Bar(Red) Button & the Ban

THE CRIME: Bar used a special compartment within the fuel tank which allowed the car to reach minimum weight requirments and ran light helpi...

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THE CRIME: Bar used a special compartment within the fuel tank which allowed the car to reach minimum weight requirments and ran light helping two of their drivers San Marino Grand Prix Briton Jenson Button and Takuma Sato of Japan finish third and fifth respectively at the San Marino GP in Imola last month.

THE PUNISHMENT: For breaking weight and fuel regulations the Formula One’s governing body FIA have handed BAR a two-race ban which means that the team backed by British American Tobaco and Honda will miss Sunday’s Spanish GP and the Monaco race on May 22.

THE REACTION: BAR have decided not to launch a legal challenge to its two-race ban by FIA. The team announced on Friday that to challenge the sport’s governing body (the FIA) would cause a level of disruption and damage to the sport which would not serve the best interests of everyone involved.

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MONEY MATTERS: BAR’s two-race suspension from the F1 circuit would cost the Honda-powered Formula One team more than $10 million. “I haven’t sat down and calculated what it is at the moment but in terms of contractual obligations that we’ll have to meet I could confidently say this is going to add up to more than $10 million I would imagine.”
— BAR boss Nick Fry

BUTTON’S FUTURE: BAR and Williams fought over Button’s contract last season after the Briton, who finished third overall, tried unsuccessfully to leave his Honda-powered team. Although details remain confidential, the Briton will be free to join Williams in 2006 if he is not within a certain percentage of the championship lead by a given point in the season. Now stripped of third place from the last San Marino GP, and with no points before that race, Button will now have to wait until the seventh round of the season before he can open his account.