By Phil Huff (13/01/2005)
January 13 2005

There's just a few days before the launch of the BAR Honda 007 in Barcelona, and BAR have hit the test tracks again, with all four drivers running the Concept around for a while. The lap times, however, don't look encouraging. It's worth bearing in mind, though, that BAR have been the only team running in full 2005-spec aerodynamics, with the notable exception of Toyota, who launched their 2005 car on Saturday.

Rest assured, the times the team have been setting have been impressing people up and down the pitlane, and the car has been reasonably reliable to date. Let's hope the 007 carries this on.

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We'll be in Barcelona for the launch, and we'd like to take your questions with us, so email them to us and we'll do the best we can. All questions asked will be printed on the site, along with the relevant answers.

If you want to see the launch live, you'll need to head off to Birmingham, where the launch will be broadcast to visitors of the Autosport Show. Tickets start at £18.

That's far less than BAT and Honda paid out in order to buy BAR earlier this week. The team, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of BAT until Honda purchased 45%, was put into receivership after some minor shareholders (including Craig Pollock) refused to sell. BAT and Honda then spent a fortune buying the company, shutting out the smaller shareholders in the process.

Just to clarify: BAT and Honda effectively sold BAR to, er, BAT and Honda.

Hoping to raise even more money are our good friends at pitpass.com, who are holding an auction at eBay for Tsunami Relief with Oxfam. There's a fair number of BAR related goods for sale, including a signed front wing endplate, a signed Sato cap, a signed Jenson poster, and Sato's race vest. The auction has currently raised over £7,000, and you can help raise that total.

And that brings another slow news week to an end. There'll be lot more next week, with the new car launching and then hitting the circuit almost immediately. We'll be first with the pictures, so make sure you stay tuned to BAR-Talk.com.

Phil Huff
BAR-Talk.com