Politoys FX3

Politoys FX3

Constructor:	Frank Williams Racing Cars
Designer:	Len Bailey Ron Tauranac
Successor:	Iso-Marlboro IR1 Iso-Marlboro IR2
Technical specifications
Engine:	Cosworth
Weight:	580 kg
Tires:	Goodyear (1972) Firestone (1973)
Petrol:	Motul (1972) Fina (1973)
statistics
Driver:	Henri Pescarolo Nanni Galli Howden Ganley
First start:	Great Britain Grand Prix 1972
Last start:	1973 South African Grand Prix
Starts Victories Poles SR 7th - - -
World Cup points:	-
Podiums:	-
Leadership laps:	-

The Politoys FX3 was a racing car of the British Formula 1 team Frank Williams Racing Cars , a forerunner of today's Williams F1 team . It was the first car that a racing team led by Frank Williams was responsible for; with him, the Williams team went from being a customer team to being a designer. In its original version, the car was used once in a world championship run in the 1972 World Automobile Championship . In 1973 the car appeared in several races under the name Iso-Marlboro FX3B .

background

The former racing driver and racing car dealer Frank Williams founded his own motorsport team in 1968, which initially competed in Formula 2 and from 1969 also in Formula 1. In the first few years, Williams was a pure customer team: In the debut season, the racing team used a used Brabham BT23C in Formula 1 , in 1970 a car designed by De Tomaso , and in 1971 the vehicles from March ( 701 and 711 ) were used.

In 1971 the Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA) was founded, an association of the designers of Formula 1 vehicles. The membership, which was linked to the production of own racing cars and thus denied customer teams, brought some organizational and financial advantages. This included, in particular, the assumption of travel expenses. Since the founding of FOCA, Frank Williams pursued the goal of joining it with his team. To do this, Williams had to go from being a customer team to being a designer. The costs associated with building your own car could only be borne with the financial support of a sponsor. In the autumn of 1971 this was found: Williams signed a contract with the Italian model car manufacturer Politoys , which supported the construction of their own car with a one-off payment of £ 40,000. In return, Politoys became the name sponsor of the vehicle.

The Williams team, with no experience building racing cars, took significantly longer than expected to complete the first car. The originally planned deployment in autumn 1971 had to be postponed by more than six months. The main reason for the delay is mostly cited as the fact that Williams paid the designers poorly and irregularly. As a result of an accident, the car was only used once in a World Championship in 1972. With the beginning of the 1973 season, the Italian sports car manufacturer Iso Rivolta Williams' main sponsor. Williams used the FX3 again for the first races of the year before being replaced by new designs in the spring of 1973.

technology

The FX3 was designed by Len Bailey , Maurice Gomm directed the construction of the vehicle. It was an "uncomplicated car with conventional suspension". The monocoque was made of aluminum. It had a so-called coke bottle design, so it was narrower in the middle than at the front and rear. The front suspension consisted of double wishbones . There were two cross braces at the rear. DFV eight-cylinder engines from Cosworth served as the drive . The power was transmitted via a manual five-speed transmission from Hewland (type FG 400). The curb weight of the car was given as 580 kg.

In the autumn of 1972, former Brabham designer Ron Tauranac joined the team temporarily. He accompanied the work on the cars from time to time and made some detail changes with a view to racing in 1973.

production

Williams produced two copies of the FX3. Both cars stayed in the team. They weren't sold to customer teams.

• The first chassis (FX3 / 1) was made in spring 1972. After a crash during the debut race, the team decided not to rebuild the car immediately. The mechanics gradually restored the car over the course of the following months under the direction of Tauranac, so that it was ready for use again in October 1972.

• The second chassis (FX3 / 2) was built in the winter of 1972/73. It debuted as the FX3B in early 1973.

Races

1972

Damaged the FX3 on its first use: Henri Pescarolo

In the 1972 Formula 1 season, Frank Williams' team went under the name Team Williams Motul . Regular drivers were Henri Pescarolo and Carlos Pace . The team used a March 721 for Pescarolo and a March 711 for Pace on a regular basis throughout the season .

The first Politoys FX3 (FX3 / 1) was ready to go for the UK Grand Prix . The car was registered for Pescarolo. The French qualified for the 26th and last place on the grid, 5.2 seconds behind pole time. He covered seven laps in the race. On the eighth lap, Pescarolo went off the track and collided with the side barrier. There are different representations of the causes of the accident. Some reports refer to Pescarolo's alleged accident proneness and assume that a driving mistake by the Frenchman also led to the retirement at Brands Hatch. Other observers assume a technical defect ("Apparently something was broken"). As a result of the collision, the car was so badly damaged that it could initially no longer be used. For financial reasons, Williams decided against an immediate reconstruction. Instead, the team reported the March 721 for Pescarolo for the rest of the season.

After rebuilding the FX3 / 1, Williams registered the car for Chris Amon for the World Champion Victory Race , a Formula 1 race without world championship status, which was held on October 22, 1972 at Brands Hatch . Amon was 5.8 seconds behind the best time in qualifying. So he reached 20th place on the grid. In the race he retired after 32 laps due to an engine failure.

1973

In 1973 the team started under the name Frank Williams Racing Cars . Nanni Galli drove the B version of the first FX3 produced in the previous year in two world championship races. At the opening race in Argentina he was in 16th place on the grid. The engine already failed at the start, so that Galli could not even start the race. At the next race in Brazil he started from 18th place and finished ninth, two laps behind. For the third race of the season in South Africa , Williams registered the local racing driver Jackie Pretorius instead of Gallis . Starting from 24th place, Pretorius covered 32 laps before an overheated engine forced him to give up prematurely. Tony Trimmer achieved the best result of the FX3 / 1 in March 1973 when he finished fourth in the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch. However, the race had no world championship status, so the result did not bring any points for the constructors' championship. After this race the FX3 / 1 was no longer used; the team replaced it with the newly designed Iso-Marlboro IR1 .

The second, rebuilt FX3 chassis was driven by Howden Ganley in 1973 . Ganley finished three times; his best result was seventh place in the race in Brazil. He also drove the FX3 in the Race of Champions and in April 1973 in the BRDC International Trophy ; both times he failed prematurely. Then the second FX3 was also shut down.

Race results (Formula 1 world championship races)

driver	chassis	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	Points	rank
Automobile World Championship 1972																	0	-
H. Pescarolo	Politoys FX3							DNF
1973 Automobile World Championship																	0	-
H. Ganley	Iso-Marlboro FX3B	NC	7th	10
N. Galli		DNF	9
J. Pretorius				DNF

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

• Illustration of the Polititoys FX3 (1972)
• Illustration of the Iso-Marlboro FX3B (1973)
• Racing history of the Politoys FX3 on the website www.oldracingcars.com (incorrectly referred to there as Williams FX3)

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Maurice Hamilton: Frank Williams. The inside story of the man behind Williams-Renault. 1998, p. 40 f.
2. ^ ^{A b} David Hodges: AZ of Grand Prix Cars. 2001, p. 192 f.
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1. 2000, p. 558.
4. ↑ Maurice Hamilton: Frank Williams. The inside story of the man behind Williams-Renault. 1998, p. 39.
5. ↑ David Hodges: Racing cars from AZ after 1945. 14994, p. 210.
6. ↑ Cimarosti: The Century of Racing. 1997, p. 247.
7. ↑ For the different representations cf. David Hodges: Racing Cars from AZ after 1945. 1994, p. 210.
8. ↑ Statistics of the World Champion Victory Race on the website www.silhouet.com (accessed on October 7, 2013).