British American Racing
| File:British American Racing (logo).gif | |
| Full Name | British American Racing |
| Base | Brackley, United Kingdom |
| Founder(s) |  Craig Pollock
|
| Team Principal(s) | Craig Pollock
|
| Technical Director | Adrian Reynard  Malcolm Oastler
|
British American Racing, commonly shortened to BAR was a Formula One constructor which competed from 1999 until 2006. The team was formed as the result of a management buyout of the now-defunct Tyrrell team by tobacco company BAT in 1998, although only the championship entry was kept from the previous incarnation, with all new facilities in Brackley being built, then-technical director Harvey Posthelwaite moving to a stillborn Honda project and Ken Tyrrell departing in disgust at the new management's driver decisions in 1998, having already lost a controlling interest in the team.
After several seasons of massively over-promising (Team Principal Craig Pollock believed it possible to score a maiden win in their first race) and underperforming, leading to management turmoil in the early years of the team, the British squad managed to achieve some degree of success in its final seasons before being bought out successively to become first Honda, then Brawn and finally Mercedes, with these incarnations being linked by a common use of BAR's Brackley headquarters.
History
1999
Prior to the 1999 season, BAR made several headlines; first signing 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, unveiling the questionable slogan "A Tradition of Excellence" (confusing as they were a new outfit), and then boasting that they would win their first race and fight for the championship from the off (an assumption derived from the fact that all of designer Adrian Reynard's previous debut chassis managed this feat in feeder categories). However, it did not take long for things to go awry: firstly the FIA vetoed a plan by sponsors BAT to run two distinct liveries on the two cars (Lucky Strike on Villeneuve's, 555 Express on Jones'), this being clearly being against the sport's regulations, forcing the team to compromise with an infamous "split" livery, with half of each design separated by a zip pattern in the middle of the car. On the track, things weren't much better for BAR as the season went on; while the car could qualify mid-grid (an improvement over the Tyrrell 026 it replaced), reliability was atrocious even compared to the Tyrrell the year before- the 01 chassis only made it to the finish nine times throughout the year, with the Japanese GP being the only double finish for the team all year. The car also lacked race pace, meaning that when it did finish, it was never in the points, and as a result the team ended it first year in tenth place in the WCC, a place higher than 1998 but behind much smaller outfits such as Minardi, and only ahead of fellow non-scorers Lola (who collapsed at the end of the year) on countback thanks to a ninth place finish from Sammy Jones, who for the most part outperformed team leader Jacques Villeneuve.
2000
For 2000, BAR would keep their 1999 driver pairing of Villeneuve and Jones, but the team's 002 chassis, which were designed to be more durable than the 01s, would have new engines powering them- in the off-season, Craig Pollock had brokered a deal to gain an exclusive works deal with Honda for 2000, the Japanese firm's first official foray into F1 since 1992. The team also made an effort to limit excessive press interaction during the pre-season, which had proved to be highly embarrassing in 1999 and had not endeared them to the public or the FIA.
