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There has been a major shake up at the British American Racing
team this year with Craig Pollock forced to step down from his role
as CEO at the Brackley based squad just days prior to the launch of
their new 2002 contender. Since then new boss Dave Richards has
stamped his authority further with the dismissal of technical
director, Malcolm Oastler and Chief designer, Andy Green as part of
a major reshuffle aimed at improving performance this season.
With three races down, results are still far from coming, the
outfit still to open their scorecard as they head into the first
European race of the season, however their Honda powered rivals at
Jordan are in a similar boat. According to star driver at BAR,
Jacques Villeneuve, salvaging anything in the top five this year is
going to be a huge task for all concerned.
"We can salvage the season maybe, but we won't be
competitive," he admitted. "We have to shoot for what we
can. In the last two years I've been seventh in the drivers'
championship, which is right after the top three teams. I still
believe we can do that again but it's still not a nice number. There
are three teams that cannot be beaten for us anyway - Williams,
Ferrari and McLaren. If we can be just behind them then that would
be salvaging something, but I doubt if we can beat Sauber as they
are going to be very competitive and then there is Renault. Team
wise being in the top five doesn't sound good, but even that will be
hard for us this year."
According to Dave Richards, the organization that was previously
in place at the Brackley based squad had failed to deliver the goods
with results well below their expectations. His objective is to
build a team with a very clear structure to deliver against
precisely determined goals, goals that include a rise up through the
field to compete with the best teams on the grid.
But, despite the fact that they remain scoreless, Villeneuve has
backed his new boss' decisions and knows it will take time before
the implemented changes start to make a difference, even if it means
hanging in their for another season before they start being
seriously competitive and the 1997 champion finally brings them to
victory.
"As I have been here since the beginning I still want to
have success with this team and bring this team to victory," he
added. "Now it looks like this could allow us to do that. Big
changes have happened now so I want to see what these changes bring.
We won't see anything happening in the next month or two. We need to
get the ball rolling, get everything working well together. What's
happened has given a kick in the pants to everyone. Everybody in the
team was very comfortable before and was protected but now everybody
knows that if the job isn't done then a door might open and it isn't
a door to come in but to go out. But that's not a bad thing. If we
had been winning then comfort would not have been a bad thing. But
we weren't winning and the comfort was there. That's what was wrong.
If you are at the back of the pack and everybody is happy about it,
then that means there is something seriously wrong."
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