To Be The Best - BAR
None:
by Stuart
Sykes.
1999 Qantas Australian
Grand Prix Official Program.
Remember when you were a new kid at school? In among the
big boys, watching your P's and Q's, careful not to make
waves, trying your damnedest just to fit in with the accepted way
of doing things? Well, forget all of that: that's not how British
American Racing (BAR) goes about its business. Formula One's
newest recruits plan to do things their way right from the outset
here in Melbourne - even to the point of taking the FIA to court
over the right to use different liveries for their two cars.
The description of "new boys" is not exactly accurate for BAR. This team arose, Phoenix-like, from the ashes of the Tyrrell Racing Organisation, a team with a 30-year pedigree which was bought out as BAR's quick-and-easy passport into the exclusive Grand Prix club. But BAR quickly established its own state-of-the-art base camp at Brackley, a short drive from the home of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, and managing director Craig Pollock set about constructing a team whose aim, in the 42-year-old Scotsman's own words, is "to become the most professional in Formula One". Some help in that direction will come from a sponsorship reputed to be the biggest-ever in Grand Prix racing, with estimates as high as US$300M. It comes from British American Tobacco, itself a long-standing F1 supporter that first came to prominence when Colin Chapman's Lotus team forsook the traditional British racing green in favour of Gold Leaf red and gold as long ago as 1968.
Pollock himself is no stranger to the paddock, nor is his star driver, Jacques Villeneuve. Back in 1982, when the great Gilles Villeneuve lost his life at Zolder, his son Jacques was meeting Pollock for the first time, on the ski slopes where his current team boss was his instructor. They crossed paths again at the Japanese Grand Prix in the early 90's. Pollock took the driver's embryonic career in hand, and the two have since gone on to IndyCar and F1 fame and fortune. But the reunions don't end there. BAR will run a Reynard chassis, and Adrian Reynard's product was at the heart of the IndyCar project that took Villeneuve to an Indianapolis 500 victory and made him champion in 1995. With Reynard himself as technical director and long-time Reynard associate Rick Gorne as commercial director, BAR is like a home from home for the 1997 World Champion. "I am very happy to be back with Craig, Adrian and Rick in what is shaping up to be the team of the future", said Villeneuve on signing for BAR last year. "We all share the same philosophy of racing".
As anyone who has followed Villeneuve's career knows, that philosophy embraces everything from baggy street and racing clothes to hair that changes colour faster than a modern Grand Prix car. Pollock is quick to point out that an alternative approach might see BAR personnel actually trying to go racing with a smile on their collective face. "We want only the best", he says. "The other thing we are trying to do is have a little bit of fun". A major contribution in that quest should come from BAR's Aussie contingent. "What we've found in our travels is that Australians do have a little bit more fun, every now and then. You've got to scrape it out of the surface, but you do get it in the end".
There are three key Australian players in the new team, the highest profile belonging to Malcolm Oastler, the Sydneysider who flirted with a racing career himself in Formula Ford both here and in the UK, joined Reynard in 1986, and led the design team working on its IndyCar project from the start. "To me, Malcolm is the future in Formula One", Pollock says. "He's the guy who comes up with brilliant ideas. What he can do is bring a top group of designers together and actually make them work together and draw a car. I'd take it even further and say that in the running of a technical department of a Formula One team, it would be very, very hard to beat a Malcolm Oastler". Chief engineer at BAR is another Sydneysider, Steve Farrell. A motor racing man since 1969, Farrell actually ran his own Formula Ford 2000 team in the UK and employed Oastler at one time. UK-based since 1983, he has vast experience in other categories, the latest of them being the TWR Nissan Le Mans project, which Pollock is quick to see as an advantage. "He has a very clear head. He is also capable of coming in with new ideas - not just F1 ideas; a very good view from the outside".
Farrell himself is bubbling over at the prospect of working at the pinnacle of motor racing. "Every year has been exciting for me, but this is fantastic", he says. "To get into the start of something as big as this from scratch, to be able to really put your own impression into the team, has been a fantastic opportunity". Last, but by no means least, of the BAR Aussies is Willem Toet. If you're in the Fangio Grandstand and you see a BAR-clothed individual of small stature cruising up and down pitlane, intently studying the opposition's machinery, there's a strong chance that's Toet. Dutch-born and Melbourne-bred, he brings his own wealth of aerodynamic knowledge from both Benetton, and more recently, Ferrari, to the area which by common consent is the single most important facet of the modern Formula One car. Studious and clear-sighted, Toet is also one of the best at articulating his thinking and communicating it to his colleagues, an essential quality in any new set-up.
The car these three and hundreds of other BAR personnel are contributing to is the BAR-Supertec 199. Oastler, mindful of Reynard's extraordinary record of winning first time out in every single-seater category it has contested, has been careful not to over-design the latest model off the production line. "We've tried not to make too many steps in the dark with it", he said when the 199 was unveiled in January. "We wanted the car to be servicable, effective and reliable. We also wanted to be able to race it rather than lose time sorting out problems caused by trying to be too clever". First shaken down by former Sauber pilot Jean-Christophe ("Jules") Bullion in the English autumn, the car flew with Villeneuve at the wheel in the first serious winter testing in Barcelona, where Villeneuve was third fastest on the final day. "The car is quick out of the box", he enthuses. "Already, I'm quicker that I thought I woudl be, and that's without even trying. That first feeling is very important to me - I'm sure it will be a good car".
The 199 is powered by the Supertec Sport derivative of the famous V10 Renault engine that dominated the World Championship through the 90's until the French manufacturer withdrew at the end of 1997. BAR must adapt to Bridgestone rubber, which didn't come on-stream till mid-January as the manufacturer came to terms with its new status as sole F1 supplier - another reason for Oastler's caution. "We elected to make the chassis easily adjustable in a number of areas," he adds. "We can alter such variables as the number of dampers, roll centres and weight distribution, as well as providing for anti-dive / anti-squat configurations. I'm very enthusiatic about we've produced".
Inevitably, though, the primary focus will be on Villeneuve and driving partner Ricardo Zonta, the brilliant yound Brazilian who pipped young Aussie Mark Webber to the FIA GT title last year. It's a gamble for Villeneuve, but he has weighed the risks and come down in favour of a fresh start. "BAR is starting as one of the very top teams, people-wise and technology-wise. And it's fresh and young. Everything is there", he says. It will be fascinating to see how the new boys fare when term starts in what is both the most public and most private school of all.
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