Pollock Missing Running BAR

Former British American Racing team boss Craig Pollock has revealed that he misses being at the helm of a Formula One team and has refused to rule out a return in the future.

45-year old Pollock left his position at the Brackley-based squad last December after three very hard and disappointing seasons for a team who were initially aiming to fight for wins when they made their Formula One debut in 1999.

In three and a half years in Grand Prix racing, BAR have scored only three podium finishes and they are the only ones yet to score a point so far in 2002 after the first seven races of the season.

45-year old Scot Pollock was replaced by compatriot David Richards to change the team's fortunes, and although he reckons he enjoys being a team owner - he owns 35 per cent of BAR - he also admits that he misses his old job.

"Do I miss running an F1 team? In certain ways, absolutely yes," Pollock told the Montreal Gazette. "I mean I quite like the new role of just being a team owner and manager. It gives me a far freer hand and a far freer mind to think about other businesses and new businesses.

"But Formula One is a drug and once you're in it, once you've tasted it at the highest level, well ... that's the hardest part to have to put aside."

Pollock, who is also Jacques Villeneuve's manager, set up the British American Racing team after buying out the extinct Tyrrell squad back at the end of 1997 with the support of British American Tobacco.

Despite the hard work that was only rewarded with a fifth place in the 2000 Constructors' Championship, Pollock is not ruling out a second attempt.

"Do I see myself back running a team in the future? Perhaps at some point," Pollock said. "But it's not necessarily a goal. And it's not something that's just going to happen like that.

"If I wanted it to happen, I'd have to actively go and seek for that to happen. I've done it in the past, so I know what it's like to do that and I know what it takes. But I'm not 100-per-cent sure that I want to do the same thing a second time."