Growing pains
Zanardi, Gordon, Villeneuve, Hill on F-1 team's wish list
Posted: Thursday July 09, 1998 11:22 PM
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British American Racing is looking to sign NASCAR star Jeff Gordon (AP) |
BRACKLEY, England (AP) -- Italian Alex Zanardi from the United States' CART series and NASCAR's Jeff Gordon are on a short list to join Formula One's newest team -- British American Racing -- when it hits the track next season.
BAR's managing director Craig Pollock added those two Wednesday
to a list that already includes defending series champion Jacques
Villeneuve and 1996 world champion Damon Hill.
Villeneuve, who has been linked with the new team since it was formed seven
months ago, denies that he has decided to leave Williams and drive for
BAR. Pollock is Villeneuve's ex-manager and former teacher.
"Of course I'd like him on board," said Pollock, as he spoke
Wednesday at the team's new headquarters being built an hour
northwest of London. "But a certain Mr. Williams [Williams owner, Frank] would like to keep him and a couple of other teams would like to take him
away."
Pollock also expressed interest in '96 series champion Damon
Hill, who is winless this season at Jordan Mugen-Honda and has yet
to finish in the top six. Pollock admitted there was a risk involved coming to a new team, and said that he hoped to name a test driver at Sunday's British Grand
Prix in Silverstone, England.
"But I could look him [Villeneuve] or Damon Hill in the eye and
say I could provide you with a package that you could build up,"
Pollock said.
Earlier this month the team announced Renault would power the
new team.
BAR is a joint venture of British American Tobacco, Reynard
Racing Cars and Pollock, with 50 percent of the team owned by the
tobacco company and Reynard and Pollock splitting the other half.
Reports have suggested BAT has invested $330 million (200 million pounds) in the team, a figure BAT declines to confirm. But Pollock, the newest and youngest owner in Formula One racing at age 42, is slowly building team. The troubled Tyrrell team that he bought hasn't scored a point this year, and he's looking ahead to next season.
He hopes a car from his BAR team will be on the pole position
for its first Grand Prix, something only a handful of other teams
have done in the nearly 50-year history of Grand Prix racing.
"So far I have been able to live up to what I have said I would
do," Pollock said. "And the only thing I have said is that I am
trying to build up a professional team that would win in the
shortest possible time. What that time scale is remains to be seen
as long as it needs to be."
Time is closing in. Barely six months before the start
of the 1999 racing season, Pollock is getting things in place.
"We started to design the car at the beginning of December," he said. "The
model has been made and actually been testing in the Reynard wind
tunnel in Indianapolis. The results of that have been very, very promising."
Adrian Reynard is the team's designer, and the Reynard Racing
team has been successful on the Indy Car circuit. Jacques Villeneuve
won the Indianapolis 500 in 1995 in a Reynard car with a
Ford-Cosworth engine.
Just before the French Grand Prix at the end of June, BAR signed
a deal with Mecachrome, which supplies Renault-designed engines for
two other teams in Formula One -- Williams and Benetton. Neither are
challenging the top teams of McLaren-Mercedes or Ferrari this year.
The factory came next, opening July 8 northwest of London.
"It is the first concrete step towards the construction of our
new team," Pollock said. "We have about 75 employees -- mostly design staff and key personnel in each division -- so that we can build up the main staff
body."
He is hoping it will reach more than 200 in the fall.
"The biggest challenge in Formula One is actually creating the
team," Pollock said. "You can have 200 people, but that is not saying you have a
team. You can make motor racing fun if you can put your mind to it.
One of the most important things we are going to have to do is
build up a team that should be young and enjoy what they're
doing."
It remains to be seen who will be driving for the team in 1999.
Speculation has centered on Villeneuve, especially since he is
struggling with the Williams team this season. In addition, Pollock organized Villeneuve's Indy Car career and helped him wade through the legal complexities of Formula One as his manager.
Pollock isn't looking for any favors in signing Villeneuve to
another contract as an owner.
"I don't expect any," he said. "And I don't owe him any, either. Whatever
we have been to each other -- and we have played a major part in
each other's lives -- we are not obligated in any way."
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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