Neil McEwan

Neil McEwan
Details
Name	Neil McEwan
Born	6th June 1966
Nationality	Template:GBR British
Achievements
Won a defamation lawsuit against Sue Jawhard

Neil McEwan (born 6th June, 1966 in Gillingham, Kent) is a British former racing driver and Precision Team Principal from 2022.

Early life

Having been born and raised in Kent, McEwan had been exposed to motorsport from an early age. The first race he ever attended was the 1978 Tony Brise Memorial Trophy, which was won by Arrows driver Keke Rosberg. Inspired by the racing that he watched, he was able to work his way through the scholarship classes at Buckmore Park Circuit alongside his academic studies. His car racing career began with him picking up sporadic drives at Brands Hatch as a nineteen-year-old, and McEwan would not run a full Formula One season until the age of 21, by which time he had graduated from the University of Kent with a degree he described as "computer stuff".

At around this time, McEwan was able to make use of his father's banking connections to secure the backing that would be required to secure a seat at the best teams in British Formula Three and Formula 3000.

Early career

Neil McEwan initially raced in British national series.

Template:GBR British F3 Career
Entries	34
Starts	33
Wins	1 Donington, '89
Podiums	6
Points	41
Best Season	5th 1989, 28 pts

McEwan's early outings for Mike Rowe Racing in 1986 and 1987 were very anonymous, with a best finish of 7th from his five attempts he did not trouble the scorers. That was to change when he joined Middlebridge Racing in 1988 with the intention of running a full season with the team. He claimed his first points for the team in the fourth round of the season, and added his maiden podium finish a few weeks later; both results came at his home track of Brands Hatch. His season would take a nosedive at Thruxton, however, when an accident at Church in qualifying left him with a broken wrist. After some time out to let it recover, McEwan returned to the track with a stunning podium at Oulton Park, although he and the team did opt to skip the rounds at both Spa and Thruxton owing to the time already lost in the season, and consequent lack of funds.

This would prove to be a strong year for McEwan, as he recorded three further podiums including a win at Donington Park to place fifth in the Championship, this time driving for Bowman Racing. McEwan considered this to be proof enough that he was ready to make the step up to British Formula 3000 with GA Motorsport, driving alongside Vittorio Zoboli, though he did return for two rounds of the 1990 British F3 Championship to "keep his eye in".

Formula 3000 Career

After a somewhat slow start in which his team failed to get to grips with the number eight car, McEwan claimed his maiden Formula 3000 race win in his sixth race at this level, winning an attritional race on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit. This immediately propelled him into the upper reaches of the Championship table, a position that he would later consolidate with a second-place finish at Donington Park. McEwan's fifth place in the Championship put him both one place and one point above teammate Zoboli.

McEwan returned to the team in 1991, competing in the first three rounds of the Championship before a second-place finish at Brands Hatch attracted the attention of Dome, in the International championship, who invited him to replace the underperforming Mauro Martini from Mugello onwards. He had a difficult season in the uncompetitive Dome car, culminating in an unfortunate accident with Ukyo Katayama in which the Japanese driver sustained injuries that kept him out of the season finale. McEwan received a race ban for his part in the incident, being replaced by local French driver Mike Boullier at Magny-Cours.

Despite this, the team kept faith in McEwan for the 1992 season, in which he performed well enough to attract the attention of Oreca Formula 1 team for the 1993 Formula One season. In the background of the 1992 season, McEwan was also contesting a defamation lawsuit with journalist Sue Jawhard, who incorrectly reported that Katayama had lost his life in the accident, and used it to coin the nickname "Murderer McEwan" that would follow the British driver through the early 1990s.

Formula One Career

In the 1993 Formula One season, McEwan started strongly by recording a 7th placed finish at the Pacific Grand Prix, home race of team sponsor Footwork. This would ultimately be the best result of a very difficult season for Oreca, one in which long-standing driver Sophie Fabron was fired from the team to be replaced by American driver Robby Gordon. Unlike Gordon, McEwan had a strong relationship with the team's engineers. Also unlike Gordon, McEwan was retained for the 1994 season.

Sportscars and Team Management

After McEwan failed to find a drive for the 1998 Formula One season, McEwan switched his focus to sportscars. He picked up various drives in series that included the American Le Mans Series, Sports Racing World Cup and 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 2006, McEwan founded McEwan Automotive in order to build a car according to the new LMP1 regulations. His four attempts at the famous race made him international motorsport's most recent driver-constructor.

After winding down his sportscar efforts, McEwan Automotive became involved in junior teams in a consulting capacity, working with Mucke Motorsport from 2010 to 2018. In 2022, McEwan was promoted to the Team Principal of Precision following the departure of Jeroen Krautmeir from the role.

Racing Career Results

British Formula Three Championship

Season	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Pts	Pos
1986	Template:GBR Mike Rowe Racing	Ralt-Volkswagen	THR	SIL	THR	SIL	BRH	THR	DON	SIL	SIL	OUL	ZAN	DON	SNE	SIL	BRH Ret	ZOL	SPA	SIL	0	-
1987	Template:GBR Mike Rowe Racing	Reynard-Volkswagen	THR	BRH 7	SIL	THR	SIL	BRH Ret	THR	SIL	ZAN	DON	SIL	SNE	DON	OUL	SIL	BRH 10	SPA	THR Ret	0	-
1988	Template:GBR Middlebridge Racing	Reynard-Toyota	THR Ret	SIL Ret	THR 8	BRH 6	DON 10	SIL 9	BRH 3	THR DNS	SIL INJ	DON INJ	SIL INJ	SNE INJ	OUL 3	SIL 12	BRH Ret	SPA	THR	SIL 7	9	11th
1989	Template:GBR Bowman Racing	Ralt-Volkswagen	THR 4	SIL 14	BRH Ret	SIL 6	BRH 7	THR Ret	SIL 3	DON 1	SIL 8	SNE 6	OUL 3	SIL Ret	BRH DSQ	DON 5	SIL Ret	THR 4			28	5th
1990	Template:GBR Hepworth Racing	Reynard-Volkswagen	DON	SIL	THR	BRH	SIL	BRH	THR	SIL Ret	DON	SIL	SNE	OUL	SIL	BRH 3	DON	THR	SIL		4	13th

British Formula 3000 Championship

Season	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pts	Pos
1990	Template:GBR GA Motorsport	Lola-Cosworth	BRH 6	OUL Ret	THR 8	SNE DNS	BRH 7	BRH 1	OUL Ret	BRH Ret	SIL 6	DON 2		17	5th
1991	Template:GBR GA Motorsport	Reynard-Cosworth	OUL Ret	DON Ret	BRH 2	BRH	OUL	SNE	THR	DON	BRH	SIL	DON	6	11th

International Formula 3000 Championship

Season	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pts	Pos
1991	Dome	Dome-Cosworth	IMO	SIL	PAU	JER	MUG 19	ENN Ret	HOC 16	BRH 12	SPA 14	BUG 23	MAG EX		0	NC
1992	Dome	Dome-Cosworth	SIL ENT	IMO ENT	PAU ENT	CAT ENT	ENN ENT	HOC ENT	NUR ENT	SPA ENT	EST ENT	BUG ENT	MAG ENT	BUE ENT	*	*

Formula One World Championship

Season	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Pts	Pos
1993	Template:FRA Footwork Team Oreca	Oreca-Lamborghini	RSA Ret	BRA 19	PAC 7	SMR Ret	ESP 12	MON Ret	CAN 13†	FRA 10	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN 16	BEL Ret	ITA INJ	POR 12†	JPN Ret	AUS 12	0	NC
1994	Template:FRA Footwork Team Oreca	Oreca-Mugen-Honda	BRA Ret	PAC Ret	SMR ENT	MON ENT	ESP ENT	CAN ENT	FRA ENT	GBR ENT	GER ENT	HUN ENT	BEL ENT	ITA ENT	PRT ENT	EUR ENT	JPN ENT	AUS ENT	*	*

24 Hours of Le Mans

• This is more of a rough guide so that future-me knows who it was I wanted to try to pick up. Will most definitely change as and when the time comes - therefore to be treated as subject to change.

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Pos.	Class Pos.
2000	Kickert Motorsport Engineering	Pieter Kickert Template:AUS Paul Stokell	Porsche 911 GT3-R	GT	TBC
2001	Template:GBR Ecurie Ecosse	Template:GBR Ian McKellar Template:BEL Bruno Lambert	Saleen S7-R	GTS
2003	Template:USA Risi Competizione	Template:USA Shane Lewis Template:USA Butch Leitzinger	Ferrari 360 Modena GTC	GT
2006	Template:GBR McEwan Automotive	Template:FRA Mike Boullier Pieter Kickert	McEwan MA1	LMP1
2007	Template:GBR McEwan Automotive	Template:FRA Mike Boullier Tiago Monteiro	McEwan MA3	LMP1
2008	Template:GBR McEwan Automotive	Tiago Monteiro Template:GBR James Rossiter	McEwan MA4	LMP1
2009	Template:GBR McEwan Automotive	Tiago Monteiro Template:GBR James Rossiter	McEwan MA4	LMP1