BAR-Talk.com Newsletter 018

By Phil Huff
April 28 2005

So what's happened since the last issue of the BAR-Talk.com newsletter? Some pace was found in testing, Honda said they'll spend more, Gil got involved in the team, we performed well at San Marino, and then there was more testing cheer.

Oh yes, we were also all but accused of cheating.

There is near endless speculation in the media now, with sites claiming anything from an human error right through to accusations of constant cheating going back years.

The strongest rumour is one of a secondary fuel tank, somehow hidden in the tight confines of a Formula One car from the highly experienced FIA appointed scrutineer and his team.

We don't buy it. This hidden fuel tank theory takes far too much effort, carries far too much risk, and produces far too little reward. Think about what's involved...

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First, you have to consciously decide to break the rules, knowing full well that the entire team could be disqualified from the whole season, and design a car accordingly. Then you have to design another car in order to submit the plans to the FIA. You've got to get your fabricators to build the extra parts without question, and then convince the assemblers that everything is perfectly normal. Even the engineers at the track would need to accept that two tanks is the way to go.

Then, once you've achieved all that, you've got to make sure that you keep this hidden tank topped up throughout the weekend in order to pass all the weight checks. Only during the middle third of the race will you be able to run underweight.

Even then, the figures that have come out from Imola show that you would gain a maximum of about 0.4s a lap. Jenson's second stint was 24 laps, so that's 9.6 seconds in total.

In total. Just under 10 seconds for all that risk. Michael Schumacher was going 2 seconds a lap faster than the BAR, so you've got to assume that it's not really worth it.

As it stands right now, BAR Honda are innocent of anything. However, this time next week the FIA will be appealing against the FIA appointed stewards and FIA scrutineer in an FIA appeal court. They'll be prosecutor, defendant, judge and jury all at one time. Impressive stuff.

Equally impressive is Honda's commitment to winning, although I'm not sure they'd go so far as hiding extra fuel tanks in the car. A few dollars, maybe, but not tanks. Tasuhiro Wada, Honda Racing Development's new president, stated his job by announcing that, if it was necessary, Honda would spend more money in order to win.

Given the pace of the Ferrari F2005, we imagine that he's already been to the cash machine, drawing out as much as possible.

He might even have been spending it, after Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson topped testing times on the same track that Ferrari were testing at. If you're going to do that, wouldn't it be fun to do it at Ferrari's own circuit?

And it was fun! It might only be 0.1s, but to beat the F2005 on its home soil certainly helped raise some much needed smiles back at Brackley.

The next challenge, once we've got past the FIA appealing against the FIA, is the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona. BAR have gone well in testing there recently, setting a new lap record.

Underweight or not, could this be another chance for BAR's first win? We only hope that, on the assumption that BAR are proved innocent, any success isn't overshadowed by doubts about the legality of the cars.

That would be a disaster for BAR and, more importantly, a disaster for F1.

Phil Huff
BAR-Talk.com