British American Racing

BAR was explicitly created as a high-visibility global marketing platform for British American Tobacco's flagship cigarette brands Lucky Strike and 555, at a point when Formula One was one of the last major international sports circuits that permitted prominent tobacco brand placement, before widespread national and regional tobacco advertising bans came into force across most of the world. This unusual ownership structure gave BAR an unusually large, stable operating budget for an era of small, cash-strapped independent F1 teams.

BAR's Brackley headquarters, core engineering and operations team did not dissolve after the 2005 Honda takeover. The same facility later became the home of Brawn GP, which won both the 2009 Drivers' and Constructors' Championships, before being acquired by Mercedes to form the Mercedes AMG Petronas works team that dominated the hybrid F1 era from 2014 onward. This makes BAR a little-noticed foundational predecessor to one of the most high-achieving racing operations in Formula One history.

Despite never securing a single grand prix victory across its 7 seasons, BAR's 2nd place 2004 Constructors' Championship finish was a rare milestone for a new entrant that had not previously competed at the very top of the F1 field, outside the traditional top trio of Ferrari, McLaren and Williams of the 1990s and early 2000s. The team also helped launch Jenson Button's reputation as a consistent elite grand prix driver, laying the groundwork for his eventual 2009 world title win.