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PROFILE
Formed in 1997, after Jacques Villeneuve's
former manager Craig Pollock purchased the failing Tyrrell
team, the team entered F1 in 1999 riding a tidal wave
of hype. The package seemed sound on paper, with the
chassis being developed by Adrian Reynard, who had previously
designed excellent chassis for the American CART series.
The Supertec engine did not seem like a good choice
for engine, however, as the teams debut season would
prove.
Reynard suggested that BAR would win it's first race
with Villeneuve, as his other designs in other series
had previously done. Not so. For 11 races straight,
Villeneuve failed to finish, such was the car's poor
reliablity. In fact, their best finish, 7th place at
Imola, came courtesey of stand-in driver Mika Salo,
who was replacing the injured Ricardo Zonta. The BAR
team scored 0 points in the whole of the 1999 season
- not bad for a team that was going to win it's first
race!
Honda engines in 2000 saw better reliability, and the
team scored it's first points in Australia, the first
race of the season. 20 points were scored overall, giving
the team 5th place in the constructors' championship.
With Zonta being sent to McLaren as a test driver for
2006, former Prost driver, and race winner, Olivier
Panis will join the team, partnering Villeneuve. Can
their first win come in '01? Unlikely, but the team
will continue to improve for many years yet, and while
the cars that are produced waste the Canadian's talent,
his perserverence will eventually bear fruit.
WEB
SITE
http://www.britishamericanracing.com
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