Monday January 24th, 2000

"Evolution not revolution" was the theme as the BAR Honda 002 was unveiled officially to the world's media today in central London. The chiselled nose profile is slightly altered, the sidepods subtly reshaped and the wasp-waisted back end a little cleaner of line than the previous model, but there is no doubting that the car, resplendent in its new Lucky Strike livery, is from the British American Racing stable.

The team's Techical Director, Malcolm Oastler, confirmed that the new car was indeed evolutionary. "The fact is, the longer Formula One technical regulations remain stable - and essentially they have been that way for some time now - the more everyone tends to move in the same direction," he observes. "The BAR002 chassis does look outwardly similar to the previous year's car, but there are a lot of subtle changes, some visible and some not, incorporated as a result of hard-won lessons learned in the course of 1999.

"Specifically, we believe we have made significant improvements in the areas of chassis strength, stiffness and aerodynamics, as well as in mechanical reliability. In addition, this year we have done a better job with our structural analysis, which means stressed components in particular are better fit for service."

With Oastler and Chief Designer, Andy Green, at the helm, British American Racing design and engineering staff began work on the new car in June of 1999. The car that emerged is conventional in terms of current Formula One thinking with a high nose, pushrod-activated suspension, and longitudinal, semi-automatic six-speed gearbox. Once again, the aerodynamic development programme for the new car was carried out in wind tunnels at Indianapolis and Southampton since the team's own facility was not fully operational at the time.

The other half of the equation for 2000 is the brand-new Honda RA000E engine. The V10 power unit also follows current F1 trends by being very light and compact. This, in turn, means the engine "packages" very well under the close-fitting bodywork of the BAR002. "Honda staff have designed engines to fit race cars before and knew exactly what they were doing when they set to work on the RA000E," says Oastler. "We made a few small changes to suit our installation, but it fits in the car beautifully. It's a lovely marriage of engine and chassis." Initial testing of the new BAR Honda 002 has been very positive with the car showing a marked improvement in mechanical reliability compared with its predecessor.

"We've been delighted with the reliability aspect in the first few tests," confirms Oastler. "It's the result of a number of factors, not least of which is that the design team at Brackley has really come together in the last 12 months and now functions as a much more integrated unit with good communication between the various specialist areas. In addition, we are now producing many more components in-house, which means manufacturing quality can be controlled much more effectively.

"We also listened carefully to our mechanics about the practical aspects of running the cars at the track. As a result, we have changed and/or simplified the design of many components on the new car to facilitate working on it. I'm quietly optimistic about our prospects for the 2000 season. There's still a lot to be done, but we're working away methodically with our Honda colleagues and there will be a number of new pieces added to the cars over the next six weeks."