In June 1999 Ford bought Jackie Stewart's team for around a hundred million pounds. Three months later it had a new name. Stewart Grand Prix became Jaguar Racing, and the white car with the Scottish tartan turned British Racing Green, with the leaping jaguar across the rear. The factory in Milton Keynes stayed the same, as did the people and the Cosworth engine. Only the money now came from Detroit.
Ford wanted a big name straight away, and found one at Ferrari. Eddie Irvine had very nearly won the 1999 world title: when Michael Schumacher broke his leg at Silverstone, Irvine became Maranello's team leader. He won four races and lost the championship at Suzuka by only two points to Mika Häkkinen. Jaguar reportedly paid him fifteen million dollars a year. Alongside him stayed Johnny Herbert, who had taken Stewart's only victory at the Nürburgring in 1999.
The R1 was essentially a further development of the Stewart SF-3, designed under Gary Anderson. In the back sat the Cosworth CR-2, a V10 of roughly 805 horsepower. In qualifying the car was sometimes surprisingly quick, but in the races things went wrong. The gearbox was unreliable and the race pace disappointing. On top of that, the culture in Milton Keynes clashed with Ford's bureaucracy, and Anderson clearly struggled with it.
Irvine retired from the first two races. His first points did not come until the seventh round, in Monaco. He started tenth. While one car after another dropped out ahead of him, he drove a faultless race. Michael Schumacher led until lap 55, when a cracked exhaust damaged the suspension of his Ferrari. David Coulthard won, and Irvine finished fourth, more than a minute behind. They were the first world championship points in Jaguar's history.
After that it went quiet. In Austria Irvine did not start because of appendicitis, and Luciano Burti took his place. Only in the final race, in Malaysia, did he score again: sixth place, one point. Herbert, in his last Formula 1 season, did not score a single point and ended his career at Sepang with a heavy crash caused by a broken suspension. Jaguar finished ninth in the constructors' championship with four points. Only Minardi and Prost did worse.
My model is a 1:43 Hot Wheels: number 7, metallic green and white, HSBC on the flanks and Irvine's name by the cockpit. On the sidepods it says Best's instead of Beck's, as the car ran at races where alcohol advertising was banned. I bought it in 2020. In my register there is a short note next to it: was team Stewart Ford. That is why, in my display cabinet, it stands not far from Jos Verstappen's white Stewart. But here is what makes it even better: today's Red Bull team of his son Max Verstappen is, in fact, the further development of that same Stewart Ford team this Jaguar grew out of.