Sponsors

Politoys

Politoys was established in 1960 in Italy and produced a range of plastic injection-moulded model cars in Italy. This expanded into diecast model vehicles in 1965 and in 1971 the company approached Frank Williams and asked him to build it a Formula 1 car in 1972 in order to advertise the company. The new car was late arriving and when it did the prototype chassis was destroyed almost immediately by Henri Pescarolo. The company's involvement as a title sponsor in F1 was short-lived and at the end of the year it wirthdrew. It later changed its name to Polistil, to avoid confusion with the British firm Palitoy. This continued to build diecast models until it was taken over by the American firm Tonka in 1988. Tonka itself was acquired by the giant Hasbro company in 1991.