(Left to Right) Emerson Fittipaldi, Keith Duckworth, Walter Hayes and Henry Ford II during a November 1972 party celebrating the 50th victory for the Ford-Cosworth DFV engine.

Walter Hayes, Founding Father of the Ford Cosworth DFV, Passes Away

Walter Hayes, the Ford executive responsible for bringing the revolutionary Ford-Cosworth DFV engine into Formula One, has passed away at the age of 76.

Hayes began his career as the Editor of the Sunday Dispatch, a defunct London newspaper, before joining Ford in 1962. In 1966, Hayes and Cosworth founder Keith Duckworth came to an agreement whereby Ford would finance the development of a 3.0-liter, V-8 engine for Formula One competition. The result was the Ford-Cosworth DFV, which went on to become the most successful engine in the history of the sport.

(Left to Right) Emerson Fittipaldi, Keith Duckworth, Walter Hayes and Henry Ford II during a November 1972 party celebrating the 50th victory for the Ford-Cosworth DFV engine.