Jackie Stewart: Banking on more success

"It is true that I have created a relationship with the Royal Bank of Scotland. I cleared it with HSBC before I even went to meet the CEO, Sir Fred Goodwin. I called up John Bond, went to see him personally and said, before I've even met a competitor, I've had a call, I've been head-hunted, and before I go to see them I want you to know that I am going to see them. I don't have a contract with HSBC and never have had. I've been very loyal and conscientious to HSBC since they became sponsors of Stewart GP, and it was me who renewed their contract for Jaguar Racing. But I had no personal relationship as such.

"I've had a wonderful time with HSBC, and I will service the relationship until the end of 2004, which is logical. From my point of view I have no conflicts. My contract with the Ford Motor Company is due to expire at the end of this year, and that includes my relationship with Jaguar Racing. Whether that goes on or not is another matter."



"This is where there's a misconception. Royal Bank of Scotland has made no decisions about whether they are going to come into motor racing or not. That's a fact. They could come in and I would like them to come into F1 particularly, but they could go to the American Le Mans series because they are big over there, and they could come in for corporate hospitality only. Or circuit advertising only.

"If they do come in with a team they will unquestionably look at the whole field and I think there will be at least four or five teams, minimum, in this paddock who, whether it's for 2005, 2006 or 2007, will be submitting proposals for consideration. Not for my decision but for the decision of the chief executive and his team. So therefore there is no truth in any rumour that Williams is going to sign a deal with RBS."



"Listen, I think McLaren would be very sad to hear that, and so would BAR and so would Ferrari and Jaguar. Take it from me, there has been no decision made. Even on whether they are going to be in motor sport. It's a good assumption that they are interested if they have taken the position of going with me, but they want me not only in the area of sport but in business."



"I'm sure they will listen. But I know Sir Fred Goodwin very well, for over 20 years, and he's one of the better decision-makers in the financial services world and business in general. He will consult with his team and decide whether this is the global activity that will enable them to take full advantage of sport, or should we stick with golf, or rugby, or other sports."



"No, I don't think that's true at all. Of course I'm very close to Ford and the senior management but I am not involved in the day-to-day running of Jaguar Racing at all. I'm a board member but I don't know what their plans are and I haven't discussed with Bill Ford or anybody else what Ford, the parent company is going to do, or what Jaguar is going to do in the future. And that includes as near as 2005."



"I don't know. I think Jaguar Racing will be around. I hope for a very long time. I've always said that. I think it would be a great loss to Formula 1 if a team is lost, whatever branding is involved. It would not be good for F1 and I for one would be enthusing that Jaguar should be allowed to continue."



"It's been a disappointing year because there was considerable promise. I think the engineering of the team has improved significantly. I don't think they've had enough money in order to do enough testing where they could have improved a lot of the mechanical and unreliability issues that may have been there, or function factors that may have been holding them up and could have been eradicated more quickly. I think they are under-financed and I think that's a mistake."



"No clarity yet but I think we are fairly sure to have the Grand Prix retained for 2005-06 although that has not been signed, sealed and delivered. I'm cautiously optimistic that we will not lose the British GP to the United Kingdom. I've now spent nearly four years talking to government from the highest levels down to lower-middle management, and I think I've met as many people as there ever has been met by any of the motor racing community. It will take not only public money but private sector money to make it happen. But we have 875 acres in the heartland of England, with a road system connecting the two main arteries out of London (the M1 and the M40) and that new by-pass is a link to that going right past our door.

"It is very valuable land, it can be developed and we would like to put together something that would guarantee the motor sports industry long-term, as well as the Grand Prix. To do that, we have to develop Silverstone into being a 365-day activity. The economics of Grand Prix racing do not allow a promoter to come in and make money to even live. So it has to be done another way.

"Anything I've ever done, whether it be as a driver or in my business life, I've done it by having to find new ways of doing business. That's why we started Stewart Grand Prix and I think got some success fairly early. If we had just not re-invented it in the sense of doing it the same as Ferrari had done... We had not enough years left in me, for example, to do it that way, so we had to do it differently.

"I think we have to do this differently too. The whole business of where the future is going to lie. I hope in the next 24 months, between 05 and 06, that we've got the time to create the infrastructure to allow that to occur."



"Land development. Commercial development connected to the motorsports industry or high technology in the United Kingdom. But we will need entertainment as well. We will need hotels, restaurants, we may need shopping malls, we may need casinos, we may need Disney-type theme rides, that kind of thing. I'll tell you who's going to do it right, and that's China. Because they have a clean sheet of paper and money from industry and government.

"That's what we have to have but it won't happen only with government money because it's not correct to do that, in the way that other grands prix benefit. We can't do that in the democracy we have. It has to have private sector involvement as well as public money."



"Yes. It's going to increase jobs, retain technology and the future employment of people from the educational side with university product coming up, and that's human resource. If we lose an industry, motor sport, that is pre-eminent in Britain, and we play a part in that, we would be remiss. That's where we've got to come away from being petrol heads to be business people as well. We have a niche market, but it's rich and in our country it's close to 50,000 jobs now. And that is very important for any country and not just for the local economy of Northamptonshire and Aylesbury Vale.

"So, if you like, Jackie Stewart racing driver, or enthusiast, has to step back and say that the BRDC as a club, must look at this in a different way. And so must our members. Because we will have to have an extraordinary general meeting to be able, for example, to put a package together that will allow a 125-year lease, which is the commercial period. To ensure that our club, which is now more than 75 years old, is here in another 75 years, we've got to guarantee it's financial stability.

"If you look at it, if the Duke of Westminster had sold his land all these years ago, they would probably have no money today, but he didn't. He still owns the land, the properties and that Westminster estate is one of the richest in the whole country. So this is not me coming up with a wild idea, this is the reality. It's much better for us to do that than sell our land. We want to have the British Grand Prix but it cannot come at any price. Certainly not at the price of bankrupting our club."