March and Arrows F1 co-founder Alan Rees dies aged 86

Alan Rees had the distinction of helping to found two Formula 1 teams, and was one of the earliest employees of a third. The Briton, who has died aged 86 after a long illness, was a partner in both March and Arrows, which entered the grand prix arena in 1970 and ’78 respectively. In between times, he was recruited by Shadow to put together its UK operation for an F1 entry in 1973.

Although he had been a successful driver with a couple of Formula 2 wins on his resume, Rees never became as well known as some of his partners, Max Mosley and Jackie Oliver included. Yet his name is enshrined in F1 history in the titles of the teams he helped set up. The March and Arrows monikers were derived from the initials of their creators, in the latter case with a bit of licence.

Rees provided the AR in the middle of March, Mosley the M, Graham Coaker the C and Robin Herd the H. His was one of the Rs in Arrows – or perhaps both of them – in a slightly looser acronym. The other letters came from the names of Franco Ambrosio, Oliver, Dave Wass and Tony Southgate.

There were greater similarities between March and Arrows than the way they acquired their names. Both were created in a rush and burst upon the scene in a flurry of headlines.

March Engineering was established in 1969 as a builder of off-the-shelf racing cars, F1 machinery included, with a lot of hype and not much money. Each partner was said to have put in £2500, though Rees in later years was never slow to tell people that he reckoned he was the only one to have provided the full amount.

As well as building F1, F2, Formula 3, Formula Ford and Can-Am cars for its first full season in ’70, March would run works operations in the higher three single-seater categories with Rees as team manager. Chris Amon would score a couple of F1 podiums with Herd’s Cosworth-engined 701 design driving for the works team in year one, while Jackie Stewart took a victory, at the Spanish Grand Prix, in a March run by Tyrrell while it awaited the arrival of its own car following its split from Matra.

Rees (right) helped set up the March organisation and played a crucial role in Ronnie Peterson’s early career

Photo by: David Phipps

The following season Ronnie Peterson took five podiums with the 711 on the way to second in the championship behind Stewart and the new Tyrrell. The same year the Swede dominated the European F2 Championship with the works March team, winning five of the 11 rounds.

The establishment of Arrows was equally rapid at the back end of 1977 after Rees and his cohorts walked out of Shadow, taking backer Ambrosio with them. “Alan said, ’If Olly’s going, I’m going’,” recalls designer Southgate. “So I thought I might as well follow them.”

Like March, Arrows did things in a hurry. The FA1 was designed and built in just three months before the team had to produce a successor even more rapidly. The fledgling team saw the writing on the wall when Shadow boss Don Nichols took the team to the High Court in London alleging infringement of copyright. When the American won the case, Arrows had the A1 ready to go.

Rees was again TM at Arrows and also played a key role in looking after the finances — he had a degree in economics from the University of Wales in Cardiff. He would remain in the headphones at Arrows into its Footwork incarnation after the buy-out by Japanese businessman Wataru Ohashi at the end of 1989.

He stepped off the pitwall during the ’90 season, handing the reins to John Wickham, who had brokered the Footwork deal, but remained an integral part of the team as financial director. He and Oliver would regain control and ownership of the team, and only when Tom Walkinshaw took a majority share in what had become Arrows again early in ’96 did Rees depart.

Rees also played a key role in the establishment of Shadow: he was one of the first employees along with Oliver and Southgate. Former BRM man Southgate headed up the design of what became the DN1, while Rees had to create the infrastructure to build and run the cars.

Rees (in hat, with Christian Danner and Thierry Boutsen) went on to found Arrows in 1979 after breaking away from Shadow

Photo by: Sutton Images

Premises came through Nichols and his sponsor, Universal Oil Products: one of UOP’s sister companies provided a factory in Northampton, which, says Southgate, “was basically derelict and really wanted pulling down”. The staff, meanwhile, came via Rees’s contacts book. Among the recruits from March was a young Roger Silman, who would go on to team management roles with Toleman and Tom Walkinshaw Racing across its successful Group 2 touring car and Group C sportscar campaigns with Jaguar and finally Arrows.

“Reesy had a chuckily, cheeky sense of humour, so was always fun to be around,” recalls Southgate. “As an ex-driver he was enthusiastic about finding new talent. I remember at Shadow in ’77 when he told me we were going to go for this kid called [Riccardo] Patrese. I’d never heard of him! It was the same when Tom Pryce arrived a few years before [1974]. That was down to Reesy.”

Rees moved into team management when he was recruited by Roy Winkelmann Racing in 1963 as a driver and TM in Formula Junior, which was followed by a move to F2 in ’63. His two wins over a five-year stint in the formula came on the Reims road circuit in 1964 and at Enna in ’65, both times at the wheel of Brabham chassis – and both by just a couple of tenths. He was also instrumental in bringing future F1 world champion Jochen Rindt to the team in ’65.

The time at Winkelmann included two world championship starts when F2 machinery joined the F1 grid at the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, in 1966 and ’67, a best result of seventh coming in the last of those years. That season also included his only start in an F1 car when he drove a works Cooper-Maserati T81 to ninth place at the British GP at Silverstone.

The son of a haulage contractor, Rees had started racing with a Lotus Eleven sportscar in 1959 before a switch to a Lola Mk1 yielded a class runner-up spot in the following year’s Autosport Sportscar Championship. The successes continued on his move to single-seaters in Formula Junior: he won the British Automobile Racing Club championship fought out over two heats and final at Goodwood in support of the Tourist Trophy sportscar race in 1961 driving a Lotus for Ian Walker Racing. That led to a works Lotus FJ drive the following year before the move to Winkelmann.

The Rees name continued in motorsport after Alan stepped away from Arrows. His son, Paul, started racing in the early 2000s, reaching the MotorSport Vision Formula Two Championship in single-seaters before a switch to the Porsche one-make ranks.