Frank Williams and Piers Courage were friends long before a single car had turned a wheel. In the mid-sixties they shared a flat in Harrow — Williams without money but with an unshakeable plan to get his own team into Formula 1, Courage the heir to the English Courage brewing dynasty who would rather race than brew beer. When Williams started his own team in 1969, Courage was the obvious choice as his first driver. With a privately run Brabham they took two second places together that year, at Monaco and at Watkins Glen. For a private team with barely any budget, it was a sensation.
For 1970 Williams wanted to go a step further. The Italian industrialist Alejandro de Tomaso offered to build a complete car, designed by a young engineer who would later make his name: Gianpaolo Dallara. The result was the 505/38: a neat aluminium monocoque with the universally respected Ford Cosworth DFV in the back. On paper everything added up. In practice the car was too heavy and unreliable — magnesium was used in the chassis and suspension to save weight. A choice that would later weigh heavily.
The season was a struggle. In South Africa Courage retired, in Spain he was out after a crash in practice, and at Monaco he crossed the line but too far behind to be classified. In Belgium the oil pressure let him down. The 505 simply was not fast or reliable enough to fight for points. But Courage kept driving the way he always had: quick, smooth, and without complaining about the machinery.
On 21 June 1970 he raced in the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, starting from ninth. On the twenty-third lap it went wrong. The front suspension or the steering failed, the car shot up a sand bank, flipped over and caught fire. Piers Courage was killed instantly. He was twenty-eight. The loss hit Frank Williams very hard; the distance he always kept from his drivers afterwards is attributed directly to this day.
The project did not survive the season. Brian Redman and Tim Schenken drove the 505 in the remaining races, but without result. At the end of 1970 De Tomaso withdrew from Formula 1. Williams kept building his team — two years later he presented the Politoys FX3, his first car of his own. The project would eventually grow into one of the best-known teams in the history of the sport. This model marks the start of an important chapter of F1 history.