British American Racing

History

British American Tobacco had a long history in Formula One, with its cigarette brands appearing on cars from multiple teams. In 1997, Craig Pollock persuaded the company to fund the bulk of a £30 million purchase of the Tyrrell team. Pollock, Adrian Reynard, and Rick Gorne held smaller stakes. The acquisition was made public on 2 December 1997.

The squad competed as Tyrrell for the 1998 season and became British American Racing the year after. On 23 July 1998, BAR confirmed that 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve would leave Williams to drive for them in 1999. Pollock had been Villeneuve’s manager throughout his career. Rookie Ricardo Zonta was named as his teammate.

Reynard Motorsport built the car’s chassis at a new facility in Brackley, and Supertec engines—rebadged Renault units—provided the power. At the car’s launch, BAR presented two different paint schemes: Villeneuve’s car wore white and red Lucky Strike colours, while Zonta’s was blue and yellow for the 555 brand. The FIA ruled this violated regulations requiring both cars to have nearly identical liveries. BAR challenged the decision by filing complaints with both the International Chamber of Commerce and the European Commission.

Pollock was called before the World Motor Sport Council, where he agreed to follow F1’s arbitration process, stated that his lawyers had filed the EC complaint without his direction, and apologised. To work around the ruling, BAR painted one side of each car in Lucky Strike colours and the other side in 555 colours. For 2000, the team switched to a standard unified livery. BAR adopted the slogan “A tradition of excellence,” which commentators found ironic given the team had no prior history. Adrian Reynard also predicted they would win a race in their first season.

Speed record attempt

BAR tested a modified BAR-Honda 007 car intended to set the land speed record for a car meeting FIA Formula One regulations, aiming for 400 km/h at Bonneville Salt Flats. The four published times were 393 km/h, 405 km/h, 410 km/h, and 413 km/h, but these did not constitute the record attempt; waterlogging of the salt flats postponed the attempt. The chassis was later used by BAR's successor, Honda, to set a new record the following year.