Jackie's Back in Formula One!

by Nicholas Frankl, Contributing Editor, The Auto Channel

  It was October 1973 when the Formula One circus met for the
US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen in upstate New York.  Traditionally 
one of the THE nicest, happiest events of the year it was going 
to be an exceptionally happy occasion, three times World Champion 
Jackie Stewart's 100th Grand Prix.
  It was not to be.  During Saturday's practice Jackie's team 
mate the brilliant young French driver Francois Cevert crashed 
his Tyrrel just after Turn One and was killed instantly.
We were all devastated.  Cevert was not only a good driver but
also a highly intelligent, charming individual who gave up
a promising career as a concert pianist to become a Grand Prix
driver.  He and Jackie were very close, more like brothers than
team mates.
 
  Stewart -understandably-refused to start in the race and a month
later announced his retirement from the sport in London's Carlton Tower
Hotel.   Apparently he was going to retire anyway,  but was hoping to
do so after his 100th Grand Prix.  The intention was to hand over
the No 1 Tyrrell to Cevert.
   
   As he said later:
"I expected to be Jackie Stewart, ex-racing driver, world champion
autograph signer, motor show visitor for about five years but
companies like Ford started to employ me and my name got bigger
and bigger."
   
   I should add that Jackie was an exception amongst racing
drivers, someone who always knew that after racing he had to
do something unless he wanted to end up running a driving school
or become a garage mechanic.  Let's be honest, millionaire ex-racing
drivers are few and far between. They were far, far fewer 20 years
ago.  The exception was Jackie.
   
   He was always aware of his own worth and had the intelligence
to sign up with Mark McCormack's IMG at a time when people in
England had no idea if McCormack was a rival to McDonald or
a brand of cheese.
   
   The combination resulted in contracts with TV stations, with
Ford Motor Co, with Rolex, with Moet & Chandon and a number of
other famous, international companies.
   
Back in 1969 I used to interview Jackie after every race for
CAR Magazine and was always amazed by his sheer
professionalism.  He was not a university graduate, he did not
have a particularly good education but he took the trouble to
learn, to better himself.
   
   The result?  He is a multi-millionaire.  He is also an accepted
member of the world's jet set, something that may appeal to some
and not to others.  To those to whom it does it is worth noting
that Jackie is a close friend of every member (and ex-member)
of the British royal family.  He is also a good friend of the
King of Jordan and the sort of celebrities who regularly appear
in Town & Country in the United States or Tatler in Great Britain.

   
   Jackie had several lucrative offers to return to racing but
having lost many close friends such as Cevert and Jim Clark
he decided that he would remain an ex-racing driver.
He was  reluctant to allow his elder son Paul to
take up racing but wisely let him get it out of his system.
Stewart Junior was never going to be as good as his father and
between them they came the conclusion that it would make more
sense to retire early but in one piece.
   
   Paul was already running a racing team, known as Paul Stewart
Racing and with Jackie's help, especially at talent spotting
they have done very well indeed.
   
Between Formula Vauxhall (a British company, part of GM),Formula
3 and Formula 3000 the team amassed a truly impressive 87
victories with the help of David Coulthard (winner of the 1995
Grand Prix in Portugal) now with McLaren, Gil de Ferran-1995
IndyCar Rookie of the Year-Jan Magnussen-McLaren test driver-
and others.
   
   Jackie will be Chairman of the new company-known as Stewart
Grand Prix-which will be based in Milton Keynes in England.
His son Paul will be Managing Director.
The team will have exclusive use of the new Ford Formula One
engine for 5 years,  They will appear on the Grand Prix scene
in March 1997.
   
   1996 will be devoted to secure additional personnel, facilities
and sponsorship to compete effectively in the world's top racing
formula.  They hope to test the new car by the autumn.
The amounts of money involved are truly amazing,  Some experts
reckon on an investment in excess of 300 million dollars in
five years.
   
   "The first year alone will cost over 25 million dollars" said
Jackie and the costs will keep rising.  Finance is the most
important part of the jigsaw, it will allow us to meet the
technical and personal requirements we need as a competitive
team.  It would be naive to expect us to become a front-runner
straight away.  It took Frank Williams 10 years to get where he
is, I hope it will take us less.
   
  Knowing Stewart I tend to agree.  He will have more money at
his disposal than most teams and he will also have Ford Motor
Company's backing. Not just financially but in the vital
technical, technological sense as well.  He will have instant access
to wind-tunnels and the sort of computers other teams just dream
of.
   
   As for drivers, well, with the exception of Schumacher who is
tied to Ferrari for 1996 and 1997 he can have his pick.  Hill
is known to be fairly unhappy at Williams and unless he starts
winning lots of races he will be looking for a new team.
Coulthard would feel very much at home with a fellow Scot who
provided his big break and the German Heinz-Harald Frentzen
has also got to be near the top of the wanted list.