Australian Grand Prix analysis: British American Racing

Australian Grand Prix analysis:
British American Racing

Written by: Terje Kjensli

British American Racing's technical director, Adrian Reynard, predicted that his team would win its first Grand Prix ever. After watching the team in Australia, we can conclude that it was far from its goal: neither Jacques Villeneuve nor Ricardo Zonta made it to the finish. But we must also know that when BAR sorts out its reliability problems, and turns all efforts on performance set-up, everything can happen.

BAR brought new front wings for its cars, with an unusual combination of two mini-wings on each end-plate. Ricardo Zonta spent more time in the pits than on track before qualifying, as the team was badly struck by reliability problems, especially on the Brazilian's car. He had gear-box problems as soon as he hit the track, or at least it seemed so. Jacques Villeneuve put in a mediocre performance during the weekend, he didn't maximise his chances in qualifying and was rather anonymous in the race until his car's rear wing fell off.

Now the team needs to work flat-out to ensure reliability and performance for the Grand Prix in Brazil. Team manager Greg Field promises a better result in Brazil, as the team has several new aerodynamic parts coming through at the factory. They will need a good result, since it's the "home Grand Prix" for British American Tobacco, their main sponsor...

Jacques Villeneuve's qualifying
Jacques Villeneuve ended up 5th fastest in the last free practice before qualifying, and it all boded well for the upcoming session. For some reason, the team had to make modifications to his car, and he was forced to sit out for over half an hour in the qualifying. When he hit the track, he snapped 4th on his first flying lap, then 3rd on his second, before heading for the pits. On his second run, he overdid it in the first chicane, braked too late and hard, and the car swapped ends as he coasted into the gravel trap. The tyres were destroyed for qualifying runs and Jacques had to return to the pits once more without a chance to better his time. His last attempt was destroyed by traffic, and a misunderstanding between his crew and himself ruined any chances of beating his time. The ex-World Champion had to settle for 11th, which wasn't a fair result considering all that happened.
Jacques Villeneuve's race
Jacques ended up 19th quickest in the warm-up on Sunday morning, which wasn't a very promising result with the race in mind. But I suspect BAR did this on purpose, because they didn't want to risk any of their cars breaking down a few hours before the Grand Prix. When the race finally was underway, Jacques made a brilliant start and jumped from 11th to 7th. He lost a place on the 2nd lap to Prost's Jarno Trulli, but only after claims that the Italian passed him under yellows. Anyway, there he was, down in 8th place, having trouble keeping up with Trulli and having trouble keeping Sauber's Pedro Diniz at bay. Then, on lap 14, doing approximately 180mph, his BAR-Supertec's complete rear wing assembly waved goodbye and scattered itself all over the place. This caused Jacques doing some nasty doughnuts (even nastier than yours, Zanardi!), before the car grounded to a halt towards the concrete wall. Luckily, the Lucky Strike-driver was unhurt and could return to the pits in one piece, very much thanks to his experience from IndyCar. Until then, Jacques ran rather anonymously, but his race engineer, Jock Clear, claimed that his driver would have been on the podium if the rear wing had not vibrated loose. This suggests a one-stop strategy, and it might as well paid off... Jacques Villeneuve post-race comment: That's not the way I would have liked my first race of the season to end. The crash probably looked worse than it was because I just headed straight towards the wall after my rear wing failed, but I am fine. It's disappointing because the car was going very well and I was making good progress to catch the cars in front of me. It was looking promising for the second half of the race but it just didn't happen this time.

Ricardo Zonta's qualifying
Ricardo Zonta came into qualifying with minimum of track time since his race car was badly struck by reliability problems throughout the free practice sessions. His engineers worked flat out to ensure a reliable car in qualifying, but this meant that the young Brazilian was litterally forced to learn the track during the qualifying session itself... He did well, and could have bettered his time on his last run, but was hampered by a yellow flag which forced him to slow down. Ricardo had to settle for 19th place on the grid, but wasn't disappointed and looked forward to the race.
Ricardo Zonta's race
Ricardo was faster than Jacques in the warm-up, and it all looked good for the rookie. After all the incidents had settled and the race got off, Ricardo jumped from 19th to 10th during the first braking points, truly impressive stuff from the young Brazilian. He then went into the pits when the safety car was brought out after Jacques' accident, and raced very strongly as he headed for 6th place and one championship point. Sadly, he needed too many pit-stops to check his rear wing after Jacques' failed, and his first ever Grand Prix was over when debris caused problems for one of his car's cooling ducts, which resulted in overheating and a broken gearbox. At that stage, although being a lap behind, he was leading Irvine, who he held off for a couple of laps despite marshals waving with blue flags... A real racer, the Brazilian. British American Racing has a star in Ricardo, and I can't wait for Brazil and the Grand Prix at Interlagos, a track he knows inside out. Ricardo Zonta's post-race comment: I am very happy with my result. At the start of the race I felt a little bit worried as many drivers were having problems. I made my first pit-stop four laps early because the safety car was out, and when I got back to the race I had gained several positions. I had a lot of oversteer in my car, so it was very hard to drive and I knew it would be easy to make a mistake. I tried to drive at the limit, without making any mistakes. Later, I came in for two more pit-stops and was aiming to finish the race in sixth position. Then my engineer called me to make another pit-stop to check my rear wing, because of Jacques' problem. Unfortunately, because of an overheating problem, I couldn’t continue. Overall I am happy with my first race.