Hungarian GP BAR race notes

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY, August 13, 2000 - If effort counted toward results, Lucky Strike Reynard BAR Honda drivers Jacques Villeneuve and Ricardo Zonta should both have finished in the points at today''s Hungarian Grand Prix. As events played out, however, and despite slick team work from the BAR Honda pit crew, the best the two men could achieve was 12th and 14th places respectively. There was initial drama for Villeneuve, who had to pit at the end of the opening lap to have a new nose fitted to his car after damaging it in an incident with de la Rosa''s Arrows. Once back in the fray, he lapped impressively, his pace frequently matching, or exceeding that of the race leaders. Zonta also climbed steadily during his first stunt, but deteriorating handling hobbled his efforts and, despite chassis changes made during each of his pit stops, they failed to improve matters.

Jacques Villeneuve:
"We knew when we arrived at the beginning of the weekend that we were probably not going to be competitive here. For once, I had a pretty bad start in the race with too much wheelspin. I was on the outside of de la Rosa at the chicane and he braked very late. I did as well, but hit the back of his car. After the first pit stop to change the nose cone, the car was really quick, but by that point I had just lost too much time. It''s a shame, because the car was very good during the race."

Ricardo Zonta:
"We tried to change the downforce levels in the race in order to improve the car''s handling, but it just got worse instead. In the first stint, I had understeer under power, then in the second stint, there was oversteer on the entry to corners. Finally, we made a change to the tyre pressures, but the oversteer was still there and the steering became very heavy. After that, there was just no way to fight any more."

Craig Pollock:
"This was a hugely disappointing result for the team, but at the same time, there was considerable relief to see that the set-up on Jacques'' car was getting the maximum out of the chassis. We hope this will give us enough detail to have a good set-up for this sort of circuit in the future. Jacques had a different set-up from Ricardo and that reflected in the difference in performance between the two drivers in the race."

Takefumi Hosaka:
"Jacques was quick today and his lap times were close to those of the top teams. It would have been nice to have found that speed one day earlier, and that is an area in which we will have to find some improvement."