By Phil Huff
March 16 2005

Five weeks have passed since the last BAR-Talk.com Newsletter, and that's all my fault. No apologies, however, as I was away on honeymoon. There's times when even Formula One comes second, although it's not very often! So much has happened in that time, and it was remarkably difficult to catch up on it all. Four weeks without a PC or telephone was incredibly relaxing, but made the return that much harder.

Thanks are due to Jamie Makin at our sister site SauberSpeak.co.uk for looking after BAR-Talk.com in my absence. I'm sure you'll all agree that she did a great job - maybe we can lure her here permanently! A big thank you also to those of you who were kind enough to congratulate me and the current Mrs Huff on both the Message Board and via email. Your comments were greatly appreciated.

Greatly appreciated by Takuma Sato (how's that for a link?) was an award from the French 'Automobile Magazine'. Awarded annually to the 'Sporting Revelation of the Year', Takuma joins such greats as Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher as recipients.

Following that award, Takuma managed to crash his car on the out lap in the first qualifying session of the season.

The middle of the season is probably part of Jenson's focus, as it'll be around that time that we'll find out if he's eligible for a drive at Williams BMW. The Grove based team are obliged to give Jenson a seat, assuming certain performance clauses this season are met, and that kicks in around July time.

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Given the lack of pace shown by Williams in the first race, perhaps he won't be so keen to join them this time round. He's certainly not keen on joining Ferrari, commenting that the team are past their best, and that they are on "a clear down-trend."

Ferrari, constructors champions for the last six years running, haven't commented.

"It's not because of the new rules but just that Ferrari doesn't seem to have what they did in the past," he added, helpfully.

The new rules were fully exploited by BAR at Australia, with the team retiring both cars on the last lap of the race. The theory is that, as they didn't finish the race, both cars can have a nice shiny new engine in place in time for Malaysia.

The loophole has, however, been closed, leaving BAR in limbo. The cars didn't finish, so they can change the engines, but the FIA now differentiate between failing to finish and choosing not to finish, so they can't change their engines.

Pulling out on the last lap was a cynical move, and one that drew public scorn from rivals Toyota and Renault, with private complaints coming from every garage in the pit lane.

There's a fine line between pushing the boundaries of the rules and blatantly taking the petrol, and BAR may well have crossed the line this time. Comparisons are being drawn between this incident and 'Ferrari-Gate' in Austria 2002, so it's no surprise the loophole was closed so quickly.

With BAR going all out for a race win this season, at the expense of their championship campaign, we could see more 'bendy' rules throughout the year.

It's the twists and turns of Sepang coming up this weekend, where BAR feel they're up for a win. We'll be up early in the morning, willing them on.

Join us right here at BAR-Talk.com.

It's good to be back.

Phil Huff
BAR-Talk.com