Wolf

Wolf78b
Bobby Rahal's Wolf at Monaco.

Wolf

The name Wolf is more usually linked with the team that enjoyed a short sojourn in F1 in the second half of the ’70s but a Wolf also appeared in F3 briefly as well. In 1975 Canadian Walter Wolf became involved with the then unsuccessful Williams team, he bought up the remains of the failed Hesketh team and in 1976 the Williams cars were often called Wolf-Williams. Wolf bought up 60 per cent of the Williams team and soon after Frank Williams left the team leaving Wolf in charge. In 1977 he set up a new team, bought in Harvey Postlethwaite to design the WR1 and Jody Scheckter to drive it, the result, a win first time out and two more victories during the season. This competitiveness was not continued, the ground effect Wolfs (Wolves?) WR5 and WR7 were not very effective devices and results in ’78 and ’79 despite having Scheckter, Hunt and Rosberg were poor and at the end of ’79 Wolf withdrew from F1.

1978

Giampaolo Dallara designed the WD1 of which three were built, two for Walter Wolf Racing and one for an Italian privateer. The monocoque proved to be too flexible and it was stiffened during the course of the season. Suspension was conventional and a Toyota Novamotor was fitted, apparently a Hewland FT200 gearbox was used which, if correct, is odd as this is the F2 spec ‘box, the Hewland Mk9 5-speed is the normal unit. Although it is true that in the mid-eighties using a FT200 in F3 was a recognized “tweak” adopted by some teams so perhaps Wolf were just ahead of the times. The car was generally outclassed by the more established marques, Chevron, March, Ralt etc. but there were occasions when it showed potential especially as it was sorted. Rahal managed 3rds at the Nurburgring and Österreichring and 4th in a heat at Monaco.

1979

For 1979 one Wolf went to Italy and became a Emiliani (see Emiliani entry for details.)

Drivers

1978 Roberto Farneti, Horst Fritz, Miguel Angel Guerra, Anders Olofsson, Bobby Rahal.

1979 Guido Pardini.

Wolf78
Horst Fritz on the debut of the Wolf at Zolder.

Willys-Gavea

WG
Team driver Luiz Pereira Bueno looking very small in the Willys-Gávea.

Willys-Gavea

Announced in early 1966 in Brazil, the Willys-Gávea was claimed to be suitable for F3, F2 even F1, the spaceframe chassis was built from 1.25 inch tubing and was fitted with a Renault engine and gearbox, outboard discs and Dunlop tyres were also included. The car raced in F3 guise in the 1966 Temporada series without much success, the best finish was ninth at the second round held at Parque Independencia in Argentina, and any F1 or F2 versions would seem to have been non-starters. The driver of the Willys-Gávea was Wilson Fittipaldi, later to enter F1 with the Brabham and Copersucar teams in the mid-seventies, he was of course also brother of Emerson and father of Christian who drove for Minardi and Arrows in F1 before moving to CART and NASCAR. Thanks to José Alberto Parise for additional information.

Drivers

1966 Wilson Fittipaldi.

Wheatcroft

Wheatcroft
The F3 version of the Wheatcroft R18.

Wheatcroft

Tom Wheatcroft will forever be associated with Donington Park, it was his money, determination and enthusiasm that saw the rebuilding of Donington into a Grand Prix standard circuit, the same enthusiasm and determination that saw a Grand Prix held there, the same enthusiasm and determination that saw the creation of the wonderful Donington Collection of racing cars. It is therefore surprising that when Tom turned to racing car construction it seemed slightly halfhearted, many people feel that Tom never felt quite the same about being personally involved with racing after the death of Roger Williamson. The Mike Pilbeam designed R18 appeared in 1975 in F Atlantic specification and was raced that season to some race wins by Peter Morgan. In August of that year an F2 version was built with a Hart-BDA and Henton finished 3rd at Silverstone the car then going to South Africa for F Atlantic racing.

1977

John Bright, working on a shoestring budget, converted the ex-Peter Morgan F Atlantic car to F3 specification in Wheatcroft’s workshop. The car retained the full-width nose with a slim monocoque and hip-mounted radiators. The suspension was by double wishbone with inboard coils and dampers at the front. The fuel was contained in a single cell behind the driver which helped keep the tub slim. A Toyota Novamotor was the chosen power source. The only result was an early season 6th at Thruxton although Bright did win a non-championship race, at Donington coincidentally.

1978

Bright continued to use the R18 in unmodified form for the beginning of the 1978 season, a couple of good results were the reward with a 4th at Silverstone and a 6th at Thruxton. Bright then switched to a March 773 to finish the year.

Drivers

1977 John Bright.
1978 John Bright.

Wheatcroft77
John Bright takes the Wheatcroft through the Donington chicane.
Wheatcroft78
John Bright in the R18.

West

west
west

West

Three of the Toyota powered West 379 cars appeared in the 1980 Japanese F3 Championship. All three cars were at best midfield runners with a best finish of eighth for Ken’ichi Takeshita

Drivers

1980
Nobuyoshi Kishimoto, Moritoshi Ootsuka, Ken’ichi Takeshita.

Wainer

wainer62
The Wainer of Giancarlo Gagliardi chases a De Sanctis in the "B" Final on the 1967 Monza Lotteria.

Wainer

Based in Milan and owned by Gianfranco Mantovani, Wainer have produced a small number of cars on a fairly regular basis without ever showing any sign of wanting to grow any larger. The first Wainer was a Formula Junior car built in 1958 with which Corrado Manfredini achieved some respectable results. For the rest of the Formula Junior era Wainer continued to produce cars and unlike some Italian manufacturers were prepared to offer up to date designs and the latest Ford engines, Ernesto Brambilla made his name driving one of these cars. Wainer continued to produce F3 cars through the mid ’60s and then took a break although occasional F3 cars continued to appear through to the end of the 1980s without achieving any worthwhile results. Details of the specifications of the cars and when they were introduced isn’t available at this time except for those shown below.

1980

Close scrutiny of this picture shows some very unusual features, there is no rear wing, no front wings and the side pods seem to be full length and actually to enclose the front suspension. The radiators could be in the middle of the car and are ducted out of the top of the sidepods, both front and rear suspension looks very wide track and the rear at least looks to be inboard. It was fitted with an Alfa Romeo engine. The body design seems to have been influenced by the 1979 Brabham BT49. Clearly an interesting design, sadly it does not seem to have been competitive.

1985

A honeycomb monocoque chassied car, entered as a Wainer-Mantovani and driven by Marino Mantovani without success.

1989

The 893 was raced in the 1989 Italian F3 Championship by Swiss driver Franco Forini. It resembled the standard late eighties design template but scored no worthwhile results and seemingly the team was accused of fuel irregularities.

Drivers

1964 Romolo Baston, Ernesto Brambilla, Giuseppe Colnaghi, Bruno Deserti, Carlo Franchi, Corrado Manfredini, Gianfranco Moroni, Giancarlo Rigamonti, Andrea Tosi.

1965 Ernesto Brambilla, Carlo Franchi, “Geki”, Luigi Malanca, Marco Macciantelli, Corrado Manfredini, Romano Orsola, Giuseppe Piazzi, Alfredo Simoni.

1966 Mario Bonomi, Alessandro Braga, Angelo Caffi, Giancarlo Gagliardi, “Geki” (Giacomo Russo), Michele Licheri, “Ludy”, Luigi Malanca, Corrado Manfredini, Roberto Marniga, Romano Orsola, Aldo Pessina, Giuseppe Piccini, Sandro Uberti.

1967 Giancarlo Gagliardi, Giuseppe Simini.

1968 Giancarlo Gagliardi.

1980 Marino Mantovani.

1985 Marino Mantovani.

1989 Franco Forini.

wainer
Marino Mantovani in his Wainer.
wainer89
Franco Forini in the 893.