Alan Rees, co-founder of March and Arrows F1

Alan Rees had the honour of helping to found two Formula One teams and was one of the first 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 the meantime, he was recruited by Shadow to help put together the British operation for entry into Formula One in 1973.

Although a successful racing driver with a couple of Formula 2 wins on his CV, Rees never achieved the fame of some of his partners, including Max Mosley and Jackie Oliver. However, his name is enshrined in F1 history in the titles of the teams he helped set up. The monikers March and Arrows are derived from the initials of their creators, in the latter case with a bit of freedom.

Rees delivered the AR in mid-March, Mosley the M, Graham Coaker the C and Robin Herd the H. His was one of the R’s in Arrows – or perhaps both – in a looser abbreviation. The other letters came from the names of Franco Ambrosio, Oliver, Dave Wass and Tony Southgate.

There were more similarities between March and Arrows than how they got their names. Both were created in a hurry and appeared in a flood of headlines.

March Engineering was founded in 1969 as a builder of ready-made racing cars, including F1 machines, with much hype and little money. It was said that each partner had put in £2,500, although in later years Rees never hesitated to tell people that he believed he was the only one to have paid the full amount.

In addition to building F1, F2, Formula 3, Formula Ford and Can-Am cars for its first full season in 1970, March would run works operations in the three higher single-seater categories with Rees as team manager. Chris Amon would score a pair of F1 podiums in Herd’s Cosworth-engined 701 design running for the works team in its first year, while Jackie Stewart took a victory at the Spanish Grand Prix in a March run for Tyrrell while it awaited the arrival of its own car following the split from Matra.

Rees (right) helped found the March organization and played a pivotal role in Ronnie Peterson’s early career

Photo by: David Phipps

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

The formation of Arrows happened just as quickly in late 1977, after Rees and his cohorts left Shadow, taking backer Ambrosio with them. “Alan said, ‘If Olly goes, I’m going’,” designer Southgate recalled. “So I thought I’d better follow them.”

Like March, Arrows did everything quickly. The FA1 was designed and built in just three months, before the team had to produce a successor even faster. The fledgling team saw it coming when Shadow boss Don Nichols took the team to the High Court in London for copyright infringement. 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 managing the finances – he had a degree in economics from the University of Wales, Cardiff. He would remain in headphones at Arrows until the Footwork incarnation following the takeover by Japanese businessman Wataru Ohashi in late 1989.

He stepped down from the pit wall during the ’90 season, handing over the reins to John Wickham, who had brokered the Footwork deal but remained an integral part of the team as Finance Director. He and Oliver would regain control and ownership of the team, and it was not until Tom Walkinshaw retook a majority share in what had become Arrows in early ’96 that Rees departed.

Rees also played a key role in the creation of Shadow, being one of its first employees, along with Oliver and Southgate. Former BRM man Southgate led the design of what would become the DN1, while Rees was tasked with creating the infrastructure to build and run the wagons.

Rees (in hat, with Christian Danner and Thierry Boutsen) founded Arrows in 1979 after breaking away from Shadow

Photo by: Sutton Images

The buildings came via Nichols and his sponsor, Universal Oil Products: one of UOP’s sister companies provided a factory in Northampton, which Southgate had described as “effectively derelict and really in need of demolition”. The staff, meanwhile, came via Rees’ contacts. Among the March recruits was a young Roger Silman, who would later hold team management positions at Toleman and Tom Walkinshaw Racing during successful Group 2 touring car and Group C sports car campaigns with Jaguar and eventually Arrows.

“Reesy had a giggly, cheeky sense of humour, so he was always fun to be around,” Southgate recalls. “As an ex-driver, he was keen on finding new talent. I remember him telling me at Shadow in ’77 that we were going to go for this guy called (Riccardo) Patrese. I’d never heard of him! That was also the case when Tom Pryce arrived a few years earlier (1974). That was thanks to Reesy.”

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

Winkelmann’s time included two World Championship starts when F2 machines took to the F1 grid at the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, in 1966 and ’67, with a best result of seventh in the latter of those years. That season also included his only start in an F1 car when he drove a works Cooper-Maserati T81 to a ninth place at the British GP at Silverstone.

The son of a haulage contractor, Rees had begun racing a Lotus Eleven sportscar in 1959 before a switch to a Lola Mk1 saw him finish second in class in the Autosport Sportscar Championship the following year. The successes continued with his switch to single-seaters in Formula Junior: he won the British Automobile Racing Club championship fought over two heats and the 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 a move to Winkelmann.

The Rees name remained in motorsport after Alan left Arrows. His son, Paul, took up racing in the early 2000s, reaching the MotorSport Vision Formula Two Championship in single-seaters before moving up to the Porsche one-make ranks.

Southgate (centre, with Don Nichols, right) remembers Rees fondly as a talent spotter

Photo by: Motorsport Images