Jackie Stewart: F1 team owner
Jackie Stewart has never retired. He may have been out of a cockpit since 1973, but as a team owner, mentor, car developer and charitable campaigner, Stewart has never quit. He changed the sport in many ways beyond being just a driver... Paul Fearnley outlines his influence
Stewart Grand Prix was a logical progression from the family’s Paul Stewart Racing team, which had won multiple junior championship titles since its foundation in 1988. With substantial backing from long-time ally Ford, Stewart made its F1 debut in 1997 and finished ninth in the World Championship for Constructors. Here, the team principal is pictured on the grid at Monza, where Rubens Barrichello placed 13th and Jan Magnussen retired
The ‘Staircase of Talent’, with its blazers and flannels, was not to everybody’s taste. Jan Magnussen, for instance, failed to flourish on his arrival in Formula 1. The fact Stewart had stated that the Dane could be the next Senna hadn’t helped, though in fairness he wasn’t alone in thinking that. But the likes of David Coulthard, Dario Franchitti (prior to an F3 nightmare as team-mate to Magnussen) and Gil de Ferran flourished at Paul Stewart Racing, the dominant force in national single-seater racing of the 1990s, with more than 130 victories and 10 championship titles. Juan Pablo Montoya, a less obvious ‘product’ admittedly, Helio Castroneves and Allan McNish also passed through its doors. Alumni that would combine to score 20 grand prix wins – including three at Monaco – plus 10 Indy 500s and three Le Mans victories. Ralph Firman Jr, the late Justin Wilson and Luciano Burti made it as far as F1, too. It wasn’t just about drivers: this team was geared to promote promising talent across motor sport.
Its graduation to F1 as Stewart Grand Prix in 1997 was a giant leap nevertheless.
Much had changed since Ken Tyrrell spent £22,000 of his own money and wheeled out the resultant F1 car from within a large shed comprised of two ex-Army barracks screwed together. Stewart was reckoning on $35 million of sponsorship money and a new factory – a fourth relocation in 10 years such were the pace and size of the team’s expansion. Instant competitiveness, he knew, would likely be beyond it even so. The catalyst to this was the conversation that Stewart had dreaded: son Paul asking for help to follow in his wheel tracks. Now he knew the sickening unease ‘Mother Stewart’ had felt.
After six seasons behind the wheel – including an F3 victory at Snetterton despite crossing the finishing line going backwards! – Paul stepped from the cockpit to help his father found an F1 team from scratch: the most stressful – “a prime candidate for a heart attack” – yet rewarding period of Stewart’s career in motor sport. There would be no magic wand; even long-time supporter Elf proffered a polite but dispiriting ‘non’.
The strain shows on the faces of Paul and Jackie Stewart as they sit on the pit counter at Suzuka, Japan, during the 1998 season finale. The team had scored one point fewer than it managed during its debut campaign
Underpinned by a five-year development deal with Ford centring on the free supply of Cosworth engines, the team finished second at only its fifth attempt, courtesy of Rubens Barrichello at Monaco – but thereafter it was unable to avoid the reliability issues. Tyrrell, by now a constructor of more than 25 years’ standing, had warned that the most difficult aspect would be getting the engineering right – and logistical pitfalls that typically befall a fledgling outfit. A switch to treaded tyres in 1998 didn’t help it either.
Its third season, however, bristled with promise – and brought a GP victory. Brazilian Barrichello led his home race at Interlagos before suffering engine failure, and he finished third at Imola and – from pole position – at Magny-Cours. But it would be new team-mate Johnny Herbert who won a chaotic rain-hit European GP at the Nürburgring; Barrichello finished third. A fine fourth in the constructors’ standings was the end result. By which time the founders had sold the team – call it Scottish canniness – to Ford, which in turn had dreams of creating a ‘green Ferrari’ via the marketing/promotion of another of its recent acquisitions.
Jaguar Racing was supposed to be the next step – Stewart had calculated the cost of joining the ‘Big Boys’ and decided that it was out of his reach – but instead it became a prime example of how not to do it. A revolving door of CEOs, though they included the likes of Bobby Rahal and Niki Lauda as well as naive appointees lacking the necessary experience, created a top-to-bottom instability. Stewart remained on the board until 2004 – a far from enjoyable experience.
Only when Red Bull bought the team in 2005 and persuaded Adrian Newey to join – something Jaguar had tried and failed – were the finances and facilities necessary to advance found.
Sir Jackie Stewart (knighted in 2001) did not throttle back. As president of the British Racing Drivers’ Club – succeeding at the request of great friend Tyrrell, taken by cancer in 2001 – he battled to secure Silverstone’s future as venue to the British GP. Having long been at the forefront of this country’s motor sporting hegemony, he rails against any complacency.
He also fought his own battle against cancer and supported Paul and Helen through theirs. Today he is racing against the dementia gradually robbing him of his soulmate – and for the millions of others experiencing the same agony. He has helped fellow dyslexics, plus racing mechanics fallen on hard times.
Stewart was a brilliant driver and the success that skill brought him lies at the core of his fame. But he is the most influential racing driver because of everything he has since achieved. Our sport would be unrecognisably different without him. Be thankful that he missed that clay pigeon in 1960.