The history of the BAR team began in 1997, the year in which Craig Pollock began to think about setting up his own team to enter Formula 1 by taking over what remained of Tyrrell, a team now on the verge of bankruptcy. During the 1997 season, rumours of a probable sale of Ken Tyrrell's team became more and more insistent and behind this plan was none other than Pollock, a character already known to the world of Formula 1 as the sports manager of Jacques Villeneuve, whom he met at the Beausoleil College in Switzerland where he befriended the young student Jacques who was sent to the Swiss college after the death of his father Gilles. The British manager was in fact already working behind the scenes to convince and involve Tom Moser who was currently the head of British American Tobacco, the second largest cigarette company in the world and also already present in Formula 1 for years as a sponsor of various teams with its brands, to finance the $26 million operation needed to acquire Tyrrell. Buying a team already on the grid, in addition to avoiding the $40 million deposit to be paid to the federation for any new team that wants to register for the world championship, also allows you to take advantage of the economic benefits recognized to teams registered in the previous championship based on the results obtained.
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| BAR 01, Jacques Villeneuve Hungaroring, Hungarian GP 1999 |
The new corporate structure was announced in December 1997 and for this reason 1998, a season during which Ken Tyrrell continued to manage his team at a sporting level, was considered a transitional season, while waiting for the team to take on its definitive name of BAR (British American Racing) in 1999. The agreement stipulated that 50% of the shares would remain in the hands of the tobacco company and that the remaining 50 would be divided equally between Adrian Reynard, Rick Gorne and Pollock himself. Jacques Villeneuve was also involved in the operation and was already confirmed as an official driver for 1999, although some journalists in the sector insinuated his direct involvement in the share capital, which was never confirmed by the parties involved. The team's headquarters were built in Brackley, Northamptonshire, and the chassis construction was entrusted to Reynard Motorsport, not new to this task after having built the chassis for Pacific Racing cars in '94 and '95, as well as having always been a supplier to various F3000 and Indycar teams. The budget of the newly formed BAR was considerably high, comparable to that of the top teams of the time, as was the technical staff that built the new BAR 01, almost all of whom came from Reynard Motorsport.
BAR 01, Mika Salo
Catalunya-Barcelona, Spanish GP 1999
The role of Team Principal was assigned to Adrian Reynard himself, who promoted his trusted collaborator Ron Meadows to the role of Factory Manager, while the project for the new single-seater was entrusted to Malcom Oastler, an Australian engineer who had previously worked for Reynard and was responsible for the F300 and Indycar cars built by Reynard Motorsports. Willem Toet, an Australian-British engineer born in Holland with a respectable past in the top series and open wheels where he had already held important roles in prestigious teams such as Benetton and Ferrari, was hired for the role of Chief Aerodynamicist. The very young and recent graduate Andrew Shovlin was hired as the vehicle dynamics and control officer, and he never left the Brackley headquarters where he still works for Team Mercedes AMG-Petronas F1. Another notable name is Jock Clear, currently at Ferrari alongside Charles Leclerc and with a brilliant career behind him initially at Benetton, then at Leyton-House before taking on the role of track engineer for Johnny Herbert at Lotus and subsequently for David Coulthard at the time of Williams, before becoming the trusted track engineer for Jacques Villeneuve, again at Williams, and then followed in his new adventure at the BAR team.
BAR 01, Ricardo Zonta
Hungaroring, Hungarian GP 1999
The new BAR 01 is a very conventional single-seater with a new front wing with two lateral flaps, as well as the new front suspension that features the strut attachment directly joined to the hub carrier. The rest of the bodywork features the classic shapes of the most recent Formula 1 cars. While waiting for the new Honda engine that will equip the Brackley single-seaters from 2000, under the hood is the Supertec FB01 engine, nothing other than the old Renault RS9 dating back to 1997 and therefore no longer able to compete with the most recent Ferraris, Mercedes and Mugen-Hondas. Combined with the Supertec engine is a longitudinal semi-automatic six-speed gearbox derived from Xtrac but completely revised by Reynard. On the driver front, in addition to the aforementioned Jacques Villeneuve, the team hires the young Brazilian talent Ricardo Zonta. Expectations for the car are high, the two drivers are good and the team has a wealthy owner behind it, so much so that Reynard is forced to go out on a limb predicting that the car could take pole position and win right from the start. On the track, the car proves to be relatively fast, often managing to qualify in the middle of the group. Even in the race, things aren't going badly, as seen especially in the Spanish Grand Prix, where Villeneuve was briefly in third place ahead of the Ferraris before returning to the pits.
BAR 01, Jacques Villeneuve
Montecarlo, Monaco GP 1999
However, the car suffers from chronic reliability and youth problems, with an endless series of retirements due to mechanical failures, especially on Villeneuve's car, which starts the season with 11 consecutive retirements before its first race arrival of the season in Belgium. Things are little better for Zonta who also has to miss three races due to injury, replaced by Mika Salo who is able to obtain the best result of the season for the team with seventh place in Imola. With these results, obviously, the new English team sadly closes the season in last place in the Constructors' Standings with zero points collected. A special note must be said for the very particular livery of the single-seater. On the day of the presentation, BAR presents two identical single-seaters but with different liveries, one completely yellow and blue and sponsored by State Express 555 and the other white and red sponsored by Lucky Strike. The FIA deems the liveries to be illegal, appealing to the regulation which states that the cars of the same team must be identical, and BAR finds itself forced to "correct" the colours of the single-seaters by developing a new livery that combines the two solutions, with the yellow and blue 555 on the right side and the white and red Lucky Strike on the left, separated by a fake zip that runs lengthwise across the single-seater up to the nose, which is instead coloured silver.
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