The BAR 01 was the car with which the British American RacingFormula One team used to compete in the 1999 Formula One season, its inaugural year in the series after purchasing Tyrrell. It was driven by Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 Champion who had left Williams in order to work with team principalCraig Pollock, his manager and good friend. The second driver was Ricardo Zonta, the 1997 Formula 3000 champion and 1998 FIA GT champion, although Mika Salo would deputise early in the season after the Brazilian injured his ankle at Interlagos. However, despite the driving pedigree of Villeneuve and Zonta, and the technical experience of Reynard Motorsports, the year was a disaster and a major disappointment for the team, especially after Adrian Reynard aimed to secure the pole position and race victory in its first race. The cars were usually quite competitive and looked like points-scoring contenders on several occasions, but reliability was terrible, with Villeneuve alone failing to finish the first eleven races of the season. The end result was last in the Constructors' Championship with no points, behind much smaller teams such as Minardi, Arrows and Sauber.
Livery
Before the 1999 season had even started, BAR ran into trouble with the FIA. BAR wanted to have a different livery on each car, as their showcars did. Jacques Villeneuve's car was to display Lucky Strike branding and Ricardo Zonta's car to have 555 branding. The FIA's regulations state that both cars must have the same liveries, with only minor differences such as the car number, driver's nationality flag and name. A quick-fix design was created by having a dual livery, where one side of the car had Lucky Strike branding and the other side had 555 branding. Both of these were cigarette brands owned by the team's parent company, British American Tobacco. The car's livery then had a "zip" up the centre, which spread wide at the end of the nosecone to allow other sponsors not to be affected by the dual colour design. Their adverts were on a silver background. The rear wing was also compromised to stop the dual sectioning affecting the small space: 555 had the side facing forwards and Lucky Strike had the side facing backwards. This was passed by the FIA. It was only used for the 1999 season, as BAR then primarily used Lucky Strike branding. All mechanics' suits were also half Lucky Strike and half 555, apart from the drivers who had different suits and helmets. Jacques Villeneuve had the Lucky Strike branding on his suit and Lucky Strike on his helmet and Ricardo Zonta had the 555 branding on his suit and 555 on his helmet. For races where tobacco branding was not allowed, 555 was replaced by crescent moons and Lucky Strike was replaced with "Run Free" on the car's nose and wings. BAR used 'Lucky Strike' and '555' logos, except at the French, British and BelgianGrands Prix.
