British American Racing at Brackley

Built on the purchase of Tyrrell, the tobacco backed BAR team never won a race but finished second in the 2004 constructors' championship.

British American Racing was created by Craig Pollock, the manager of Jacques Villeneuve, who persuaded British American Tobacco to fund the purchase of the Tyrrell team in 1997, with Adrian Reynard and Rick Gorne as minority partners. Tyrrell raced one last season under its own name in 1998, and BAR made its debut at the 1999 Australian Grand Prix. The team was named for its owner, whose Lucky Strike and 555 brands it carried, and it was based in a new factory at Brackley in Northamptonshire.

Villeneuve, the 1997 champion, joined from Williams for the first season, with Ricardo Zonta as his teammate and Supertec engines behind them. The debut year was hard, but from 2000 BAR had works Honda engines, and Villeneuve gave the team its first podiums with third places in Spain and Germany in 2001.

Its best season was 2004. Jenson Button finished on the podium ten times, including second places at Imola, Monaco, Hockenheim and Shanghai, and Takuma Sato added a third at Indianapolis. BAR finished second in the constructors' championship and Button third among the drivers. The team never won a Grand Prix, and its 15 podiums are the best of its record.

Honda bought 45 percent of the team in November 2004 and the rest in September 2005, and after the 2005 Chinese Grand Prix, its last race as BAR, it became the Honda Racing F1 Team. That team in turn became Brawn GP and then Mercedes. In seven seasons BAR started 117 World Championship races.

Drivers

• Jenson Button
• Jacques Villeneuve