Dawson/Jewiss clear favourites for British GT title

A lot can change throughout the course of a race weekend, whatever the championship is.

At the 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix, for example, Lando Norris was on a huge high having just claimed pole position, while title rival Max Verstappen was furious after being eliminated in Q1.

Yet within 24 hours, the situation had flipped on its head as Verstappen won from 17th on the grid to all but seal a fourth Formula 1 crown. In MotoGP, meanwhile, Marc Marquez looked unstoppable as he claimed yet another sprint win at Austin in March, but eventually left Texas having lost his championship lead after crashing in the grand prix. 

So motorsport is full of twists and turns, something that is also true on a national scale. That was in evidence last weekend when British GT visited Silverstone for the second round of its 2025 campaign. 

The pre-weekend talk centred on the 2 Seas Mercedes pair of Charles Dawson and Kiern Jewiss, who dominated the Donington Park opener from pole on their British GT3 debuts. That was unexpected as, per the FIA driver categorisation system, the #42 Mercedes features a Silver-Am combination rather than the highest-graded Pro-Am. 

The Donington display caused British GT to add 30kg of ballast to that Mercedes for Silverstone, meaning Dawson/Jewiss were up against it in Northamptonshire. Dawson even told this writer on the Saturday morning that the three-hour Silverstone 500 would largely be a case of damage limitation.

That came from a man rather angry at the added weight, who said it was “the way that I’ve been analysed so quickly” that irked him. The counter-argument? The championship had to act fast against the threat of a monotonous season.

The added weight was clear in qualifying as Dawson only managed 10th in the amateur session before Jewiss hurled the car up to seventh on the grid. In British GT, qualifying is contested across two parts: the first for the bronze-rated amateurs and the second for silvers or above, with the fastest lap of each driver then combined to determine the starting grid. 

Qualifying blew the front-running fight wide open and Maximilian Gotz, who qualified second aboard the sister 2 Seas Mercedes, claimed “It hurts for them; 30 kilos in this championship hurts a lot”. That was quite the turnaround from Richard Neary (Team Abba Mercedes) saying after Donington that “I don’t think anybody’s going to beat Charles Dawson this year”.

But this was the Silverstone 500. British GT’s blue-riband event and a contest of survival – a race won through strategy and outright luck rather than pure pace. It’s the one race of the year that a car’s starting position doesn’t matter a great deal. 

As expected, the running order constantly chopped-and-changed throughout the three hours before the race was won by the crew that started fifth – Darren Leung and Dan Harper. 

It was an off-sync strategy which gave the Paradine BMW the victory, while the car that finished runner-up also went for a different strategy. That car being the #42 Mercedes in an incredible turn of fortunes. 

“Coming into it, you’re at a disadvantage – but it is what it is,” the level-headed Jewiss, who is a British Formula 4 and Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion, tells Autosport post-race. “You’ve got to get on with it. Complaining or being stressed is not going to change it.

What’s keeping it in the balance is the #42 Mercedes no longer being the quickest car. Looking at Silverstone alone, that accolade belongs to the #77 Optimum McLaren

“It’s not going to take the weight out. So you have to get on with it, it’s as simple as that. Yes, it was going to be hard, and yes, it was hard. But ultimately, we came in with odds against us more than anyone.”

What makes it even better for the 2 Seas pair is that Leung/Harper was a guest entry, meaning they were ineligible for points. So after two races of 2025, Dawson/Jewiss have left each round with a maximum score to establish a 30-point lead in the championship. 

On the face of it, that’s a pretty substantial advantage and this writer expects them to become champions. It isn’t just Jewiss who is well versed in running a successful campaign, after all – Dawson is the reigning British GT4 Pro-Am champion.

But, and it’s a big ‘but’, it would also be silly to assume that the final outcome is just a foregone conclusion. There are still seven races to go and Dawson knows they cannot get too excited.

The title fight is far from over

Photo by: JEP

“Same approach that I always take every weekend, just corner by corner,” he says. “That’s all you’ve got to focus on. See what happens.”

What’s keeping things in the balance is the #42 Mercedes no longer being the quickest car. Looking at Silverstone alone, that accolade belongs to the #77 Optimum McLaren, which dropped from pole to third, resulting in it sitting second in the championship with Morgan Tillbrook and Marvin Kirchhofer. 

Had it not been for a red light incorrectly showing at the pit exit, costing the McLaren approximately 20s, then Tillbrook/Kirchhofer would have most certainly been in the fight for victory.

One also cannot discount reigning champion Barwell, whose cars are 36 and 48 points off the lead. The Lamborghini squad has a great chance of reducing that deficit at the next race weekend, as it will arrive at Oulton Park without an impending pitstop success penalty – unlike Dawson/Jewiss and Tillbrook/Kirchhofer. 

At Silverstone, Barwell had the pace plus a good strategy, but penalties put it out of contention to ultimately finish sixth and seventh. That shouldn’t affect the squad too much though, as team boss Mark Lemmer firmly declared “I don’t even look at the points until the last race”.

That is the kind of mentality one needs to win a championship. And such know-how will certainly come in handy.

So, just because Dawson/Jewiss have established a pretty healthy lead early on, do not assume the title is all but theirs. There are still plenty of twists and turns ahead. Everything can so easily turn on its head.

British GT resumes at Oulton Park on 24-26 May

Photo by: JEP