New British Racing Team Defies Tobacco Ban (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

                                 Corrected-Motor racing-BAR launch straight
into controversy

                                 12:38 p.m. Jan 06, 1999 Eastern 

                                 By Alan Baldwin 

                                 BRACKLEY, England, Jan 6 (Reuters) - The
new British American Racing
                                 (BAR) Formula One team unveiled its cars on
Wednesday in a confident public
                                 launch which set it on a collision course
with the sport's rulers. 

                                 Drivers Jacques Villeneuve, Canada's 1997
world champion, and Brazilian
                                 Ricardo Zonta walked out after a dazzling
light display at the team's central
                                 England headquarters and stood beside the
BAR Supertec cars. 

                                 One of the cars, white with the number 22,
was painted in the livery of Lucky
                                 Strike -- one of team owner British
American Tobacco's brand of cigarettes. 

                                 The other, blue with the number 23, carried
the insignia of another BAT brand --
                                 555 cigarettes -- in contravention of a
recent ruling by the International
                                 Automobile Federation (FIA) that teams must
race in substantially similar
                                 liveries. 

                                 Villeneuve and Zonta, a newcomer to Formula
One, wore overalls which
                                 corresponded to their cars. 

                                 BAR, racing in their debut season after
taking over the now-defunct Tyrrell
                                 operation, want to field cars in different
colours and say that the FIA regulation
                                 inhibits commercial freedom when dealing
with potential sponsors. 

                                 A three-man arbitration committee -- with
one representative for each side and
                                 one neutral -- is expected to rule on the
issue after a meeting in Paris on
                                 Thursday after BAR initiated legal
proceedings against the FIA. 

                                 BAR team managing director Craig Pollock
denied the move was provocative
                                 ahead of the arbitration committee meeting
and said he had not thought about
                                 any alternative. 

                                 ``We hope that its going to be decided
tomorrow,'' he said. 

                                 Pollock was Villeneuve's manager before the
BAR team was established and the
                                 venture marries his entrepreneurial skills
with the engineering abilities of technical
                                 director Adrian Reynard and the massive
resources of BAT. 

                                 In just under 14 months the team has moved
from being a mere dream to a
                                 racing reality with Renault Mecachrome
engines similar to those used by
                                 Williams and Benetton. 

                                 Pollock, in his presentation, jokingly
assured Zonta the two cars were the same,
                                 told Villeneuve he still thought he was
paid too much and then moved on to more
                                 serious matters. 

                                 ``What is our common goal for 1999?'' he
asked. ``Maybe what we can say is
                                 to become the most professional team in the
pit lane. If we can achieve this,
                                 there is no reason why the desired results
cannot follow.'' 

                                 Reynard's car building company has a record
of winning its debut race whenever
                                 it has entered a new formula, most notably
in Indycar, and Reynard said when
                                 BAR was founded that the target was to do
the same in Formula One. 

                                 The words have haunted the team ever since. 

                                 ``How did I know that question was going to
be asked?'' Reynard said when
                                 asked if he stood by his words now. ``This
isn't Reynard, it's BAR...But I've
                                 never heard that setting one's targets too
high is a bad thing. 

                                 ``That's what we will try and do.'' 

                                 BAT chairman Martin Broughton said the
team's achievements in building its
                                 headquarters could be an example of what it
could achieve on the track this
                                 season. 

                                 ``Much of what you see today was just a
muddy hole in the ground less than a
                                 year ago. If our progress on the track in
1999 is as spectacular as our progress
                                 off it in 1998, then the whole of Formula
One could be in for a few surprises.'' 

                                 Flavio Briatore, a long-time Formula One
insider with various teams whose
                                 Supertec company is providing the engines,
cut through the hyperbole. 

                                 ``When we start racing we need the
results,'' declared the former Benetton team
                                 boss. ``I'm sure BAR is a surprise for the
next championship. I hope we win in
                                 the first race.'' 


                                 Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights
reserved.