March Engineering

Based in: Bicester Founded: 1969 (active 1970-77, 1981-83 then 1987-92) Principal: Robin Herd, Max Mosley

March Engineering was created by a quartet of racing enthusiasts that gave the car its name: Max Mosley, Alan Rees, Graham Coaker and Robin Herd. They got together in 1969 and set up shop in a small factory in Bicester.

Incredibly they managed to secure the services of Jackie Stewart in the year after his first Championship win and in their first race in South Africa four March 701s took to the grid. Alongside running a F1 works team with Chris Amon amd Jo Siffert as drivers, March also produced customer cars for most of the top single seater formulae. Despite a win in Spain the car was proving to be too heavy to compete against the nimble Lotus 72s and so Herd returned to the drawing board and came up with the Type 711, often referred to as the 'tea-tray' car on account of its distinctive front wing. New signing Ronnie Peterson was the find of the year and finished the year in second place in the championship standings.

For his next effort Robin Herd penned the 721X which featured a gearbox mounted between the engine and the axle. The designed proved to be something of a pig and the team was forced to find a replacement. They came up with the 721G, based on their Formula 2 design. Apparently the 'G' designation was an in-house joke, standing for Guiness Book of Records, on account of how quickly the car was put together.

In 1973 Peterson moved on to Lotus and financial pressure forced the use of pay-drivers and beefed-up Formula 2 cars. It was to be two more years before the team won their first 'works' victory. It came at the hands of Vittorio Brambilla, the Monza Gorilla, who won a rain-shortened race in Austria and overcome with excitement managed to smash the car on his in-lap. Peterson came back for 1976 and won a race before quitting again.

Mosley left the team at the end of 1977, while Herd continued alone, building customer cars including a very productive period in IndyCar Racing. March became a public limited company at the time of its third Formula 1 entry and sold the operation to the sponsors Leyton House in 1989, with new owner Akira Akagi assuming control. After a financial scandal in Japan, the team resumed the familiar March name once again in 1992 and under the guidance of Ken Marble struggled through one final season.

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