The revamped BAR that saved Button's career

The birth of the British American Racing team - or BAR - in 1999 was hardly a conventional one. Formed from British American Tobacco's purchase of the ailing Tyrrell team's assets, having been persuaded to do so by Jacques Villeneuve's manager and former ski-instructor Craig Pollock, the team's formative years were hardly blessed with success.

Towards the end of its seven-year tenure, however, BAR had been purchased by Honda and was a consistent threat for points and podiums. A crucial factor in that swing in form was a key managerial change, made after three years of failing to deliver on lofty expectations - including Adrian Reynard's promise that the team would win its first race.

Pollock and several of his trusted lieutenants were directed towards the exit door in early 2002, when it became apparent that the new 004 chassis was not the step up that BAT had desired. In their place, Prodrive boss David Richards came in to whip the team into shape.

Prodrive had enjoyed title-winning successes in the World Rally Championship with Subaru in 1995 and 2001, along with the final British Touring Car Championship title of the Super Touring era with Ford in 2000, and BAT hoped that Richards would bring his Midas touch to an underachieving F1 team.

With all of its baggage, 2002 became nothing more than a transition year as BAR refocused its efforts on the following season; ex-Williams design head Geoff Willis was the first in a wave of new hires, aimed at improving the team's technical prowess. Immediately, the team's new technical director found plenty of room for improvement in the former Reynard facilities in Brackley - now owned by Mercedes.

"I think the thing that jumped out to me," recalls Willis, "was that the quality of the engineering and the overall technical process was missing quite a lot. There was a lot of enthusiasm, but there wasn't the engineering machine that there was at the time at Williams.

"And I think, in lot of areas, there were - for example, in the wind tunnel, the wind tunnel approach, the ability to design structural components like the chassis and the suspension, the wings - there were quite a lot of things that just weren't quite right.

"So during 2002, as we went to the 2003 car, we really tried to raise the standard, particularly of the structural composites."

"We took a lot of weight out of [the 2004 car], it was running at 60, 70, possibly more kilos of ballast" Geoff Willis

Part of Willis's drive to improve the team was to change the mentality of the staff already at BAR, frustrated by a lack of success. As the 2003 BAR 005 was launched, it was done so with no paintwork whatsoever, instead showcasing the naked carbon fibre used for the bodywork and chassis. This was to give, Willis explains, the composites engineers more pride in their jobs, knowing that their handiwork would be on show as the car broke ground.

And while the 2003 car was much improved compared to those before it, ultimately reigniting the stalling career of new recruit Jenson Button, it was BAR's next car that really took the team to new heights.

Having impressed BAR's management by assuming the mantle of lead driver from Villeneuve the previous season, Button was retained while Villeneuve, feeling that it was no longer 'his' team, left before the end of 2003 and was replaced by Takuma Sato - a favourite of engine suppliers Honda.

The two, significantly more amenable (and undoubtedly less expensive) than Villeneuve, were rewarded immediately with a car that proved to be particularly quick out of the box in 2004.

Perhaps inspired by the domination of the Ferraris, BAR opted for an a la mode drooping nose, paired with rounded sidepods to tighten up the aero package. The engine cover was also sculpted more carefully to ease the transition of airflow to the rear wing, as the pentagonal air intake was retained.

The previous fleet of cars produced by BAR were somewhat boxy, but the 006's light components and a more scrupulous design process meant that the team was in the enviable situation of having weight to play with.

"We had the knowledge that we could just build better quality parts," Willis says. "Knowing you can do that means that you can take weight out of them, particularly, you could hit stiffness targets with suspension and chassis. We took a lot of weight out of it, and the car was running at 60, 70, possibly more kilos of ballast.

"I think the naivety at the time was probably we, with what we know now, would have taken that ballast and we would have turned it into performance through more innovative suspension, for example, which would have allowed more innovative aerodynamic solutions. But I think we were still learning a lot."

But one of the key components to BAR's uptick in performance was the switch to Michelin tyres. Having felt that Bridgestone was pinning all of its hopes on Ferrari, with little regard for the demands of its other customers, Richards and Willis elected to defect during F1's tyre war. They were ultimately rewarded with a tyre that was more user-friendly, thanks to Michelin's more open approach to development.

"[The 006] was a relatively simple car," Willis explains. "Going into the 2004 car, we'd established that we could make structural composites in a consistent, light, reliable, and traceable way.

"And we had more of a process in the wind tunnel; I think being a little bit more rational in how we were adding performance to the car, we were improving the mutual trust and interactions between the design group and the aerodynamics group.

"We had been, like many, on the Bridgestone tyres in 2003. And I think we felt that going up against Ferrari on the Bridgestone tyres, we just didn't have the sort of insight that Ferrari had from their relationship with Bridgestone.

"We liked the more objective, more data driven approach of Michelin, so I lobbied it strongly with David Richards to get us on to the Michelins."

It took just two rounds for BAR to clinch its first podium since 2001, as Button claimed third in Malaysia to secure his first top-three finish in F1. Akin to London buses - you're left waiting for one and two arrive - Button grabbed another third-place finish next time out at the first ever Bahrain race.

"It was one of those cars you looked at and thought 'we achieved all of the things we set out for'. The drivers enjoyed driving it, the engineers enjoyed working with it, and it gave the team a real boost" Geoff Willis

Sato also broke his 2004 duck with fifth in Bahrain having led for a short time in the first half of the race, although the true test of BAR's progress came at the San Marino GP, three weeks later.

The first three rounds of '04 had been characterised by Ferrari dominance, as the F2004 swept all before it - but the return to Europe firmly put BAR on the map. Button swept to his maiden pole at Imola, with his car looking perfectly balanced and poised around the tight and technical circuit.

His start to the race was equally as impressive, surging off the line to build an early break over Michael Schumacher. But Schumacher's determination to turn the race on its head prevailed; he hacked into Button's lead and, as the BAR man took to the pits for his first stop, the then-six-time title winner pumped in an array of impressive lap-times to successfully implement the overcut at the end of his own stop.

Although many would have - in that moment at least - mithered at the prospect of Schumacher once again putting his rivals on the ropes, Button had nonetheless shown the merits of the 006 chassis and held onto second place.

In Monaco, Button came agonisingly close to victory once more, finishing within half a second of eventual winner Jarno Trulli, the Renault driver taking his first and only victory from pole amid an eventful race in which both Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher spectacularly crashed in the tunnel.

Sato, meanwhile, suffered a rare case of mechanical issues as his Honda V10 immediately began to shed a huge cloud of smoke - coincidentally at the Tabac corner, which prompted a nasty collision between Giancarlo Fisichella and David Coulthard. But that case of unreliability was a rare one, and BAR, Button and Sato continued to rack up points throughout the year, Sato taking his only F1 podium in the US GP at Indianapolis.

Although never quite in the same stratosphere as Ferrari, the team continued to stake its claim to be the second-best team of 2004 as its development progressed into the second half of the season.

The team explored the benefits of a torque transfer system, assisting with the balance of the car under braking to give the driver greater stability when returning to the power. The system arguably had its roots in a development Benetton had run back in 1999, albeit refined - but was later banned in Germany.

BAR eventually overhauled Renault in the standings to finish behind Ferrari - some 143 points adrift. The season ended with a bang in Brazil, although not quite on the terms that the team had wanted, as Williams and McLaren fought out victory between them.

"I think at the end of the year," adds Willis (pictured below), "we probably would have been in a position to win - but we had an engine fault in the last race of the year [where Button retired on lap three after his car had been conspicuously smoking on the grid].

"But overall, it was one of those cars you looked at and thought 'we achieved all of the things we set out for'. We wanted [a car that was] very reliable, high quality, light, lot of ballast that we can move around.

"We wanted the Michelin, which we got thankfully to David's lobbying and influence - it was just a nice car to work with. The drivers enjoyed driving it, the engineers enjoyed working with it, and it gave the team a real boost."

The 2004 campaign was the team's high water mark after years of underperformance, but the following 2005 season was the beginning of a steady descent amid controversy prior to the team's full takeover by Honda.

A secret fuel tank was spied within the following 007 chassis, meaning Button and Sato both had to sit out two races, while the car itself was not as impressive as its predecessor in comparison to the other teams. Willis anticipates the next question.

"I think the only bit for me missing from 2004 was that we didn't put that car in P1" Geoff Willis

"What happened in 2005? I think one of the mistakes we've made was that we didn't really understand the consequences of the aerodynamic regulation," he says. "I think it was the first year when we started to lift the front wing and we were slow to respond to that.

"The 2005 car wasn't a bad car, but we should have been sharper on the aerodynamic consequences of it.

"Maybe we were too focused on 2004 and the push to try and get a win out of that car. I think the only bit for me missing from 2004 was that we didn't put that car in P1."

The team, in its Honda guise, did get a victory two years later courtesy of Button's stellar drive in a washed-out Hungarian Grand Prix, but those dizzying highs were followed by a number of terrifying lows, prompting Honda to end its F1 involvement as the team was sold for a nominal fee to Ross Brawn.

And that turned out rather well.