Frank Williams had been a motor-racing enthusiast since a young age, and after a career in saloon cars and Formula Three, backed by Williams's shrewd instincts as a dealer in racing cars and spares, he realised he'd reached his peak as a driver and started entering other drivers, in particular his friend and sometime flatmate Piers Courage.

This allegedly angered Jack Brabham, as the car had been sold to Williams with the expectation that it would be used in the Tasman Series and then converted to Formula 5000.

Their efforts attracted the interest of Italian sports car manufacturer De Tomaso, who built a Formula One chassis (designed by Giampaolo Dallara) for the 1970 season.

The death of his friend seriously upset Williams; the subsequent distance the team principal placed between himself and his drivers has been attributed to this event.

French oil company Motul came on board for the 1972 season, enabling Williams to buy a new March 721 for Pescarolo,[1] while backing from Italian toy manufacturer Politoys provided money to build an in-house chassis.

It debuted in the hands of Pescarolo at the British Grand Prix, but the steering failed and the car was heavily damaged.

In its last appearance as the Politoys FX3, Chris Amon drove the car for the team in the end of season non-Championship 1972 World Championship Victory Race at Brands Hatch, but qualified only 20th and retired with engine failure.

[5] Galli was then injured testing a sports car and replaced for the following race in South Africa by local driver Jackie Pretorius.

Ganley was the only regular driver and he scored a point with the car at the Canadian Grand Prix towards the end of the season.

The two IR chassis were retained, now re-designated the FW after Frank Williams, but initially only a single car was entered for Arturo Merzario, who had replaced Ganley as the team's number one driver.

There was an early-season boost as Merzario placed sixth in the third race of the season in South Africa,[11] but when the second car was reintroduced, the string of paydrivers employed to drive it produced little in the way of results.

[15] A major shock came in Germany when a mixture of attrition and tenacious driving saw Laffite take the FW04 to second place behind the Brabham of Carlos Reutemann, bringing much-needed financial aid to a team on the point of collapse.