Stewart Racing

**Stewart Racing** also known as **Paul Stewart Racing**is a motor racing team, led by ex-racing driver Paul Stewart, son of Sir Jackie Stewart. His father also ran the Formula One team, Stewart Grand Prix.

The team has had considerable success in the British Formula Three Championship.

## History of British Formula Three

### 1992 (de Ferran, Ribeiro)

Team Stewart Racing had a pairing of Brazilian drivers Gil de Ferran who switched from Edenbridge Racing after taking 3rd in the 1991 championship, and André Ribeiro who retained his drive with the Stewart team. Gil de Ferran won the title, having performed so brilliantly that it was mathematically impossible for anyone to overtake him in the later half of the championship. Andre Ribeiro had a difficult season and only scored 13 points.

### 1993 (Burt, Evans, Franchitti, Magnussen)

Kelvin Burt drove in all rounds of the season, switching to a Dallara chassis and won the title with 102 points, winning nine races. The second race seat was filled by three drivers during the season; Paul Evans for rounds 1 to 12, Dario Franchitti for round 13 and Jan Magnussen for rounds 14-15. The last two had performed so brilliantly that they earned full-time drives for the following season.

### 1994 (Franchitti, Magnussen)

Jan Magnussen won the title with an incredible and record-breaking 14 out of 18 races, whilst Dario Franchitti won the first round.

### 1995 (Firman, Castroneves)

   Stewart Racing had the British/Irish driver Ralph Firman and Brazilian Helio Castroneves as its race drivers in 1995. Despite winning six races, Firman was beaten to the title in the deciding race at Thruxton by his fellow Briton Oliver Gavin when Firman fell to 7th and Gavin finished in 3rd, giving him enough points to seal the championship. Stewart's other driver Castroneves, meanwhile, was third, with one race win, bringing the total number of wins to 7.

### 1996 (Firman, Kane)

Their winning streak began with the victory of Ralph Firman in 1996. The drivers won three races each and Kane's performance ensured he would be back with Sir Jackie and Paul's team next season. Firman was able to clinch the crown on his second attempt.

### 1997 (Kane, Dumbreck)

This was their perfect year, with their all-British line up proving unstoppable. The champion at the end was Jonny Kane, who had three wins in the first five races. Kane built on a strong finish to his 1996 campaign by scoring podium finishes at each of the first six races in 1997. This would be enough to keep title rival Nicolas Minassian at bay, who was hindered by a disqualification from second place and a two-race ban for unsportsmanlike behaviour at the third round at Thruxton. Dumbreck was in third, having one win which came at Oulton Park.

### 1998 (Burti, Haberfeld)

They had another brilliant season, their Brazilian drivers, Luciano Burti and Mario Haberfeld winning eight races between them. Haberfeld ended up being champion on 218 with six races wins to Burti's two. His team-mate was third in an all-Brazilian top three, the Stewarts split by Promatecme driver Enrique Bernoldi, in a repeat of last year.

### 1999 (Burti, Kirkaldy)

After their success of 1998, they kept the Brazilian Luciano Burti, and had a new driver in Andrew Kirkaldy, who took the seat from Haberfeld after his graduation to Formula 3000. Burti came so close to winning the Championship, the fourth in a row for a Stewart driver, but any hopes of that were scuppered after Burti's reckless driving got him disqualified from the penultimate round of the season at Silverstone, meaning that he lost the title to Marc Hynes by just 4 points. Kirkaldy started from Pole at Thruxton and had an average season and was 7th.