BAR not letting up

SILVERSTONE, ENGLAND, September 28, 2000 - The 2000 Formula One World Championship season may be down to its last two rounds, but Lucky Strike Reynard BAR Honda is not letting up. The Brackley-based team spent two days at Silverstone this week preparing for the upcoming Japanese and Malaysian Grands Prix, intent on maintaining the momentum that saw the BAR Hondas of Jacques Villeneuve and Ricardo Zonta both finish in the points in last Sunday's United States Grand Prix. Test drivers Patrick Lemarie and Darren Manning worked through a busy programme, the former concentrating on data-gathering and development work on components for the 2001 BAR Honda, while the latter drove the latest version of the Honda Athena chassis. The team also took the opportunity to sample tyre compounds and constructions being provided by Bridgestone for the Japanese and Malaysian races.

STEVE FARRELL , Chief Engineer, British American Racing
"The intention of this test was to examine various technical options for next year's car, but the results were not conclusive because of poor weather and the fact that both drivers spun in the one proper dry session that we had. We were able to run the wet tyres Bridgestone will be supplying for Suzuka, so that may have provided us with some useful data, should we encounter wet conditions in Japan."

@!ANDREW ALSWORTH , Test Team Manager, British American Racing "There was quite a work list to get through at this two-day test. Patrick concentrated on chassis development work for next year using the team's test chassis and also assisted Bridgestone with tyre assessment. Darren drove the Athena chassis, carrying out Honda work relevant to next year and also fitted in some BAR chassis development for 2001. The weather hasn't been great, but at least the wet conditions allowed us to run Bridgestone's Suzuka-specification wet tyres and gather some useful data."

<pre> Unofficial times from the Silverstone test Mon, Sept 27 - Dry, afternoon showers Tues, Sept 28 - Wet, drying in the afternoon Driver Team Time Laps Driver Team Time Laps J Trulli Jordan 1:29.3 43 J Trulli Jordan 1:26.36 75 E Irvine Jaguar 1:28.5 51 E Irvine Jaguar 1:26.52 66 D Manning BAR Honda 1:29.0 13 D Manning BAR Honda 1:27.48 44 P Lemarie BAR Honda 1:30.8 36 P Lemarie BAR Honda 1:28.75 41