The new Jaguar Racing team takes over from the Stewart Grand Prix team that has only been active in Formula One since 1997. Started by the great Formula One driver, Jackie Stewart who was effectively the first professional Formula One driver. Not for reasons that are normally associated with that term though, but because instead of just jumping into the cockpit and racing his heart out, Jackie weighed up all the risks and tried to drive as slowly as possible, but still win races. He was champion three times over, so his way did, in fact, succeed. The Stewart team made an immediate impact in the Formula One arena, although victory seemed completely out of reach for them, coming up against the likes of Ferrari, McLaren and Williams.

It is not completely correct to sat that Stewart was formed from scratch because Jackie, together with son Paul, have been running Paul Stewart Racing since 1987, moving up through the ranks from Formula Ford via Formula Three and Formula 3000, engaging the services of drivers such as David Coulthard, Jan Magnussen and Gil de Ferran. For Stewart's first season in Formula One, it had a Ford powered V10 engine, a chassis designed by Alan Jenkins, Bridgestone tyres and Rubens Barrichello who had moved from the Jordan team. Jan Magnussen also drove for them that season, but suffered misfortune every race.

In 1997, Rubens gave the team it's first ever finish, and a second place at that! After a wet race in Monaco, the Stewart team added their tears of joy to all the other water on the circuit. Although the team failed to match that finish again that season or even score another point, progress was made. Both cars were running in the top six in Austria and Luxembourg before eventually retiring.

1998 saw the demise of Jan Magnussen, the team finally tiring of his constant failures, but it was the 99 season that gave them their greatest joy. The opening race of the season, Barrichello qualified in the top 4 and Johnny Herbert, his new partner was close behind. Joy turned to tears as Herbert's car burst into flames on the grid, soon followed by the demise of Barrichello. Although the season was one retirement after another for Herbert, Rubens had many points finishes and was running extremely well at Monaco before the car failed a few laps from the end. Barrichello was left sitting despondently by the side of the track, as another podium finish vanished before his eyes.

In an amazing wet/dry race at the Nurburgring, after selling the team to Jaguar, Jackie Stewart had reason for emotion. Johnny Herbert gave the team its first and last victory as Stewart racing. After only three years in competition they finished fourth in the constructors title, ahead of Williams, only by one point, but that one point was more than enough.

The year 2000 saw Stewart Racing formally gone with Jaguar Racing taking it's place. Jackie Stewart has always been a Ford man ever since he was in the cockpit and it came as no real surprise that he developed the company's top spec Formula One engines and eventually sold the team to Ford to ensure it had the best possible backing. Rubens Barrichello made the move to Ferrari, and the 99 runner up, Eddie Irvine joined in his place alongside their Nurburgring race winner, Johnny Herbert.

The year was a disappointment for all concerned, with reliability problems hitting from the opening race of the season. Johnny Herbert retired from the team and the sport at the end of the year and in his final year he failed to score a single point. Irvine on the other hand did score four points for the team with a fourth place in Monaco and a sixth at Sepang.

2001 saw the Irishman partnered with their 2000 test driver, Luciano Burti and after a complete shake up of the team by new CEO Bobby Rahal, however the Brazilian driver was replaced after the fourth race with de la Rosa stepping up into the vacant seat. Bobby Rahal was also dismissed with former world champion, Niki Lauda taking over the helm. A podium finish at Monaco was the best result throughout the year and they are hoping that the new R3, launched early in January, will bring their hopes to fruition and see them finishing in the top six more often.

This failed to occur and the R3 was actually a backward move on the R2, making them struggle to qualify away from the last few rows of the grid. Serious talks went on in high places and after a very dismal year, Niki Lauda was dismissed along with both drivers and the tram will start afresh in 2003 with Mark Webber and Antonio Pizzonia.