Wraps come off new BAR

Richards believes that BAR has moved on from its troubled birth as a grand prix team, and predicts it will become a more potent force in Formula 1 in 2004.

"As we enter the third year of my tenure at BAR, a great deal of the groundwork is behind us and we are now in a position to provide a constant challenge to the top three teams," said Richards. "Our relationship with Honda has developed immeasurably, to the point where we now have a totally integrated engineering team, and the BAR-Honda 006 is a testament to the strength of our partnership."

Richards went on to laud his driver line-up in the post Jacques Villeneuve BAR era.

"Our driver line-up of Jenson Button and Takuma Sato provides us with an exciting combination of youth, experience and ambition, which has dramatically boosted the team's motivation to succeed," he added. "The whole operation is moving forward relentlessly, and as each week goes by I see our team taking another methodical step towards our long-term goal of front line competitiveness."