David Richards to return to BAR???

[Jack_Bauer]

Seems the F1 circus' silly season has kicked into gear WAY early!

After a report in the Observer newspaper over the weekend the internet's numerous F1 forums have been ablaze with rumours of David Richards making a shock return to BAR-Honda, the team which kicked him out just a few short months ago. Apparently they are so desperate to get their season turned around after and earn enough points to keep Jenson Button that the Honda bigwigs have decided to eat humble pie and offer an olive branch to the man who masterminded their remarkable success last season.

For those of you who don't know Richards was released from his contract at BAR at the end of last season after the whole 'Button-gate' saga. But now the team is at such a low ebb after the whole disqualification episode that they would seem to be desperate to turn things around. Apparently the report said that Richards had been in talks all last week at the team's Brackley base with a view to a return.

Personally I'm sceptical about the whole story. Firstly, I'm not sure if there is much truth in the story at all. One thing that raised suspiscion was that BAR were due to make an announcement about Richards' appointment at the upcoming Monaco GP. Errr, aren't BAR banned from that GP?! Why would they be making an announcement there?! Secondly, even if he were to return I'm not sure what benefit it would do. There are so many bridges to be mended within the team that I doubt the relationships between Button/Richards and between Richards/Honda would be able to gel in time to turn their season around. Plus, the chances of BAR being able to attain the points necessary to keep Button from jumping ship are slim to none anyway.

I think BAR should just cut their losses and try and stabilise this season. They need to look ahead to getting themselves back into shape for 2006, with or without Button.

http://www.planet-f1.com/news/story_19538.shtml for more on the story.

[Matra et Alpine]

I think Richards coudl do a lto in a very short time as he's the kind of guy who knockes heads together and gets everyone wokring together. Honda were stupid not to have backed him over the Button debacle and it may never have come to anything.

The beauty for any Richards return - and possibilty the only thing making it swet enough for him - is that he'll pretty much be abel to say hoe it will run from now on :)

BUT this coudl take hisfocus away from ProDrives energies nad immediate success with the DB9s :(

[Jack_Bauer]

BUT this coudl take hisfocus away from ProDrives energies nad immediate success with the DB9s :(

Not sure how much it detract from the DB9 project as while he was still running BAR his Prodrive company was winning races left, right and centre with its 550 Maranellos. Also they were helping Petter Solberg to the WRC title with Subaru, so I would imagine they have the experience and knowhow to make the DBR9s competitive at Le Mans.

The DBR9s look as if they already have the measure of the 'Vettes and Ferraris, judging by the one-two finish they acheived at the Silverstone 3hour FiA GT race on Sunday. The future certainly looks bright for the Astons for this year and for the future too, as the BMS Scuderia racing team has placed an order for two brand new DBR9s for next season. Should be at least 4 Astons on the grids of the major GT races across the globe next season. :)

[Matra et Alpine]

Not sure how much it detract from the DB9 project as while he was still running BAR his Prodrive company was winning races left, right and centre with its 550 Maranellos. Also they were helping Petter Solberg to the WRC title with Subaru, so I would imagine they have the experience and knowhow to make the DBR9s competitive at Le Mans.
my concern, jack, is that the DBR9s are still in the "teething stage" of development and it's atestament to the team that they've done so well first time out. The other ProDrive activities are pretty much setup and runnign sweetly with th eright people making the righ inputs and decisions.
It's the quality of LEADERSHIP that I've come to admire from Richards over the years.

[Jack_Bauer]

my concern, jack, is that the DBR9s are still in the "teething stage" of development and it's atestament to the team that they've done so well first time out. The other ProDrive activities are pretty much setup and runnign sweetly with th eright people making the righ inputs and decisions.
It's the quality of LEADERSHIP that I've come to admire from Richards over the years.

I see your point about it being in the 'teething' stages of development, but look at the other side of the coin: if they already have the measure of the seasoned warhorses (Ferraris and Corvettes) straight out of the box so to speak, then I see no reason why they shouldn't be able to push on and achieve success no matter who's at the helm. Plus I don't see why he can't have a hand in both the Astons and BAR, it doesn't need to be one or the other. They never run on the same weekends as far as I know so it shouldn't be a major issue.

Anyway, I think it's all academic anyway as I personally don't think he'll be returning to BAR anyway! I could be wrong tho :o

[Matra et Alpine]

I see your point about it being in the 'teething' stages of development, but look at the other side of the coin: if they already have the measure of the seasoned warhorses (Ferraris and Corvettes) straight out of the box so to speak, then I see no reason why they shouldn't be able to push on and achieve success no matter who's at the helm. Plus I don't see why he can't have a hand in both the Astons and BAR, it doesn't need to be one or the other. They never run on the same weekends as far as I know so it shouldn't be a major issue.
Raceday is only the culmination of wekks of effort from the race developemt, test and drive teams.
When the mighty teams fall you can usually clearly see the exteriro influence taking their eye off the main ball :(

Anyway, I think it's all academic anyway as I personally don't think he'll be returning to BAR anyway! I could be wrong tho :o
It depends how desperate Honda are to be on a winning tea,
They do NOT take kindly to losing :)