Richards Reckons BAR Can Challenge The 'Big Three'
Discussion
Following in the BAR tradition of making grandiose boasts of future success, Dave Richards has claimed that the team can challenge the ‘big three’ in 2004.
BAR narrowly squeaked into fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship in the final race of 2003, yet Richards still thinks that they can leapfrog Renault - who scored three times as many points as their Brackley ‘rivals’ last season - and challenge the likes of McLaren, Williams and Ferrari in the forthcoming campaign.
"No-one should delude themselves that there is not a big gap to make up," Richards told the BBC. "But if we can maintain the progress over the winter we can challenge the top three teams in 2004."
Richards did accept, though, that the team must improve their woeful reliability.
"When you look back on a season you tend to focus on the good points and the high spots of the year. But in reflecting on the year I have to really focus on our shortcomings and some of the reliability issues that we have to tackle. For each one there are good lessons that have been learnt on our side and Honda's side.
"Honda are working on the engine, the rules are changing, and I think they should favour us, so I look forward to next year with great enthusiasm," he added.
Then again, BAR have looked ahead at every season with great enthusiasm - including 1999 when they boasted of winning their first-ever grand prix and promptly failed to score a single point in their debut season.
O how I laughed
www.planet-f1.com/Home/story_13483.shtml
BAR narrowly squeaked into fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship in the final race of 2003, yet Richards still thinks that they can leapfrog Renault - who scored three times as many points as their Brackley ‘rivals’ last season - and challenge the likes of McLaren, Williams and Ferrari in the forthcoming campaign.
"No-one should delude themselves that there is not a big gap to make up," Richards told the BBC. "But if we can maintain the progress over the winter we can challenge the top three teams in 2004."
Richards did accept, though, that the team must improve their woeful reliability.
"When you look back on a season you tend to focus on the good points and the high spots of the year. But in reflecting on the year I have to really focus on our shortcomings and some of the reliability issues that we have to tackle. For each one there are good lessons that have been learnt on our side and Honda's side.
"Honda are working on the engine, the rules are changing, and I think they should favour us, so I look forward to next year with great enthusiasm," he added.
Then again, BAR have looked ahead at every season with great enthusiasm - including 1999 when they boasted of winning their first-ever grand prix and promptly failed to score a single point in their debut season.
O how I laughed
www.planet-f1.com/Home/story_13483.shtml
If you coimpare 2002 and 2003 you will notice that BAR were the most imporvde team this season, with the top 4 remaining static and BAR rising to 5th. Honda have a strong history of producing GP winning engines and should Renault fade there is no reason why BAR shouldn't rise to 4th spot, in that position they are indeed "challenging the top 3". Richards is right in his statement. Rich...
V8 Archie said:So why did BAR leapfrog all the other mid-field boys then? YOur analogy would simply have them all maintain status-quo.
All very well, but 7th in every race would have beaten their total for this year while getting a big fat zero last.
The change in the points system made it easier for the mid-field to score points (as it was supposed to) rather than the big boys.
RichB said:
If you coimpare 2002 and 2003 you will notice that BAR were the most imporvde team this season, with the top 4 remaining static and BAR rising to 5th. Honda have a strong history of producing GP winning engines and should Renault fade there is no reason why BAR shouldn't rise to 4th spot, in that position they are indeed "challenging the top 3". Richards is right in his statement. Rich...
But as it stands the are fighting for 4/5 with Renault,Jaguar and Sauber.
RichB said:I wasn't denying that they did better than the rest of the mid-field this year. I was suggesting that it is difficult to compare their improved points haul with the top four teams who all regularly get at least one car in the top six, and failure to be there usually means a failure to finish full stop.
So why did BAR leapfrog all the other mid-field boys then?
I'd like to see BAR do well. They have a history of building themselves up to then be shot down and Dave Richards is a little wise for that (I hope) with his history I would hope that he is basing his views on fact.
As others have said, Honda have it in them to build a very good engine, if Renault are off the pace next year (new narrow V and all that) then they could be in with a fighting chance.
However let us not discount Jaguar, nor Sauber.
D.
As others have said, Honda have it in them to build a very good engine, if Renault are off the pace next year (new narrow V and all that) then they could be in with a fighting chance.
However let us not discount Jaguar, nor Sauber.
D.
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