British American Racing
Noted drivers | |
---|---|
Previous name | Tyrrell Racing |
Next name | Honda Racing F1 Team |
Formula One World Championship career | |
First entry | 1999 Australian Grand Prix |
Races entered | 118 (117 starts) |
Engines | Supertec, Honda |
Constructors' Championships | 0 (best finish: 2nd, 2004) |
Drivers' Championships | 0 (best finish: 3rd, 2004, Jenson Button) |
Race victories | 0 (best finish: 2nd, 2004 San Marino, Monaco, German and Chinese Grands Prix) |
Podiums | 15 |
Points | 227 |
Pole positions | 2 |
Fastest laps | 0 |
Final entry | 2005 Chinese Grand Prix |
British American Racing (BAR) was a Formula One constructor that competed in the sport from 1999 to 2005. BAR began by acquiring Tyrrell, and used Supertec engines for their first year. Subsequently, they formed a partnership with Honda which lasted for the next six years.
The team was named after British American Tobacco plc (BAT), which owned and sponsored it in order to display its Lucky Strike and 555 brands. The headquarters were in Brackley, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom.
In mid-November 2004, Japanese automobile manufacturer
Honda ran the team for the 2006, 2007 and 2008 seasons. During 2008, the Honda RA109 was being developed for the following year while Honda attempted to sell the team. A management buy-out by team principal
History
British American Tobacco (BAT) had been involved in Formula One for many years, with several of its brands being displayed on F1 cars run by various teams.
In 1997, the corporation was convinced by Craig Pollock to provide most of the equity to purchase the Tyrrell Formula One team for £30 million.[1] Pollock, Adrian Reynard and Rick Gorne were the minority partners. The deal was announced on 2 December 1997.[2] The team was still officially known as Tyrrell in 1998, before it became BAR the following year.
Preparations
On 23 July 1998, BAR announced the signing of 1997 World Champion
At the launch of their new car, BAR unveiled separate liveries for their cars; Villeneuve's car painted in a white and red
BAR had the slogan of "A tradition of excellence", which was viewed as humorous by pundits as the team had no history and therefore no such tradition at all. Adrian Reynard also made an ambitious claim that the team would win a race in their debut season.[5]
1999
In a disastrous maiden season, BAR failed to score a single point in the Constructors' Championship.[6] The car was relatively quick and often qualified in the midfield, as seen especially in the Spanish Grand Prix, where Villeneuve had briefly run in 3rd place ahead of the Ferraris before pitting in.
However, the car suffered from chronic reliability issues, resulting in many instances of the car failing to finish the race. This was especially the case of Villeneuve, who started the season with 11 straight retirements before his first race finish of the season at Belgium, only to twice more fail to finish the race in the European and Malaysian Grands Prix later on. The Belgian event was notable also for both Villeneuve and Zonta having similar serious crashes during qualifying sessions, reportedly as a result of the drivers betting they could take the famous Eau Rouge corner flat.
Zonta sustained an injury during practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix and was unable to participate in qualifying for the race. He was also forced to miss out on the next three races due to that injury. Mika Salo, who filled in for Zonta in those three races, provided the team with its season best finish of 7th at San Marino (although Salo himself did not reach the chequered flag at the end of the race).
2000
During the 1999 season, BAR announced that Honda had become their engine supplier beginning in 2000. The Honda deal not only meant they would supply engines, but that Honda staff would work with the team at their Brackley base as well as received full-factory support from Honda including official team vehicles and free engines. Honda had planned to enter Formula One as a factory team, but relented. It was the first time Honda had been directly involved in Formula One since 1992. BAR did not have exclusive use of Honda engines though, as Jordan Grand Prix also used Mugen Honda power units. The following year, Jordan were given factory Honda engines, but the engine manufacturers could not supply two teams forever. This prompted a battle between BAR and Jordan for the use of Honda engines in the long term.
The car was once again designed in co-operation with Adrian Reynard despite talk of tension between him and team principal Craig Pollock. At the launch of the 002 car, Pollock himself described the 2000 season as a chance to "wipe the slate clean" following their awful first season and admitted that the team had made many mistakes in their first season.
In 2000, the new Honda powered BAR did show a significant improvement. It proved to be considerably more reliable than the team's previous effort, but the team still only had a best finish of 4th and the victory they had promised in 1999 still eluded them. At the end of the season, the team finished 5th in the Constructors' Championship. The progression and improvement of the team was enough to convince Villeneuve to remain at the team.
2001
Villeneuve reached the podium twice in 2001 for BAR, but neither he nor his new teammate Olivier Panis's results were consistent enough.
2002
Under pressure from British American Tobacco, Pollock resigned on the eve of the launch of the 2002 car and was replaced as team principal by
company was also awarded a five-year management contract to run BAR. BAT and Prodrive had a prior relationship with BAT sponsoring Subaru's World Rally Championship team, operated by Prodrive.2002 was a transient season for BAR. A significant proportion of the workforce was culled while technical director Malcolm Oastler and designer Andy Green left. Villeneuve still struggled to score points and Panis also failing to reach expectations. BAR signed a deal to become Honda's only team in 2003, despite finishing behind Honda's other team, Jordan, in both 2001 and 2002.
2003
BAR brought in
Peak in 2004
Early in
During the course of the 2004 season, a dispute with
With increasing restrictions being placed upon tobacco companies' opportunities to advertise in Formula One, rumours suggested that BAT would try to sell the team. In mid-November 2004, BAR announced that Honda had purchased 45% and, as part of the deal, David Richards left to be replaced by Nick Fry as team principal. Prodrive's management contract was also terminated early.
2005: Poor start and controversy
The start of the
When BAR returned at the European Grand Prix, the team struggled to find its feet. In stark contrast to the previous season, BAR failed to score a single point until the midway point, at the 2005 French Grand Prix, not helped by the team's use of Michelin tyres causing them to not start the 2005 United States Grand Prix. Takuma Sato had a particularly poor season, scoring just one point, and subsequently, his contract was not renewed by BAR at the end of the season. Sato was replaced in the new Honda team by former Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello. Button scored in each of the last 10 races of the season, culminating in 2 podium positions. Confirmation of this improvement was shown in a skillful pass made by Jenson Button, overtaking Jacques Villeneuve at the fast Pouhon corner at Spa-Francorchamps, in the rain, and around the outside.
At the end of 2005, Honda obtained 100% ownership of BAR from British American Tobacco, completing their ambition to become a full F1 manufacturer team. In addition, Jenson Button's Williams contract was bought out for US$30 million, and Button signed a multi-year contract with Honda.
Following the sale of the team to Honda, BAT would return to Formula One in
Complete Formula One results
(key)
Year | Chassis | Engine | Tyres | Drivers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | Points | WCC |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1999
|
01 | Supertec FB01 3.0 V10 | B | AUS | BRA | SMR | MON | ESP | CAN | FRA | GBR | AUT | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | EUR | MAL | JPN | 0 | NC | ||||
Jacques Villeneuve | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 15 | 8 | 10† | Ret | 9 | |||||||||
Ricardo Zonta | Ret | DNQ | Ret | 9 | Ret | 15† | Ret | 13 | Ret | Ret | 8 | Ret | 12 | ||||||||||||
Mika Salo | 7† | Ret | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
2000
|
002 | Honda RA000E 3.0 V10 | B | AUS | BRA | SMR | GBR | ESP | EUR | MON | CAN | FRA | AUT | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | USA | JPN | MAL | 20 | 5th | |||
Jacques Villeneuve | 4 | Ret | 5 | 16† | Ret | Ret | 7 | 15† | 4 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 7 | Ret | 4 | 6 | 5 | ||||||||
Ricardo Zonta | 6 | 9 | 12 | Ret | 8 | Ret | Ret | 8 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 14 | 12 | 6 | 6 | 9 | Ret | ||||||||
2001
|
003 | Honda RA001E 3.0 V10 | B | AUS | MAL | BRA | SMR | ESP | AUT | MON | CAN | EUR | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | USA | JPN | 17 | 6th | |||
Olivier Panis | 7 | Ret | 4 | 8 | 7 | 5 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 9 | Ret | 7 | Ret | 11 | 9 | 11 | 13 | ||||||||
Jacques Villeneuve | Ret | Ret | 7 | Ret | 3 | 8 | 4 | Ret | 9 | Ret | 8 | 3 | 9 | 8 | 6 | Ret | 10 | ||||||||
2002
|
004 | Honda RA002E 3.0 V10 | B | AUS | MAL | BRA | SMR | ESP | AUT | MON | CAN | EUR | GBR | FRA | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | USA | JPN | 7 | 8th | |||
Jacques Villeneuve | Ret | 8 | 10† | 7 | 7 | 10† | Ret | Ret | 12 | 4 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 8 | 9 | 6 | Ret | ||||||||
Olivier Panis | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 8 | 9 | 5 | Ret | Ret | 12 | 12† | 6 | 12 | Ret | ||||||||
2003
|
005 | Honda RA003E 3.0 V10 | B | AUS | MAL | BRA | SMR | ESP | AUT | MON | CAN | EUR | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | ITA | USA | JPN | 26 | 5th | ||||
Jacques Villeneuve | 9 | DNS | 6 | Ret | Ret | 12 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 9 | 10 | 9 | Ret | 6 | Ret | ||||||||||
Takuma Sato | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jenson Button | 10 | 7 | Ret | 8 | 9 | 4 | DNS | Ret | 7 | Ret | 8 | 8 | 10 | Ret | Ret | 4 | |||||||||
2004
|
006 | Honda RA004E 3.0 V10 | M | AUS | MAL | BHR | SMR | ESP | MON | EUR | CAN | USA | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | CHN | JPN | BRA | 119 | 2nd | ||
Jenson Button | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2P | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | Ret | 5 | 4 | 2 | 5 | Ret | 3 | 2 | 3 | Ret | |||||||
Takuma Sato | 9 | 15† | 5 | 16† | 5 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 3 | Ret | 11 | 8 | 6 | Ret | 4 | 6 | 4 | 6 | |||||||
2005
|
007 | Honda RA005E 3.0 V10 | M | AUS | MAL | BHR | SMR | ESP | MON | EUR | CAN | USA | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | TUR | ITA | BEL | BRA | JPN | CHN | 38 | 6th | |
Jenson Button | 11† | Ret | Ret | DSQ | 10 | RetP | DNS | 4 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 8 | ||||||||
Takuma Sato | 14† | PO | Ret | DSQ | 12 | Ret | DNS | 11 | 16 | 12 | 8 | 9 | 16 | Ret | 10 | DSQ | Ret | ||||||||
Anthony Davidson | Ret | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Source:[10] |
- Notes
- † – The driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified, as he completed over 90% of the race distance.
Speed record attempt
BAR tested a modified
References
- ^ Eason, Kevin (27 October 1998). "Tyrrell prepare to embark on final lap". The Times. Times Newspapers.
- ^ Henry, Alan (3 December 1997). "Tyrrell sold off to new team". The Guardian. Guardian Newspapers. p. 27.
- ^ Henry, Alan (24 July 1998). "Motor Racing: Villeneuve on his way". The Guardian. Guardian Newspapers. p. 6.
- ^ Henry, Alan (13 March 1993). "Motor Sport: New team back tracks". Guardian. Guardian Newspapers. p. 7.
- ^ Horton, Roger (24 February 1999). "Reflections on BAR: A Tradition Of What?". Atlas F1. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
- ^ Henry, Alan (2 November 1999). "God help Ferrari No.2". Guardian. Guardian Newspapers. p. 8.
- ^ Griffiths, John (19 December 2001). "BAT appoints racing team chief". Financial Times. p. 24.
- ^ "Appeal submitted by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, on the grounds of Article 185 of the International Sporting Code" (PDF) (Press release). FIA International Court of Appeal. 4 May 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 October 2012. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
- ^ Mitchell, Scott (11 February 2019). "Former BAR team owner BAT back into Formula 1 with McLaren deal". Autosport.com. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
- ^ "BAR – Grands Prix started". StatsF1. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
- ^ Bonneville400, archived from the original on 2 November 2005
External links
- Bonneville 400 website (Defunct link)