Iso-Marlboro FW03

Iso-Marlboro FW03

Constructor:	Frank Williams Racing Cars
Designer:	John Clarke
Predecessor:	Iso-Marlboro FX3B
Successor:	Williams FW04
Technical specifications
Engine:	Cosworth
Weight:	578 kg
Tires:	Goodyear
Petrol:	Fina
statistics
Driver:	Arturo Merzario Tony Brise Damien Magee Ian Scheckter François Migault Ian Ashley Jo Vonlanthen Renzo Zorzi
First start:	1973 Spanish Grand Prix
Last start:	1975 South African Grand Prix
Starts Victories Poles SR 18th - - -
World Cup points:	3
Podiums:	-
Leadership laps:	-

The Iso-Marlboro FW03 was a Formula 1 racing car that the British motorsport team Frank Williams Racing Cars built as a one-off in 1974 and launched in the 1974 and 1975 Formula 1 World Championship. The car was largely identical to the Iso-Marlboro IR1 model built a year earlier and the IR2 built a year later . In 1975 the car, registered for numerous paydrivers , appeared under the name Williams FW03 . This year as an emergency vehicle, which mostly changed from race to race. It was the base of the Apollon-Williams FW03 , which was reported by another team in 1977 .

background

Frank Williams Racing Cars, a forerunner of the Williams F1 team , which is currently involved in Formula 1 , was founded in 1966 by former racing driver and racing car dealer Frank Williams . In the early years of Formula 1 involvement, Williams was a pure customer team that used racing cars from Brabham , March and De Tomaso . In 1972 , the Politoys FX3 was the team's first own racing car. With the start of the 1973 Formula 1 season, the Italian sports car manufacturer Iso Rivolta became the Williams team's main sponsor. Iso acquired the right to label the racing cars used with its own name, but did not participate in the construction or assembly of the cars. After Williams initially used a slightly revised version of the FX3 under the name Iso-Marlboro FX3B in the first races in 1973, a new model family was launched at the Spanish Grand Prix , which was designed to meet the more stringent requirements for crash safety the sponsors Iso Rivolta and Marlboro was named Iso-Marlboro IR . The FW03 is the third and last unit in this series.

nomenclature

The first two copies of the IR series got their model name from the sponsors Iso Rivolta and Marlboro . When Iso Rivolta fell into arrears due to economic difficulties at the beginning of 1974, Williams changed the model name to Iso-Marlboro FW01 and FW02 (FW for Frank Williams). The FW03 is the first model to carry Frank Williams' initials from the start. After Iso Rivolta's bankruptcy in 1975, the brand name of the model family was changed from Iso-Marlboro to Williams.

technology

Identical model: The Iso-Marlboro FW01

The examples of the model family IR were designed by John Clarke . In the autumn of 1973, Giampaolo Dallara revised the suspension geometry. The car is described as a model with a simple design, the body of which had angular lines that were perceived as strict. The monocoque was made of aluminum. Cosworth DFV eight-cylinder engines served as the drive , and power was transmitted via five-speed gearboxes from Hewland (type DG400). A problematic detail of the IR was the oil supply. It turned out to be ineffective and caused five engine failures on the FW03 in two years. Williams purchased the tires from Goodyear .

Production and maintenance

The FW03 was a one-off. When it was used for the third time in Monaco in 1974 , the car was severely damaged. The reconstruction was carried out using a new monocoque and took two months.

In 1974 and 1975, the FW03 was inadequately maintained and repaired incomplete due to the team's financial difficulties. As the 1974 season progressed, there was a lack of money for necessary repairs and spare parts. In some races, broken plastic pieces were taped together; from the summer of 1974 onwards, Williams used tires from the Ferrari team several times . This adversely affected the car's competitiveness. During the 1975 season, the condition of the car deteriorated noticeably. In eleven operations, the FW03 failed eight times due to technical defects. At that time Williams was already concentrating on the Williams FW04 , with which Jacques Laffite, the team's top driver, started.

Races

In the early 1970s, Frank Williams used two vehicles more or less regularly. He took a two-pronged approach: One of the vehicles was registered for a regular driver for the entire season, while the second vehicle was rented out to changing drivers. In 1974 the FW03 was the regular driver's vehicle. After the introduction of the technically independent FW04 in the spring of 1975, the FW03 took over the role of the rental vehicle. A total of eight drivers lined up with the FW03 in a year and a half.

1974: Iso-Marlboro FW03

The FW03 made its debut at the beginning of the European part of the Formula 1 season in 1974, i.e. at the Spanish Grand Prix . The car was driven exclusively by Arturo Merzario , who was Williams' number one driver that year. In the qualifications, Merzario mostly achieved times that allowed starting positions in the midfield. The best qualification result was the sixth place on the grid in the second race of the FW03 in Belgium , otherwise Merzario mostly started from the seventh or eighth row on the grid. However, he only crossed the finish line once in nine attempts with the FW03: Merzario finished fourth at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza. At all other Grands Prix he retired early. He finished two races early after a driving mistake; where he damaged the car so significantly in Monaco that the FW03 was out of order for two months. The other failures were due to technical reasons. There were three faults in the engine or in the area around the engine, including in the area of ​​the fuel supply. The throttle linkage and power transmission also failed occasionally; the Grand Prix of the United States could not finish Merzario due to a defect of the fire extinguisher.

1975: Williams FW03

Ian Ashley

1975 Williams reported the FW03 five times for Merzario. He dropped out four times due to a technical defect and missed qualification at the Monaco Grand Prix . After the race in Belgium , Merzario left the Williams team, disappointed with the failures and lack of progress. Jacques Laffite, who drove the new FW04, then took on the role of regular driver.

The FW03 was rented to seven different drivers for the remainder of the season. In Spain, Tony Brise drove the car that made its Formula 1 debut in Montjuïc . He qualified for 18th place on the grid. Two laps before the end he collided with the Shadow factory driver Tom Pryce while lapping . Both drivers dropped out. But since Brise had covered 27 of 29 laps, he was classified seventh. This was the best result of the FW03 in the 1975 season. Brise then moved to Team Embassy Hill . His successors at Williams were Damien Magee , Ian Scheckter , François Migault , Ian Ashley , Jo Vonlanthen and Renzo Zorzi , who each bought themselves into the team for a race. Scheckter, Magee and Zorzi crossed the finish line in their missions outside of the points. The best result of them was achieved by Scheckter, who finished twelfth in the Netherlands . He had been lapped five times; Zorzi was six laps behind in Italy. The other drivers suffered from the technical unreliability of the FW03. Migault, who was registered for the French Grand Prix , qualified for 24th place on the grid but was unable to take part in the race. Before the start, the Williams mechanics failed to start the engine. The Swiss Jo Vonlanthen missed the qualification at the Austrian Grand Prix, almost eight seconds behind the pole time. However, since the pre-placed Wilson Fittipaldi and Mark Donohue could not take part in the race due to an accident, Vonlanthen moved up into the line of qualifiers. After 15 racing laps, he had improved from 25th to 20th place. Then it failed prematurely because of an engine failure. Ian Ashley suffered an accident during training for the German Grand Prix in the Pflanzgarten section in which he broke several hand bones. He couldn't take part in the race.

For the last race of 1975 in the USA , Williams registered Lella Lombardi . Initially, the FW03 was intended for them. However, contrary to expectations, the team had completed the second copy of the FW04 in time for the race, so Williams reported this copy for them.

Vonlanthen also drove the FW03 at the Swiss Grand Prix , a Formula 1 race that was not part of the World Championship and was held the week after the race in Austria on the French Circuit de Dijon-Prenois . He qualified for 15th and penultimate starting position; he was 2.5 seconds behind the pole time of Jean-Pierre Jarier (Shadow). The race was "full of problems" for Vonlanthen, so that he crossed the finish line nine laps behind and was not classified.

Apollon-Williams

→ Main article : Apollon-Williams FW03

Williams sold the FW03 to the Swiss racing driver Loris Kessel in the spring of 1976 . He made some detailed changes to the body and registered the car for the Jolly Club of Switzerland team under the name Apollon-Williams FW03 for 1976 , but did not take part in the official training and the subsequent race. A year later, Kessel appeared again with the Apollon-Williams for the Italian Grand Prix . Again there was no participation in the race. In the three-year-old car, Kessel achieved a qualifying time that was 8.6 seconds longer than the pole time of James Hunt ( McLaren ). He was not allowed to race.

Race results (Formula 1 World Championship)

driver	No.	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	Points	rank
Automobile World Championship 1974																	3	10.
A. Merzario	20th				DNF	DNF	DNF				DNF	DNF	DNF	4th	DNF	DNF
Automobile World Championship 1975																	0	9.
A. Merzario	21st	DNF	DNF	DNF		DNQ	DNF
T. breeze					7th
D. Magee								14th
I. Scheckter									12
F. Migault										DNS
I. Ashley												DNS
J. Vonlanthen													DNF
R. Zorzi														14th

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

literature

• Adriano Cimarosti: The Century of Racing. Cars, tracks and pilots. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 .
• Maurice Hamilton: Frank Williams. The inside story of the man behind the Williams-Renault. Macmillan, London 1998, ISBN 0-333-71716-3 .
• David Hodges: Racing cars from A – Z after 1945. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 .
• David Hodges: A – Z of Grand Prix Cars. Crowood Press, Marlborough 2001, ISBN 1-86126-339-2 (English).
• Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1st 2nd edition. Chronosports, St. Sulpice 2000, ISBN 2-940125-45-7 (French).

Web links

• Racing history of the Iso-Marlboro / Williams FW03 on the website www.oldracingcars.com
• Illustration of the Williams FW03 (1975)
• Illustration of Apollon-Williams (1977)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Adriano Cimarosti: The century of racing. 1997, p. 253.
2. ↑ ^{a b} David Hodges: Racing Cars from A – Z after 1945. 1994, p. 121.
3. ^ ^{A b} Maurice Hamilton: Frank Williams. The inside story of the man behind Williams-Renault. 1998, p. 43.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1. 2000, p. 558.
5. ^ David Hodges: AZ of Grand Prix Cars. 2001, p. 113.
6. ↑ Adriano Cimarosti: The century of racing. 1997, p. 255.
7. ↑ Overview of the racing history of the Iso-Marlboro FW03 / Williams FW03 on www.oldracingcars.com (accessed on October 15, 2013).
8. ↑ See Maurice Hamilton: Frank Williams. The inside story of the man behind Williams-Renault. 1998, pp. 50 and 68 f.
9. ^ Description of the team's situation on the website www.f1rejects.com (accessed on October 16, 2013).
10. ^ Entry on Merzario's commitment to the 1974 US Grand Prix on the website www.racingsportscars.com (accessed on October 15, 2013).
11. ^ Biography of Jo Vonlanthen on the website www.f1rejects.com (accessed October 8, 2013).
12. ↑ Statistics of the Grand Prix of Switzerland 1975 on the website www.silhouet.com (accessed on October 16, 2013).
13. ↑ Representation in Jo Vonlanthen's biography on the website www.f1rejects.com , there without further specification of the problems (accessed on October 8, 2013).
14. ^ David Hodges: AZ of Grand Prix Cars. 2001, p. 18.
15. ↑ Race results of the Iso-Marlboro / Williams FW03 on the website www.oldracingcars.com (accessed on October 15, 2013).
16. ↑ Statistics of the Italian Grand Prix on the website www.motorsport-total.com (accessed on October 15, 2013).
17. ↑ Williams achieved a total of four world championship points in 1974: three with the FW03 and one with the FW02.
18. ↑ Williams achieved no world championship points in 1975 with the FW3. With Jacques Laffite's second place at the German Grand Prix in the FW04, a total of six world championship points were achieved during the season.