 1979 |
The team remained the same for the 1978 season. Postlethwaite produced the WR5, a new car for the ground-effects era. This did not appear until the Belgian GP. Scheckter finished fourth in
Spain and second in
Germany but the WR5 soon made way for the WR6 with which he ended the year with a third in the
US Grand Prix and second in
Canada. He finished seventh in the
World Championship.
In 1979, Scheckter was signed up by
Ferrari and Wolf signed
James Hunt to replace him. Postlethwaite designed the WR7 which ran with Olympus sponsorship. The car was not very successful and retired more than 7 times during the first half of the season. The WR8 soon followed. In mid-season Hunt decided to retire and Wolf quickly hired
Keke Rosberg to replace him. The appearance of the WR9 did little to change the team's fortunes and at the end of the year Wolf grew tired of his F1 adventure and sold the team to
Emerson Fittipaldi.
* Wolf WR/1-4 1977-1978 in Automobile Historique n°48 May 2005 (in French)
