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Sufficiently Confident: Interview with Geoff Willis

BAR-Honda are on a mission to prove that last season was not a one-off success. The start of 2005, however, has been far from kind to the team from Brackley, and they have yet to get a car across the finish line. But technical director Geoff Willis says he knows what's wrong and how to fix it, and he tells Will Gray why they are confident of bouncing back in the upcoming races

Will Gray Apr 20, 2005, 12:22 PM

For a team that started the year targeting victories, a no-score after three races is not exactly what BAR-Honda had expected. Smoking engines, slipping clutches and troubled tactics are all to blame for the poor performance of last year's Constructors' Championship runners-up, but recent tests have pointed them back in the right direction and the team's chiefs insist things are not quite as dire as they seemed.

They are not where they want to be, that is for sure. Their third disappointment of the year in Bahrain saw Takuma Sato retire with brake problems before half distance, a few laps before Jenson Button parked up at the end of the pitlane when he could no longer grasp any gears. But technical director Geoff Willis believes the unreliability has masked their true potential.