March

Interesting facts

March Engineering was founded in 1969 by four partners: Max Mosley (commercial affairs), Alan Rees (team management), Graham Coaker (production at the Bicester factory) and Robin Herd (design), the company name was built from their initials. The venture launched with startling ambition: after building just a single Formula 3 car in 1969, March announced customer cars for F1, F2, F3, Formula Ford and Can-Am for 1970 all at once, while also running its own works teams in F1, F2 and F3, building ten Formula 1 chassis that year alone. The gamble paid off immediately: Jackie Stewart won the 1970 Spanish Grand Prix in a customer March 701 run by Tyrrell, a remarkable early success for a brand-new constructor. Ronnie Peterson became the team's talisman in the mid-1970s, finishing second in the 1971 Drivers' Championship in the March 711 without a single win. A structural tension ran through the company: a competitive works F1 programme demanded constant development spending, while the profitable customer-car business competed for the same resources, a conflict that, through the 1970s, increasingly pushed March toward being primarily a customer-car manufacturer rather than a front-running works F1 team. March's Formula 1 history ran from 1970 to 1992, 13 seasons in total as a British team. The team scored a total of 139.5 constructors' championship points.