By BAR Honda
June 15 2005

The Lucky Strike BAR Honda team heads straight from Canada to the United States today for Round 9 of the Formula One World Championship. After a swift pack-up at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Sunday, the team sent its 30 ton cargo of cars and equipment across five states to Indianapolis for the United States Grand Prix, where the team hopes to build on the many positives it takes away from Montreal.

Despite the fact that Jenson Button and Takuma Sato left Canada empty-handed, there were real signs that the latest developments to the BAR Honda 007 have started to pay dividends and the team looks forward to taking full advantage of those when it sets up camp at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway or 'Brickyard' - so-called due to the 3.2 million paving bricks laid down as the original track surface in 1909.

'Indy' is the second oldest motor-racing venue in the F1 calendar and the 4.192km circuit snakes through the infield of the fabled Indianapolis Oval, the last corner utilising part of the banking which the cars take flat at 185mph. It was also the scene of so much success for Honda two weeks ago in the 89th Indy 500 race, where British driver Dan Wheldon stole the show and Danica Patrick finished fourth in their respective Honda-powered IRL cars.

Gil de Ferran, BAR Honda's Sporting Director, commented "Personally there is a special feeling returning to Indy for a race. Although I return in a very different capacity, Indy is a place where one of my greatest triumphs took place as driver and I have some fantastic memories. Hopefully I will be able to add to those memories with a good showing from BAR Honda. Despite the disappointment in Canada, we feel very good going into the US Grand Prix. We were quite competitive throughout the last weekend and we are hoping to find ourselves in a similar position at Indianapolis."

Shuhei Nakamoto, Honda Racing Development's Engineering Director, added "We showed better speed over the weekend at Montreal and must aim to convert that into points in Indy."