BAR Honda

Let's look at few more bits of mosh then: The UK owns and operates the official World Rally Championship series (by proxy, another of Dave Richards great ideas) that is chock full of Japanese partnerships (and Subaru-itis). There's no mistake that Britain actually manufactures and sells the Civic Si Type-R and so many of us goofy Americans drive around with the an "R" badge to suffice being down. England has several F1 celebrity status personalities, while we have none, and folks, lots of people actually attend UK Motorsports events, while our NHRA sport compact drags have practically empty stands for most of the tour dates. Now don't get it twisted, the U.S. has the best lifestyle scene possible; great roads and a barely tolerable DOT. However, as much as we idolize and study the Japanese across the Pacific, perhaps we should be studying the moves going on across the Atlantic.

Okay, so enough about us and what we should do. Let's talk about them, and get into BAR Honda. the lack of budget in the so-called sport compact scene is something we are all familiar with, but in F1, at least by appearances, the living is large and BAR Honda is livin' it. Everywhere one could be is the vibe of success and completeness. Feeling very F1, even the paddock entrance turnstiles are manned by full-time F1 security. Everyone's magnetically charged pit pass is a classified one, VIP-All Access, Event Only pass, Team Manager, Crew Chief, Tech, Crew, etc. Whoever you are, you are monitored by the Big Brother eye of top notch F1 high technology security.

BAR Honda's pit is fully staffed with team-issued and outfitted coterie of professionals, who are obsessively focused on carrying out the tasks of making the team look and perform well. If you think that means the cars and a few spare engines; think again, it's like a traveling theatre production and around winning teams like BAR or Scuderia Ferrari, it's at the scale of the Cannes Film Festival. If it sounds simple, like pulling a few trailers to Hot Import Nights, think again: It's an entire small universe traveling to each circuit in 18 countries around the world.The entire team, including their equipment, necessities and staff, is brought over to each country where the race meetings run. And while it's being said that in the 2004 series there will be no engine changes allowed during any one race meeting (doing so results in a 10-point standing penalty on the grid), don't think it will lighten the load. Teams are still allowed to bring three other cars on the road, and they will. And they'll also bring between 60 and 135 additional personnel to each Grand Prix race meeting. At each race meeting, the paddock is cordoned off for each team, and each team literally builds its own pit. According to BAR Honda PR Executive Mr. Omura, the BAR Honda crew starts out by painting the floors and walls, then builds the scaffolding that will hold the computerized diagnostics control units that analyzes every aspect of the engines. The floors are painted to each team's color specs, the graphics and logos are applied, all sponsor logos and brands applied, then equipment and electricals are wired to speak their common language of bi-directional telemetry, radio wave communications and more. The tire warming rooms are built and and the secret vaults are positioned where BAR Honda's prized possessions, the engines, are held, with security cameras eyeing every hitherto move. BAR Honda also builds their media and marketing offices on site each race meeting, where the live, on-air phone and radio interviews are broadcast.