S4 E10: BAR's dreadful debut season in 1999
Bring Back V10s - Classic F1 stories
The Race Media Ltd
4.9 • 764 Ratings
🗓️ 9 September 2021
⏱️ 85 minutes
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Summary
Edd Straw and Sam Smith join host Glenn Freeman to look back on the entire story of BAR's miserable first season, starting with the team's controversial attempt to race with two separate liveries for its cars, which resulted in an immediate falling out with the FIA. With insight from technical guru Adrian Reynard, we delve into why the car was so unreliable, the politics behind the scenes that threatened to tear the team apart, why its massive budget still wasn't big enough, landing Honda engines for 2000, how its mechanics earned respect after both cars were destroyed in qualifying at Spa, more internal politics, how boss Craig Pollock tried to incentivise team members to help the team score just a single point, and the fallout that occurred in the boardroom when that mission failed.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | British American racing was supposed to be an instant Formula One super team. |
| 0:10.0 | It had huge backing from British American tobacco, was built from scratch around none other than Jacques Villeneuve, |
| 0:17.0 | who left Williams one year after winning the championship to become the focal point of this new team. |
| 0:22.6 | But BAR's first season was a disaster. It failed to score any points, |
| 0:27.6 | struggled to finish races with a fragile new car, and it was even beaten by Minardi in the championship |
| 0:33.6 | as it ended its debut year at the very bottom of the F1 pile. So how could something |
| 0:39.3 | with such high hopes and so much money go so wrong? I'm Glenn Freeman and to help me uncover |
| 0:45.1 | the answers here on Bring Back V10s are Ed Straw and Sam Smith. Now Ed, you love a rubbish |
| 0:51.8 | F1 team but BAR wasn't quite the same as the usual minnows you're |
| 0:56.6 | so fond of. When you think of BAR's first season, what's the first thing that comes to mind? |
| 1:02.5 | There's actually one very clear memory. I was a student at Warrick University in 99, so it was |
| 1:06.9 | a short hop over to the Birmingham NEC for All Sport International. So that was in January. |
| 1:10.8 | And in their live action arena, they had a pseudo launch for their BAR team in each show. |
| 1:15.5 | So you had a presentation and a VT. |
| 1:18.0 | And if memory serves, I think a couple of the cars were lowered from the ceiling on platforms, |
| 1:22.6 | one in each livery, if I'm right. |
| 1:25.7 | I remember being massively impressed and convinced they were going to be |
| 1:28.6 | great. And obviously that was a couple of years before I started my, my journalistic career. It's safe to |
| 1:33.2 | say I was a much more naive and easily convinced character then, but that does make it very easy to |
| 1:38.9 | recreate the feelings of that time and the fact that VAR was a huge deal. I was far from the only one getting |
| 1:45.4 | carried away with the bombast and the hype. A little glimpse there into Eddrawer's life |
| 1:50.6 | before cynicism took over. Sam, you've done a great interview for this episode with the |
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