The BAR 004 was the car with which the

British American Racing British American Racing (BAR) was a Formula One constructor that competed in the sport from 1999 to 2005. BAR began by acquiring Tyrrell, and used Supertec engines for their first year. Subsequently, they formed a partnership with Honda which l ...

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

team competed in the

2002 Formula One season The 2002 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 56th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It began on 3 March and ended on 13 October after seventeen races. In the Drivers' Championship, Michael Schumacher finished first or second in eve ...

. It was driven by the 1997 World Champion

Jacques Villeneuve Jacques Joseph Charles Villeneuve ( born 9 April 1971) is a Canadian professional racing driver and amateur musician who won the 1997 Formula One World Championship with Williams. In addition to Formula One (F1) he has competed in various ot ...

, and French racer

Olivier Panis Olivier Panis (; born 2 September 1966) is a French former racing driver. Panis raced in Formula One for ten seasons, earning his first and only win at the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix for the Ligier team. He is the father of racing driver Aurél ...

Season

The BAR 004 was launched on 18 December, 2001 at the teams headquarters in

Brackley Brackley is a market town and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England, bordering Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, from Oxford and from Northampton. Historically a market town based on the wool and lace trade, it was built on the inters ...

. The day after brand new team, Toyota. The car featured dominant sponsorship from British American Tobacco brand,

Lucky Strike Lucky Strike is an American brand of cigarettes owned by the British American Tobacco group. Individual cigarettes of the brand are often referred to colloquially as "Luckies." Throughout their 150 year history, Lucky Strike has had fluctuating ...

, once again alongside

Tiscali Tiscali S.p.a. () is an Italian telecommunications company, based in Cagliari, Sardinia, that provides internet and telecommunications services to its domestic market. It previously had operations in other European nations through its acquisitio ...

and Sonax. The launch event also confirmed new team boss David Richards taking over from

Craig Pollock Craig Pollock (born February 20, 1956) is a British businessman. He was the manager of 1997 World Champion Formula One driver Jacques Villeneuve throughout his top-level career. Pollock was the founder of the British American Racing Formula One ...

, and his

Prodrive Prodrive is a British motorsport and advanced engineering group based in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. It designs, constructs and races automobile, cars for companies and teams such as Aston Martin, Bahrain Raid Xtreme and Team X44. Its advan ...

business taking on management of the team. The 004 was the first car designed solely in house by British American Racing technical director

Malcolm Oastler Malcolm Oastler (born 24 April 1959) is the former technical director of Formula One team BAR, former chief engineer for Jaguar Racing, and designer of many race cars. Oastler was born in Sydney, Australia. A keen motorsport enthusiast and dr ...

following the end of a three year design agreement with

Reynard Reynard the Fox is a literary cycle of medieval allegorical Dutch, English, French and German fables. The first extant versions of the cycle date from the second half of the 12th century. The genre was popular throughout the Late Middle Ages, as ...

. Before the season began, engine supplier

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

confirmed a new contract to continue supplying engines to British American Racing until 2004. This announcement at the cars launch also demonstrated the new Honda RA002E engine. At the first test in Barcelona in January, both Villeneuve and Panis tested the car alongside reserve driver

Anthony Davidson Anthony Denis Davidson (born 18 April 1979) is a British former racing driver, currently working as an analyst for the Sky Sports F1 television channel, as part of the commentary team for WEC TV, as colour commentator for the F1 series of vid ...

. All were outside the top 10 in their respective times. By the time testing reached

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

later in the month, Panis and Villeneuve finished 8th and 9th fastest respectively. However the season itself was a dismal one. It was not until the

2002 British Grand Prix The 2002 British Grand Prix (formally the LV Foster's British Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire, England on 7 July 2002. The 60-lap race was the tenth race of the 2002 Formula One seaso ...

that the team scored its first points of the season, a double points scoring round with Villeneuve in 4th and Panis in 5th. The team would score just a further two points that season with Panis in 6th in Monza and Villeneuve in 6th at Indianapolis. The team chalked up 17 retirements, including 5 races where both cars failed to finish. Olivier Panis did not complete a Grand Prix until the 8th round of the season in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Whilst some retirements were due to accidents, such as for Panis i Australia and Monte-Carlo, primarily the retirements were due to unreliability. In season testing at Valencia was completed by Panis and Davidson in an attempt to resolve some of the issues. The BAR 004 would see the team finish 8th in the constructors championship with 7 points.

Drivers

and

were the race team drivers for the whole season. Villeneuve was completing his fourth season with the team, meanwhile Panis his second. The team had four reserve drivers who were

Darren Manning Darren Manning (born 30 April 1975) is a British motor racing driver who has raced in the IRL IndyCar Series for Chip Ganassi Racing and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. Career history Early career Manning was born in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, ...

, Patrick Lemarie and

Ryo Fukuda Ryo may refer to: * Ryō, a gold currency unit in pre-Meiji Japan Shakkanhō system * Ryō (actress) (born 1973), Japanese model, actress, and singer * Ryō (given name), a unisex Japanese given name * Ryo, Georgia Ryo is an unincorporated communit ...

. Davidson was allowed to be temporarily released of duties for the team so he could race for

Minardi Minardi was an Italian automobile racing team and constructor founded in Faenza in 1979 by Giancarlo Minardi. It competed in the Formula One World Championship from 1985 until 2005 with little success, nevertheless acquiring a loyal followin ...

whilst

Alex Yoong Alexander Charles Yoong Loong (; born 20 July 1976), is a Malaysian professional racing driver of Chinese and English parentage. Yoong began his career in saloon cars before moving into the Proton one-make series. He later raced in single-sea ...

took a two race break.

Complete Formula One results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

)

References

{{F1 cars 2002 BAR Formula One cars 2002 Formula One season cars