March-Ford

Origins

March-Ford is the partnership that defined virtually all of March Engineering's competitive Formula 1 history. Founded in late 1969 by Max Mosley, Alan Rees, Graham Coaker and Robin Herd, March produced its first F1 chassis — the 701 — for the 1970 season around the Ford-Cosworth DFV. Within months March had become the largest customer team on the grid, supplying chassis to Tyrrell, STP, Williams and other operators in addition to the works entries.

Golden Era

The peak was 1976: Vittorio Brambilla's wet-weather victory at the 1975 Austrian Grand Prix in the March-Ford 751 (the 1975 race counted toward the World Championship and was the first March works win) and Ronnie Peterson's victory at the 1976 Italian Grand Prix in the March-Ford 761. Earlier the works team had scored Peterson's 1973 Italian Grand Prix podium and various points-paying finishes; customer March cars in Tyrrell colours had won three races in 1971 with Stewart before the bespoke Tyrrell 001 arrived. The 1976 podium-class season with Peterson and Brambilla in the 761 was the team's most consistently competitive year.

Legendary Cars

The 701 of 1970 was the team's first F1 car and famously oversold — March took customer orders before the chassis was fully developed. The 711 of 1971, with its distinctive "tea-tray" front wing, gave Peterson his championship runner-up year. The 721X experiment of 1972 with longitudinal gearbox-ahead-of-axle layout was a famous failure. The 751 (Brambilla's Austrian win) and 761 (Peterson's Monza win) are the team's victorious chassis.

Lows and Reinventions

March's customer-supply business model was its strength and its weakness — the team produced lots of chassis but never had the development budget or focus to maintain a championship-winning works programme. The works team withdrew from Formula 1 at the end of 1977, returning sporadically through the 1980s and early 1990s under various operator names (RAM, Onyx, Leyton House) before final closure in 1992. The Bicester factory continued building Indycars and other categories.

Modern Era

The March-Ford era is remembered as the high point of the British customer-chassis industry — at one point in the early 1970s March supplied F1, F2, F3, F5000 and Formula Atlantic cars in volumes no rival could match. Peterson's Monza win in 1976 and Brambilla's Austrian win in 1975 are the works team's documented championship-event victories. The 711 with its tea-tray wing remains one of the most visually distinctive 1970s F1 cars; the 761 in red Beta Tools livery is a fixture at historic events.