March Engineering
Headquarters	Bicester, Great Britain
Websites
Team Principles	Max Mosley GBR (1969-77) Alan Rees GBR (1969-71) Graham Coaker GBR (1969-70) Robin Herd GBR (1969-77)
Designers	Frank Costin GBR (1971) Peter Wright GBR (1970) Robin Herd GBR (1970-77)

March History & Team Record

Formed in 1969 by Max Mosley, Alan Rees, Graham Coaker and Robin Herd (the name coming from their initials: Mosley, Alan Rees, Coaker, Herd) to build racing cars for various formulas. After building a F3 car in 1969, Robin Herd designed the 701 for F1 powered by a Cosworth DFV engine. Along with the works team the company supplied customer cars to Tyrrell, Andy Granatelli and Colin Crabbe, with Jackie Stewart taking pole position in the opening South African GP and a win at the next race in Spain for Ken Tyrrell's team. Late in the season Stewart switched to the teams own 001 design but they continued to run the March 701 along side it. Reliability problems plagued the works cars, especially Jo Siffert - who failed to score a point - and both drivers left at the end of the season.

For 1971 the team produced the aerodynamically innovative 711 chassis with a raised ovoid front wing. Driven with some success by Ronnie Peterson (along with a revolving door of second drivers), the Swede took four second-place finishes on his way to being runner-up in the Drivers Championship. Alfa Romeo put their drivers Andrea de Adamich and Nanni Galli in a Alfa V8 powered chassis (Peterson also drove an March-Alfa in France) but it was not competitive and the Italian manufacturer withdrew at the end of the season. 1972 saw the start of more stable driving lineups as Peterson was paired with young Austrian Niki Lauda, however it was Peterson who scored all of the teams points and he left for the much more desirable drive with Lotus.

With Lauda going to BRM, the team had a completely new driver line-up for 1973 and the team fielded a single 721G chassis, dubbed 731, modified to meet the new safety regulations. However the success of the March-BMW F2 program began to eclipse the F1 team and little was done to develop the car during the season. STP reduced its sponsorship and then tragedy struck when Roger Williamson was killed in a fiery crash at Zandvoort during the Dutch GP. The team subsequently missed the German and Italian GPs.

The team went back to two cars with Hans Stuck sponsored by Jagermeister and Vittorio Brambilla backed by Beta Tools for 1974. Both proved to be fast at times but they also were very hard on the equipment and kept their maechanics very busy!  Brambilla stayed on for the 1975 season and the team started off with just one entry using the old 741 chassis. At the third race of the season in South Africa the team introduced the 751 for Brambilla and entered a second car for Lella Lombardi who became the first woman to score a World Championship point (actually half a point because the race was shortened) at the Spanish GP. After taking pole position in Sweden, Brambilla won the Austria (again worth only half points due to the race not running full distance due to rain).

As the 1976 season approached March came under more pressure from BMW to concentrate on F2 and the F1 team became almost an afterthought with up to 4 cars being entered with whatever sponsorship could be drummed up.  Ronnie Peterson returned to the team from Lotus after the opening round and brought a win (Italy), pole (Holland) and fastest lap (Italy) but  only scored points on two occasions and left for Tyrrell at the end of the season, knowing that the team did not have the resources to make a proper bid for the F1 title. With more than a little bid for publicity, the team unveiled the 6-wheel "2-4-0" concept car in the 76-77 off-season with a 761 chassis with 4 powered wheels at the back. Although tested, the team dropped the idea before the season started mainly due to the lack of funds for development.

The team limped into 1977 with two inexperienced drivers and a shoestring budget. The "Rothmans" cigarette livery looked good but the company was not paying much for the privilege!  The team ran a revised 761B for Alex Ribiero and Ian Scheckter, who was given the 771 chassis late in the season but with little success and at the end of the season Max Mosley and Robin Herd sold the assets of the F1 team to Gunther Schmidt of ATS. Mosley, of course, went on to become the head of FOCA and the FIA, while Herd stayed on as a consultant for ATS before concentrating on non-F1 March projects.

After great success in F2 in the intervening years, Robin Herd teamed with RAM Racing to re-enter F1 in 1981 with awful results. Eliseo Salazar quit the team after Monaco following a string of DNQ's so the team continued with a single car for Derek Daly who qualified for several later races but failed to score any points.

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