Four days before the launch of its new car for the 2002 season, British American Racing (BAR) announced a change in its structure: Craig Pollock, the team principal and managing director since its inception in 1999, had been removed from his position and replaced by David Richards.

Since its inception, BAR was a team whose development and manufacturing was handled primarily by Reynard, a racing car constructor. However, Reynard went bankrupt soon after the beginning of 2002. BAR, which had lost its technical infrustructure, turned to Richards. BAR’s main sponsor, British American Tobacco (BAT), had strong sponsorship ties to Richards’ Prodrive racing team. Prodrive was not only a WRC (World Rally Championship) winning team, but Richards was also the head of the Benetton F1 team, and had a wealth of experience and accomplishments.

With a new team principal, BAR extended its partnership with Honda to 2004, and renewed its contract with tire supplier Bridgestone. Honda and Bridgestone would fully support Richards’ BAR.

The team had been reorganized but the drivers stayed the same. 1997 champion Jacques Villeneuve entered his fourth season with BAR, with teammate was Olivier Panis. Test drivers Anthony Davidson, Darren Manning, and Patrick Lemarie also remained, but Takuma Sato, who had been a test driver the previous year, made his F1 debut with Jordan that year, and was replaced by Ryo Fukuda, who had won the French Formula 3 championship in 2001.

Reynard’s bankruptcy forced BAR to make changes to its technical team after the start of the season. Engineering Director Malcolm Oesler and Chief Designer Andrew Green, who had led the development of BAR’s cars since the beginning, left the team shortly after the start of the season. The new technical director in charge of the engineering team was Jeff Willis, an engineer who had headed the aerodynamics team at Williams, which had finished second in the constructors’ championship the previous year. The announcement of Willis’ move was made at the end of the 2001 season, but due to contractual obligations, be began work at BAR after the new year. By that time, the development of the BAR004 had been completed and production had reached its peak, so the 2002 BAR season was irregular, with Willis, who had just moved to the team, improving the car developed by his predecessor.

Newly appointed Richards implemented organizational reforms, restructuring not only the top management of development but also about 15 percent of the team’s workforce, in order to strengthen the team. Honda fully supported Richards’ management team, and the somewhat distant car co-development with BAR shifted gears under the new leadership.

The BAR004 was a conservative update of the previous year’s BAR003. The suspension geometry was revised to address the unstable behavior that plagued its drivers last year, and in addition to traction control during acceleration, an overrun control system was introduced to improve rear stability under braking. In addition, chassis and brake materials were reviewed and the weight was reduced by 14kg compared to BAR003. Although the overall balance of the car was now achieved, it was not competitive, and Willis and the Honda engineers who had taken over development faced many difficulties. Aero parts equivalent to the Williams FW24 that Willis had designed were applied, but improvements were minor.

In the opening round, both cars were started outside the top 10, and both retired. The BAR004’s problems continued, with Panis unable to finish the first seven rounds, including Round 7, Monaco. Villeneuve had better success in finishing races, but not within the points. The team’s first points came deep into the season, at Round 10, the British GP. This was Honda’s slowest season to secure points since teaming up with BAR. In the end, the team finished within the points four times between the two cars, and the eighth place in the constructors’ championship was a disappointment more severe than the last two years.