1974 Williams FW03

1974 Williams FW03

Originally built for the 1974 season, FW03 was the third chassis produced to the design of John Clarke the ex-March designer, who produced a neatly packaged F1 car. Development of the car was also aided by Gianpaolo Dallara and Ron Tauranac who worked for Frank Williams in the 1973/4 seasons.

Driven predominantly by Auturo Mezario who had moved from Ferrari to Williams over the winter, FW03 made its first appearance at the Spanish GP at Jarama, Mezario qualified an impressive 7th and running in a secure 4th place before Jean Pierre Jarrier's Shadow knocked the front wing and caused 'little Art' to have a little off... Another impressive qualifying at the Belgian GP saw the FW03 line up 6th on the grid along side Ronnie Peterson's Lotus and just behind eventual winner Emerson Fittipaldi's McLaren. Unfortunately transmission failure caused retirement after only 6 laps. Further retirements at the following Monaco, British, and French GP's were disappointing results for the speed that the car could show in qualifying.

The Italian GP held at Monza proved to be the highlight of the season for Williams and Mezario as he drove an impressive race to finish 4th overall behind Peterson, Fittipaldi and Jody Schekter's Tyrrell, and the 3 points awarded to Mezario and Williams in the Constructors Championship were valuable reward for team and driver.

FW03 was updated for 1975 with differing bodywork and continued to be raced by Mezario until later in 1975 before variouos drivers including Ian Schekter, Tony Brise and Jo Vonlanthan drove the car for the Williams team. As Walter Wolf bought the Williams team, FW03 was sold to Swiss driver Loris Kessel who entered the car for the 1976 Italian GP but did not practice, however he did enter and practice for the 1977 Italian GP in the car, now heavily reworked by Fly Studio, however a broken drive shaft caused the car not to start the GP its self. 

With documented history throught the 1980's until today, FW03 is remarkable having raced from 1974 -1977 in Formula 1. More recently the car has been rebuilt / restored by WDK Engineering in Stockbridge, and has been a participant at Monaco Historic GP as well as racing in Masters Formula 1 and Grand Prix Support events. It is offered for sale with spare parts including spare wheels, a recently rebuilt Ford Cosworth DFV engine by Geoff Richardson, and fresh crack test and fuel cell certificates carried out at the end of 2024.

As part of the sale we can also offer free entry into the Masters Racing Legends Series in 2025 for the buyer.