Ford Grand Prix

1997-1999

**Ford Grand Prix**, also known simply as Ford, was a Formula One works team founded by Ford Racing in mid 1996 set to compete for the 1997 season. The team preformed poorly in it's only three seasons, but did improve somewhat each year with a 3rd place finish at the 1999 Austrian Grand Prix by Dieter Ludwig Jr.

Ford Grand Prix would be re-organized in June of 1999, with an official rebrand to Jaguar Racing on 14 September 1999. The team has since been sold to Red Bull, who have christened the team as Red Bull Racing.

## History

### Formula One

#### 1997

With the debut of Ford Grand Prix set for the 1997 Australian Grand Prix on the weekend of 23 March, team principal Guenther Steiner stated he felt confident in pairing Austrian newcomer Stefan Scherz, who had just joined Formula One the prior year with Minardi, with experienced Norwegian driver Jasper Sætern. Sætern had previously been with Tyrrell from 1993 to 1996 and was looking to switch due to his mistrust of their engines.

The first lap was an immediate catastrophe for Ford. Jasper Sætern's Ford would start 23rd at the event, where he would be pushed to the inside on the straight headed for the first turn. He was held off by the Arrows of Tatsuno Takamori. Coming from the right side of turn two, Jasper looked to file in behind Dieter Ludwig Jr, but apparently had not anticipated the spin of Ferrari driver Ezequiel Zarco or the slowing down of the field. He drove blindly into the smoke just as Ligier's Rico Filippi bounced into his path. Upon contact with the Ligier, Jasper's head hit into his steering wheel and the car bounced into the air as all four tyres left the ground. Unconscious, Sætern's Ford backed into his teammate Stefan, taking the both of them out of the race.

Worse yet, during the crash Jasper had sustained a basilar skull fracture. His death was formally announced after his life support was turned off in The Alfred Hospital at 7:29pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time.

The passing of Sætern would thankfully be the last in Formula One, but would still cause a chaotic situation in which Ford would recruit CART race winner Heather Misako for the remainder of the 1997 season. Prior to her first race at the Brazilian Grand Prix, Misako stated that she knew next to nothing about Formula One but that she was prepared to learn and that she was hopeful that her time in Formula One would be good for the rehabilitation of her skills and push her to new boundaries. In 1996, Misako sustained a major leg fracture during a race at the Milwaukee Mile. Years later it would be revealed that the crash had done irreparable damage.

The Brazilian Grand Prix saw Scherz struggle at the Interlagos track, claiming a lack of downforce was holding him back throughout the circuit. He was able to climb through the rankings to finish 14th by race, beating his former Minardi teammate Ralf Goldbach to the line by just three-thousandths of a second in one of the closest finishes in Formula One history. Misako would be disqualified. Ford Grand Prix would miss the San Marino round at Imola after the Ford V8 engines were left stranded in Michigan after major transport delays. Because of this the team would be unable to run either drivers car and withdrew from the event on the Saturday morning when it became clear that the engines weren't going to arrive in time.

Misako would beat Scherz for the only time in 1997 during qualifying for the Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril. She would crash out on lap 3 while Scherz would only make it to turn 8. Misfortune for the Milton Keynes team continued at the first British Grand Prix at Silverstone since 1993. Misako had a troubled start but clawed her way up to as high as 10th by the end of the first lap from the back. Heather's race however would not end well, with a scary crash just after the halfway point when her car would spin out of control after a sudden drop from the curb into the grass unsettled the car. This race would ultimately convince her to announce her intentions to return to CART the following year. Scherz meanwhile would take his second finish of the season in 11th after major reliability issues during practice which had forced the Ford team to swap the engine from the chassis twice. These issues would lead to Stefan only completing six laps of the Silverstone track before the race started. Stefan's race engineer, Katharina Gärtner, described the circumstances after the race: "Him finishing was the most unlikely event of the weekend but he somehow made it happen anyway."

The German Grand Prix served as a turning point for Stefan and the team. The Austrian would spend most of the race just outside the points fighting against Ligier's Conor Byrne, Sauber's Andres Arrigondiaga and in the early stages of the race Minardi's Stine Olander. Eventually Stefan would find himself running in 11th position by the final lap before the rookie Bartholemew Worchestershire-Smythe would crash out from 7th in the final corner of the Hockenheim circuit, denying him a points finish on his debut race in the sport. However, Smythe's tragedy would quickly become Ford's triumph as the incident would elevate Scherz to 10th place by the finish line, scoring Ford Grand Prix's first point in Formula One.

Ford Grand Prix would miss the Belgian Grand Prix and field only Scherz at the Italian Grand Prix. The team had not accounted for such a turbulent season and thus faced severe financial issues that would plague them until their rebranding in 1999. Scherz's Italian Grand Prix would be mostly uneventful, if not for the Austrian suffering from viral gastroenteritis that remained throughout the weekend where he would finish 11th.

Misako would return for the Austrian Grand Prix, only for it to end in the final corner on lap 1 following her getting loose. She would however reach as high as 10th. Despite taking a ten second time penalty for an illegal pit entry, Stefan Scherz would finish in 10th place. He claimed post-race that a two-stop strategy would have pushed him up to 8th despite the FD-01's design generally performing better with longer stint-based strategies.

The season finale in Japan did initially appear to be great opportunity for the Ford team after Scherz qualified 9th with Misako close behind in 11th. In Heather Misako's final start, Stefan Scherz would impress upon her the importance of them getting points that day to beat Ligier in the championship. Despite Saturday's good fortune they would hit heartbreak in only the first two corners as both cars would collide twice; First on the turn one exit after Misako had oversteer, causing her FD-01's front end to rotate into Stefan's left sidepod. The second incident would come mere meters later into the beginning of the 'esses' as Scherz would abruptly close the door on Misako, compounding the teams misery. Despite damage to both cars (especially Stefan's) neither would retire.

Scherz would continue onwards, despite damage to both the rear wing and left sidepod of his car costing him significant lap time. The rear of the car would eventually collapse on lap 14 at *130R* after the damage from the first lap and a later collision with Jenrick Armitage-Barnes IV became too much. It was an incident that Stefan barely recovered from. The Austrian would run last until the finish line, almost catching the Sauber of Jan Toom by the end of the race.

Misako meanwhile spent the rest of the opening laps battling with Ralf Goldbach, Jan Toom, and most prominently the Ligier of Conor Byrne who she would battle for the entirety of the race starting on lap 11. In the closing laps of the race Misako would pile on the pressure to Byrne forcing a mistake that she would capitalize on, though she wouldn't lose the position there would be a few close calls.

Misako would finish in 9th while Byrne would finish in 10th. Stefan Scherz would finish in 13th meaning that Ford and Ligier would tie in the World Constructors Championship. The advantage would be given to Ligier for having finished 8th at the British Grand Prix.

#### 1998

With Misako leaving Formula One, Steiner would sign German driver Dieter Ludwig Jr. for the 1998 and 1999 seasons. Fielding an all German team, sponsorship from fellow German businessman and future owner of Jaguar Racing, Wolfgang Reitzle, began supporting the team financially. Ford's FD-02 was slated to iron out all of the issues from it's unreliable predecessor. The result was a car that finished more frequently. Midway through the season following a 10th place finish by Scherz, leaked news that Ford were extremely unhappy with Ford Grand Prix began to circulate. An important note was the possibility of a rebranding or the outright sale of the team in 2000, however this was quickly forgotten when two race weekends later Ludwig Jr. scored a then team high 4th place finish at the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix. With a strong second half to 1998, the team finished 9th in the World Constructors Championship with 15 points.

#### 1999

Stefan Scherz departed Ford for Arrows in 1999, leaving a spot for Irish driver Conor Byrne to join the team. Byrne would go on to stay with the team all the way until their second season as Red Bull from 1999 all the way to 2006. The big story for Ford Grand Prix would come shortly before the German Grand Prix where it was confirmed that the team would be undergoing a large scale rebrand under a new ownership group, though still highly connected to Ford. At the time it was widely assumed the team would undergo the name "Reitzle-Ford F1 Team" with copyrights for the name being filed and eventually abandoned following a decision by Ford to instead focus on promoting their premium sports car brand Jaguar.

Following Ford Grand Prix's best result at the Austrian Grand Prix, a 3rd place at the Austrian Grand Prix by Ludwig Jr., it was announced the team would become the Jaguar Racing F1 Team from the 2000 season onwards. Ford Grand Prix would end their final season with 20 points finishing 7th in the World Constructors Championship.