By Phil Huff
June 22 2006

Another race, another no-pointer. BAR Honda now languish at the bottom of the championship on zero points, the exact same score as Jordan and Minardi. This time last year we'd managed to score two podium finishes and scrape together 19 points. That the same as McLaren have this year, and nine more than Ferrari. BAR Honda have completed fewer racing laps than any other team.

There is one glimmer of hope, however. In both Australia and Bahrain Jenson Button set the fifth fastest lap time. Sadly, the fifth fastest lap time in Bahrain was close to a second behind Pedro de la Rosa's best lap.

So we've got a car that's not staggeringly quick and not staggeringly reliable. What do we do? Time for a new member of the management team...

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Enter Gil de Ferran. Announced yesterday as BAR Honda's new Sporting Director, Gil has won the American CART championship twice, and the illustrious Indy 500 once, in 2003. He's won the British F3 championship, won in F3000, and been involved in the running of no Formula One teams.

Sorry, that's sounding a bit negative. Gil's a great guy and, with the experience at the race track that he's got, he should be a benefit to BAR Honda. Nick Fry, a businessman who started out in sales and marketing, will move back to the boardroom, leaving de Ferran in charge at race weekends.

It's not a snap decision either, with Fry claiming to have been talking to de Ferran about the role since December 2004, less than a month after David Richards' ousting.

We wonder what David Richards is thinking right now...

At least the shaky start to the season leaves the asking price of BAR and Honda down a little for the 2005 BAR-Talk.com Fantasy Formula One championship.

Yes, it's back, and this time it's bigger than ever. Now going network wide, the championship will see BAR fans pitched against Ferrari, Minardi, Sauber, Toyota and Williams fans in a bid to find the very best Fantasy F1 manager.

We want to win it, so make sure you get your entry in. It's free, and we'll not send any junk mail to you (although some people might count these mindless ramblings as such...) so you've got no excuse not to enter.

I've entered, and will obviously fix the results so that I win. Well, it is my birthday today.

Given that, you might find site updates are a little less frequent than normal, and certainly less eloquent. In 24 hours I doubt I'll even be able to spell that!

Until the next newsletter, whenever that may be, take care, and have a drink for me.

Phil Huff
BAR-Talk.com