Richards Expects BAR to Grow with Honda

British American Racing expect to make big progress with engine supplier Honda over the next year, the Formula One team's boss David Richards has said.

"I believe there are great parallels between the situation that BAR found itself in at the beginning of this year and (the one) that Honda found itself in," Richards told BBC radio.

"I think we are treading a very similar path together, having to rethink where we are and where we have got to go to," he added.

Richards, who took over at BAR last December as team principal from Craig Pollock and has just completed an initial restructuring, said Honda's research and design head Takeo Fukui was at Imola last weekend.

"He made no bones about it that he is not happy with the progress they have made to date," he said on Friday of Honda's attitude after four races in which their two teams - BAR and Jordan - have yet to score a point.

"They (Honda) have had to reorganise themselves to have a different look at the way they go about the task. I am convinced that in the next 12 months you will see some major steps forward from Honda alongside BAR," added Richards.

Fukui was quoted in the latest edition of Autosport magazine as suggesting that Honda was evaluating whether to continue supplying both teams with engines in future.

"We are contracted with Jordan for three years from when we signed last year," he said. "Of course, we are reviewing this every year and I cannot deny that we have to rethink the whole situation."

Richards stuck to his prediction that BAR could be genuinely fighting for wins in two years.

"By 2004 we will, I believe, be in a position where we have optimised the performance we can get from the team and the engine partnership and we will be a very strong contender at the front of the field," he said.

The team boss was less forthcoming when asked about the likely contract renewals of his two drivers, Canada's former World Champion Jacques Villeneuve and Frenchman Olivier Panis.

"We'll be looking at the drivers in the summer and clearly we've got a number of other issues to face before we get round to that," he said.