With the definitive transfer of ownership of the Stewart Grand Prix team to the Ford Motor Company, the new Jaguar Racing Team was born. The operation was defined on 1999 September 14 and the name Jaguar was chosen by Ford itself as a global marketing operation to promote the Jaguar sports car company, owned by Ford itself. Despite this, no technology from Jaguar was used, but the know-how gained by Ford itself in recent years in Formula 1, first alongside Benetton and then Stewart, was used in all respects.
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| JAGUAR R1, Johnny Herbert Imola, San Marino GP 2000 |
The team's headquarters still remains in Milton Keynes, a city in the United Kingdom in south-east England in Buckinghamshire, former home of the team that belonged to the Stewarts, and Wolfgang Reitzle, at the time head of Ford's Premier Automotive Group, is appointed as Team Manager, while Bobby Rahal, a man with great experience in overseas racing, is appointed as Managing Director. The group of technicians working on the new Jaguar R1 remains the same as last season with Gary Anderson and Darren Davis, both arriving from Jordan, who still hold the role of Technical Director and Chief Aerodynamicist while for the role of Designer, the choice was made to replace the pair Dave Amey and Simon Smart with an internal designer at Ford, Engineer John Russell.
JAGUAR R1, Eddie Irvine
Hockenheim, Germani GP 2000
The new R1, despite starting from the valid project of the previous Stewart SF3, presents many aerodynamic differences starting from the nose that is slightly lowered resembling very much that of the McLaren MP4/14 of '99. The sides are very high and with a shape that recalls the violin-box sides introduced by Barnard a decade earlier. The engine hood is much narrower than before, thanks to the new Ford-Cosworth CR-2 V10 further slimmed down even if its power remains unchanged always developing 770hp at 16500 rpm, still far from the performance of the Ferrari and Mercedes engines. The engine air intake becomes triangular while the two flow diverters positioned in front of the rear wheels are more accentuated compared to the almost rectilinear ones seen on the SF3. Under the skin, however, the new Jaguar R1 presents many new features starting from the new lightened chassis, the new rear suspension with the shock absorber moved to the lower part of the gearbox with the aim of lowering the weight. For the same reason, the lubrication system was also revised, completely new but at the origin of most of the failures suffered by the two R1s during the season.
JAGUAR R1, Johnny Herbert
Melbourne, Australian GP 2000
On the driver front, the team signed the 1999 world championship runner-up, Northern Irishman Eddie Irvine, arriving from Ferrari, and confirmed the experienced Johnny Herbert, in his last season in Formula 1, as well as the Brazilian Luciano Burti as third driver who during the season and precisely on the occasion of the Austrian Grand Prix, replaced the injured Irvine thus making his debut in Formula 1. The car proved to be largely disappointing despite flashes of competitiveness, especially in the hands of Eddie Irvine who was regularly able to qualify his R1 in the top ten. If on a flying lap the new Jaguar proved to be sufficiently competitive, in race pace it was often slow and above all with serious reliability problems often due to the gearbox-clutch system.
JAGUAR R1, Johnny Herbert
Montecarlo, Monaco GP 2000
The debut season of the new English team did not start according to expectations and in the first two races of the Championship both R1s were forced to retire. Only in qualifying did the car prove to be competitive, with Irvine obtaining the sixth time in Brazil while in the race things improved only in Montecarlo where the Northern Irishman again came fourth thus bringing the first points to the team. The rest of the season, however, was made up of many finishes outside the points zone and with the usual flashes of competitiveness in qualifying with the sixth time of Irvine in Canada, the eighth of Herbert in Germany and the two seventh times of Irvine in Japan and Malaysia. It was on the Sepang circuit that the single-seater scored its last point of the season, with the Northern Irish driver crossing the finish line in sixth position while Herbert, in his last race in Formula 1, was the victim of a frightening accident caused by the failure of the suspension from which he fortunately emerged unharmed and with only minor injuries. The season ended with only 4 points, obtaining a disappointing 9th place in the Constructors' Championship, ahead of only Minardi and Prost.
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