Frank Williams Racing Cars

French oil company Motul came on board for the 1972 season, enabling Williams to buy a new March 721 for Pescarolo,[1] while backing from Italian toy manufacturer Politoys provided money to build an in-house chassis. From the (non-Championship) Brazilian Grand Prix, Carlos Pace was entered in the previous year's March 711, later taking fifth at the Belgian Grand Prix.

The Len Bailey-designed Politoys FX3 was a conventional Cosworth-engined car with a Hewland FG400 gearbox. It debuted in the hands of Pescarolo at the British Grand Prix, but the steering failed and the car was heavily damaged.[2] Pescarolo switched back to his March 721 while the Politoys was rebuilt. In its last appearance as the Politoys FX3, Chris Amon drove the car for the team in the end of season non-Championship 1972 World Championship Victory Race at Brands Hatch, but qualified only 20th and retired with engine failure.[3]

Motul and Politoys both withdrew their backing at the end of 1972, but Williams managed to attract backing from cigarette giant Marlboro and Italian sports car manufacturer Iso Autoveicoli S.p.A. for the 1973 season. The Politoys FX3 was reworked as the Iso–Marlboro FX3B and a second car was built. Two new drivers were signed, New Zealand's Howden Ganley and Italy's Nanni Galli.

At the first race in Argentina, Galli qualified 16th with Ganley 19th and last on the grid. Galli's engine failed on the first lap, but Ganley finished the race, although he was not classified due to being 17 laps adrift of the winner.[4] The team fared better in Brazil with Ganley finishing seventh and Galli ninth.[5] Galli was then injured testing a sports car and replaced for the following race in South Africa by local driver Jackie Pretorius. Pretorius retired his FX3B at half-distance with overheating problems, but Ganley managed tenth, albeit six laps down.[6]

The FX3B had become obsolete by this time due to new deformable structure regulations[7] and was replaced by the new Iso–Marlboro IR. However, the FX3B was raced in two non-Championship races at this time; at the 1973 Race of Champions, Tony Trimmer raced an FX3B to fourth place while Ganley retired his car with handling problems.[8] The New Zealander also retired at the FX3B's last race, the 1973 BRDC International Trophy, this time with low oil pressure.[9]

Gijs van Lennep in the Iso–Marlboro FW at the 1974 Dutch Grand Prix

Introduced at the 1973 Spanish Grand Prix, the Iso–Marlboro IR was driven by eight different drivers during the rest of the 1973 season. Ganley was the only regular driver and he scored a point with the car at the Canadian Grand Prix towards the end of the season. Of the other drivers; Galli, Pescarolo, Tom Belsø, Graham McRae, Gijs van Lennep, Tim Schenken and Jacky Ickx, only van Lennep was able to score a point, at his home race in the Netherlands.[10]

Both Iso Rivolta and Marlboro left before the 1974 season, leaving Williams with financial problems. The two IR chassis were retained, now re-designated the FW after Frank Williams, but initially only a single car was entered for Arturo Merzario, who had replaced Ganley as the team's number one driver. There was an early-season boost as Merzario placed sixth in the third race of the season in South Africa,[11] but when the second car was reintroduced, the string of paydrivers employed to drive it produced little in the way of results. After three non-qualifications, Jacques Laffite was brought in to partner Merzario and performances gradually improved, culminating in a fourth-place finish for Merzario in Italy.[12] This gave the team a total of four points, and another tenth-place finish in the Constructors' Championship. Three Iso–Marlboro FW chassis were ultimately used during 1974, including a newly built car, and these were renamed Williams FW01, FW02 and FW03 for 1975; separate designations despite the three cars being essentially the same.[13]

Merzario and Laffite stayed on for the start of the 1975 season as the team continued to use the FW02 and FW03. Williams decided a new car was needed. The new Williams FW04 was the first chassis to carry the Williams name and it replaced the FW02 at the Spanish Grand Prix, and promising British youngster Tony Brise substituted for Laffite, finishing just outside the points in seventh. By this time, however, the team's money problems had become serious,[14] and Merzario left following the Belgian Grand Prix, his place taken for the rest of the season by six different paying drivers – Ian Scheckter, François Migault, Ian Ashley, Jo Vonlanthen, Renzo Zorzi and Lella Lombardi. Northern Ireland's Damien Magee, meanwhile, substituted for Laffite in Sweden.

Around the same time, Frank Williams signed a young engineer, Patrick Head who would partner with his boss when the team reformed as Williams Grand Prix Engineering in 1977.[15] A major shock came in Germany when a mixture of attrition and tenacious driving saw Laffite take the FW04 to second place behind the Brabham of Carlos Reutemann, bringing much-needed financial aid to a team on the point of collapse. This was to be the team's only points finish of the season, but they improved their position in the Constructors' Championship by one place, to ninth.

(key)

Year	Chassis	Engine	Driver	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
1969	Brabham BT26A	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8		ROC	INT	MAD	OUL
			Piers Courage	Ret	5
1970	De Tomaso 505	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8		ROC	INT	OUL
			Piers Courage		3
			Tim Schenken			DNA
1971	March 701	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8		ARG	ROC	QUE	SPR	INT	RIN	OUL	VIC
			Ray Allen		6				Ret
			Derek Bell			15
			Cyd Williams				DNS
			Tony Trimmer							Ret
			Henri Pescarolo	2
	March 711					Ret		6	DNA	Ret	Ret
			Ronnie Peterson		Ret
1972	March 711	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8		ROC	BRA	INT	OUL	REP	VIC
			Carlos Pace		Ret
			Henri Pescarolo					Ret
	March 721				Ret	Ret	Ret
	Politoys FX3		Chris Amon						Ret
1973	Iso–Marlboro FX3B Iso–Marlboro IR	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8		ROC	INT
			Tony Trimmer	4
			Howden Ganley	Ret	Ret
1974	Iso–Marlboro FW	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8		PRE	ROC	INT
			Arturo Merzario	3
1975	Williams FW03	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8		ROC	INT	SUI
			Arturo Merzario	7	DNS
			Maurizio Flammini	DNS
			Jacques Laffite			11
			Jo Vonlanthen			Ret
1976	Wolf–Williams FW05	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8		ROC	INT
			Jacky Ickx	3	Ret
			Mario Andretti		7