BAR

The BAR team was founded after Craig Pollock, a close friend of Jacques Villeneuve, purchased Ken Tyrrell's eponymous team in late 1997, and they made their first appearance on the grid in Australia in 1999. In a sport where a lot of money has come from tobacco companies, it was no surprise that BAR would have a car emblazened with the leading brands produced by owners British American Tobacco. Of course in their début season they had already caused ...
...driver, Alex Wurz, and ex BAR driver, Riccardo Zonta, are both taking a leaf out of Panis' book and spending a season as a test driver in the hope that it might let them kickstart their F1 Careers again.

The question is of course whether BAR will make it to third place in the constructors championship. Whilst Villeneuve can beat anyone on his day, and Panis could score some useful points, the partnership with Honda is still too young ... more

The BAR team was founded after Craig Pollock, a close friend of Jacques Villeneuve, purchased Ken Tyrrell's eponymous team in late 1997, and they made their first appearance on the grid in Australia in 1999. In a sport where a lot of money has come from tobacco companies, it was no surprise that BAR would have a car emblazened with the leading brands produced by owners British American Tobacco. Of course in their début season they had already caused a stir when they unveiled their cars with non-identical liveries, something with the FIA quickly deemed illegal. This left them in a bizarre situation, and to semi defy the FIA, they used a livery made up half of the Lucky Strikes livery and the other half from the 555 livery.

This was sadly about all the excitement that the team was going to generate in its maiden season, with Jacques Villeneuve, a signing from Williams, with whom he had won the World Championship in 1997, and Ricardo Zonta both failing to score a single world championship point, in a season where even Minardi managed a point (Gene at the European Grand Prix). It was the fact that the team had one of the largest budgets on the circuit, thanks to BAT and also Adrian Reynard's Reynard Engineering, who produced the chassis

Fortunately for BAR, unlike Minardi, the money was still there, and the team improved in 2000, netting a far more respectable 20 points in the constructors championship, which put them in joint fourth place overall behind Ferrari, McLaren and Williams and level with Benetton. Jacques Villeneuve showed signs of the old Villeneuve that had been world champion at Williams, although he never finished higher than 4th position (on four occasions) and netted a total of 17 points (7th in the Driver's Championship).

For someone who had won four races in his first season, and been world champion in his second season after finishing runner-up in his début season, this season promises to be an interesting one for Villeneuve. He has stated from the outset that the team needs to finsih third this season for his to consider staying, and anything less, he will consider a move elsewhere, as there would certainly be quite a few teams scrapping for his services.

It was Villeneuve's friendship with Pollock that meant a certain degree of animosity with Sir Frank Williams toward the end of his stay at Williams. Pollock was barred from the Williams pits during the season before BAR's entry due to the strain he was creating at the team between Williams and Villeneuve. Villeneuve has to a certain extent had a considerable baptism of fire, coming to F1 after winning the 1995 IndyCar series.

His replacement at Williams, Alessandro Zanardi, who raced in IndyCar after a lacklustre performance in an underpowered Lotus, however never found his feet in F1 again, and his contract was terminated, and 20 year Jenson Button brought in to replace him after one season. Villeneuve is also somewhat in the shadow of his father Gilles, who died in qualification at Zolder in 1982, with whom parallels have frequently been made.

Olivier Panis, Villeneuve's 2001 team-mate has experienced the highs and lows of Formula 1. From winning the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix, he then also had a massive crash in Canada in 1997, in which he broke both of his legs. Indeed prior to this he had pushed his team-mate for 2001, Jacque Villeneuve very hard at the Spanish Grand Prix, which is proof that he is a fast enough driver. He stayed at Ligier, which then became Prost after Alain Prost bought the team from Guy Ligier and had respectable seasons there in 1998 and 1999, even though he was really in mid-table. He took 2000 out and became a test driver at McLaren, and Ron Dennis the McLaren boss, let him go at the end of the season, having praised the effort he had put in during the season. Indeed he started a bit of a trend, in that prior to his season as a test driver, no one with any real race experience stepped down to the rank of test driver, although this season, the man who replaces his as McLaren's test driver, Alex Wurz, and ex BAR driver, Riccardo Zonta, are both taking a leaf out of Panis' book and spending a season as a test driver in the hope that it might let them kickstart their F1 Careers again.

The question is of course whether BAR will make it to third place in the constructors championship. Whilst Villeneuve can beat anyone on his day, and Panis could score some useful points, the partnership with Honda is still too young to bear the sorts of fruits that Villeneuve is after. After all the Williams team, having had a few years in the wilderness as such post-Renault, has started to make some headway at last with its new BMW engines, the Saubers/Prosts are doing better in testing this year, and Jordan, Ferrari and McLaren look to be that much clear of the chasing pack.

In addition the new Benetton car is looking good with its new Renault engine, and impressive line-up of Button and Fisichella, so points may still prove to be elusive for BAR, although this season should see the first trip to the podium for Jacques Villeneuve in BAR overalls. I expect the team to improve on their 20 points last season, but don't quite see them taking third place in the constructors championship as Jacques so dearly wants. 

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