Wednesday 17th June 2026

Discovering the first Williams-F1, that was not called a "Williams”

Text and photo: Roman Klemm / author's archive

Visiting historic events for several decades inevitably brings one drawback: the amount of cars you have not seen somewhere before decrease. And so, while reading through the entry list of this year's Grand Prix de Monte Carlo Historique, it happened to me that I recognized only one single car that I would photograph there for the first time. A businessman of strange origin and name, who is seen more and more often in historic sport, Mr. Evgeny Kireev intended (coached by the experienced Roman Rusinov) to race a 1972 Politoys-Ford FX3. That is, the first car that Frank Williams "built”.

 

The story of Frank Williams is relatively well known. When he failed as a racer, he tried his hand as team owner, preparing cars for wealthy clients. In Formula 1, he was helped by the trust, money and friendship of the heir to a brewing dynasty, Piers Courage. For the talented Briton, Williams ran F1-cars purchased from Brabham starting in 1969. In 1970, by agreement with Mr. de Tomaso, he entered a single-seater designed by Gianpaolo Dallara. The car killed Courage in Zandvoort, the project ended, and so from the 1971 season, Williams once again bought 'boutique cars'. He entered a March-Ford 711 for Frenchman Henri Pescarolo. In 1972  Frank could regularly enter two drivers. His plan was to start the season with Pescarolo and Carlos Pace using purchased cars (for the Frenchman a new March 721, for the Brazilian an old 711), but he promised the sponsors, that his designer Len Bailey already had his own single-seater drawn. The work on this new, modernly conceived car was paid for by Williams' new sponsor, the toy and model manufacturer Politoys. However, the Italians required that, in return for their investment, the car also be named Politoys.

 

Frank presented his debut model, in its traditional dark blue color - bearing the type designation FX3 - at the end of April 1972 in front of Mr. Maurice Gomm's workshop in Old Woking, where the aluminum monocoque-car had been built. Bailey's creation strongly resembled the design of the 1971 BRM P160 and McLaren M19A models. The relatively flat front (following the example of the Lotus 72) carried two adjustable flaps and a radiator. The then-modern 'chubby' sidepods concealed fuel tanks, and the power unit was a proven Ford-Cosworth V8, with its air supply to be managed by the then still shy little 'airbox'. The geometry of the suspensions held no surprises, nor did the use of the Hewland gearbox, above which a large rear spoiler was mounted. However, the car was still far from ready for race. It first went to Milan anyway, where the sponsor wanted to make proper use of it for his PR needs and for "taking measurements" to produce toy-models of it. Franks goal was to debut the FX3 at the British GP, which took place in mid-July. There was no time for larger tests, yet Williams, on the verge of his debut as a "designer,” was full of optimism. This was aided by the fact that he started to collaborate with brilliant designer Ron Tauranac (founder of the Brabham brand, later Trojan and Ralt), who completed the FX3: "Ron is simply the best designer in the world, and I am the best sponsor scout!”

 

The venture at Brands Hatch, however, had to strongly cool Williams' naive enthusiasm. The new Politoys FX3/1 had to be used one way or another, because Pescarolo had destroyed his March 721 at the previous French GP. Practice and qualifying confirmed that the debutant was still unready. On Thursday, Pescarolo was held back by too low fuel pressure, on Friday the engine misbehaved. Pescarolo was 5.2 seconds behind poleman Ickx (Ferrari 312 B2) and 1.1 seconds slower than second-to-last Stommelen (Eifelland-March 721). Only Migault's Connew-Ford was slower, and Henri was allowed to start on Saturday as the 26th qualifier. He didn't get far. In 8th lap in the fast Dingle Dell bend either the steering, or a suspension broke, and the car smashed into the barriers. The wreck and the uninjured driver were immediately covered in powder from fire extinguishers by the marshals…

Thus, the short and painful history of Williams' first construction in the Formula 1 World Championship actually came to an end. For the remaining races of the World Championship, Frank once again put his drivers in March chassis, before presenting a second FX3-chassis to the world on October 22, 1972, at Brands Hatch as part of the non-championship 'John Player Challenge Trophy.' 'From the first car, only the pedals were still usable,' Williamssummarized. The newcomer was tested before the event by Howden Ganley, but Frank's driver in the race was surprisingly Chris Amon. 'It's just a test drive, we don't have a contract with Chris,' Williams said. In qualifying, the New Zealander set the 16th fastest time out of 17 participating F1 and F5000 drivers, 5.6 seconds behind poleman Emerson Fittipaldi (Lotus-Ford 72). Amon approached this 'test race' slowly but steadily - after 32 laps, however, a ignition failure stopped him.

Frank Williams began the 1973 season with Howden Ganley, Nanni Galli, and Jackie Pretorius with two modified FX3-B cars (so they saved more than just the pedals from the first chassis). However, they were no longer called Politoys - this time he sold the name to the Iso-Marlboro sponsors and continued among the 'F1 beggars'...