March began operations in 1969 and announced an extraordinarily ambitious debut programme for 1970, offering customer cars across Formula One, Formula Two, Formula Three, Formula Ford, and Can-Am simultaneously. The company's four founders divided responsibilities according to their expertise: Mosley handled commercial affairs, Rees managed the racing team, Coaker oversaw factory production in Bicester, Oxfordshire, and Herd served as the principal designer.
The Formula One effort opened with genuine promise. March supplied its 701 chassis to the Tyrrell organisation for Jackie Stewart, who delivered March's first Formula One victory at the 1970 Spanish Grand Prix. The factory team itself did not win a Grand Prix that year, but the breadth of the enterprise established March as an immediate presence across multiple categories.
The 1971 season produced the remarkable 711, featuring aerodynamics by Frank Costin and a distinctive oval front wing that earned the nickname "Spitfire wing" or "tea-tray." Ronnie Peterson finished second four times and ended the season as runner-up in the World Championship. The 1972 season was less successful, marked by the ill-fated 721X — which used an Alfa Romeo transverse gearbox — before the team recovered with the hastily conceived 721G, an F2-based chassis fitted with a Cosworth DFV that proved quicker than the experimental design and set the template for March F1 cars through the rest of the decade.
Success came again in 1975 when Vittorio Brambilla won the rain-shortened Austrian Grand Prix, and Lella Lombardi became the first woman to score a World Championship point at the Spanish Grand Prix that year. In 1976, Peterson returned to the team and won at Monza. By the end of 1977, with BMW pressing March to concentrate on Formula Two, the F1 assets and FOCA membership were sold to ATS.
March's most consistent successes during the 1970s and 1980s came outside Formula One. In Formula Two the team built a long and productive relationship with BMW, winning multiple championships. The 782 in particular was a dominant car in 1978. In IndyCar racing, March became the dominant marque through the early and mid-1980s; Cosworth-powered Marches won the Indianapolis 500 five consecutive times between 1983 and 1987, and at one point 30 of the 33 starters at Indianapolis were running March chassis.
March returned to Formula One in 1987 with the 871, sponsored by Japanese real estate company Leyton House and driven by Ivan Capelli. The programme gained serious momentum when Adrian Newey joined in August 1987 and designed the March-Judd 881 for Capelli and Maurício Gugelmin. The 881 was a genuine competitive force, scoring 22 championship points in 1988 and delivering a second place at the Portuguese Grand Prix. Its ultra-slim monocoque and aerodynamic concepts were widely copied by rival teams in 1989, and the project launched Newey's reputation as a leading designer.
In 1990 and 1991 the team raced as Leyton House Racing with Ilmor V10 power. At the 1990 French Grand Prix, Capelli and Gugelmin nearly produced one of the season's great upsets, running a one-stop strategy while their fuel-efficient Ilmor engine threatened to carry them to victory; Gugelmin suffered engine failure and Capelli was passed by Alain Prost only in the closing laps.
By the end of 1991 the Leyton House programme collapsed as team backer Akira Akagi became embroiled in the Fuji Bank financial scandal. The team was acquired by Ken Marrable and raced as March again for the 1992 season, but with minimal funding the results were modest and the effort closed down before the end of the year.
A complex series of corporate transactions saw the March group divest its racing interests through management buyouts and eventual sale to Andrew Fitton and Steve Ward. Ralt, which had merged with March, was continued at a reduced level by Ward, while Fitton wound March up entirely. In 2009, a company called March Racing Organisation applied to enter the 2010 Formula One season using the March name, but the entry did not progress to competition.
March's legacy in motorsport is broad and lasting. The company demonstrated that a well-run manufacturer of customer cars could sustain a racing operation across decades and multiple formulae simultaneously. Its contributions to Formula One design — especially through Newey's 881 — influenced technical thinking well beyond the team's own competitive record. In IndyCar, March cars defined an era. The tension between pure racing ambition and commercial pragmatism that characterised March throughout its history shaped many of the choices that ultimately ended the operation, but not before it had left an enduring mark on international motor racing.