Near the end of last season, Atlas F1's Karl Ludvigsen predicted the BAR team would raise their game in 2003 thanks to the entry of former Williams man Geoff Willis. Last Sunday's Australian Grand Prix proved him right, with the Brackley-based squad shining most of the weekend despite not scoring any points. Now it's time to analyse what has changed at BAR and what needs to be sorted to move closer to the top.

After the United States Grand Prix last year, I devoted a column to BAR. I said it seemed likely that they'd continue with the same team moniker, which indeed they did but with an interesting graphic twist. "Nothing improves a brand like better performance of the products and services it stands for," I said. "I think BAR has a chance of delivering that next year."

I also remarked on BAR's achievement in recruiting Geoff Willis from Williams. I said that when Willis "arrived at Brackley he was withering about the team's lack of understanding of the technical advances that others had made. Thanks to his input and the high standards he sets, Willis's BAR 005 for next season should be a much improved racing car." We can see from the cars' performance at Melbourne that this is very much the case.

The results don't reflect the merits of the BAR Honda 005. That's shown much more clearly by the fastest laps set during the race. These show that the new car is quite capable of mixing it with most of the top runners. Jenson Button's quickest lap was sixth fastest and Jacques Villeneuve's was ninth fastest. The latter's best was about a second slower that the quickest laps of Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher. Button's best was only a third of a second slower than the best lap of race winner David Coulthard and a hair quicker than the best effort of Ralf Schumacher in the powerful BMW Williams.

"We know we have a competitive car," said team principal Dave Richards afterwards, "and we can look forward with confidence to a much more successful season." Geoff Willis believes there's more to come as well. "We definitely did not extract the full potential of our package this weekend," he said. That has to go as well for the Honda engines, since Honda chose not to race its latest spec in Australia after some pre-race problems. Thus the BAR cars at present are slightly down on speed from such top rivals as McLaren-Mercedes and Ferrari.

All this leads me to two conclusions. One is that Geoff Willis is not just a pretty face in the pitlane. He is a seriously capable designer of Formula One racing cars. I think we have just seen the debut of our next major design talent. We'll be mentioning Willis in the same breath as such luminaries of the CAD screen as Adrian Newey, Rory Byrne and (in the recent past) John Barnard. One thing's for sure: his trading value has just skyrocketed! Take note, Dave Richards!

The flip side of this has to be the struggle that BMW Williams has had in getting its act together for 2003. Many of its problems have been attributed to aerodynamic solutions - or the lack of them. We can't exactly speak of the new Williams being a disaster; in Montoya's hands it came close to winning the race. But I just have a sneaking suspicion that Williams minus Willis is a less capable outfit, in much the same manner as Williams minus Newey struggled. Patrick Head and Frank Williams must look to the policies that have allowed such men to be lured away.

My other conclusion is that BAR Honda won't stand a chance of doing well until they get their strategy act together. The team's principals admitted that they botched their strategy badly in Australia. The point is that in the old British American Racing days nobody would have noticed! They were wandering around in the back half of the field where a strategy failure didn't matter very much. Now that's changed. Their new car gives them the potential to play with the big boys, where strategy is all - especially under the new rules. Their Melbourne result has cruelly exposed this major shortcoming of the BAR Honda outfit.

My recommendation to Dave Richards is that he should have a good look around and recruit the best strategy talent he can find. It worked with the car; now it's needed for the team. That's a big piece of the puzzle these days. Fitting it in should see BAR Honda achieving consistent finishes toward the top of the field.

Oh, and by the way: I haven't forgotten that Ferrari and McLaren will introduce new cars later in the season. I'm counting on Geoff Willis to keep updating his BAR and Honda to make a major engine effort in response. If they don't, it will mean that both have been resource-constrained. I'm sure both have the ability to do better.