British American Tobacco (BAT) had been involved in Formula One for many years, with several of its brands being displayed on F1 cars run by various teams. In 1997, the corporation was convinced by Craig Pollock to provide most of the equity to purchase the Tyrrell Formula One team for £30 million. The deal was announced on 2 December 1997. The team was still officially known as Tyrrell in 1998, before it became BAR the following year.
On 23 July 1998, BAR announced the signing of 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve away from Williams with a lucrative contract for the 1999 season. Villeneuve was joined by F1 rookie Ricardo Zonta. The car's chassis was built by Reynard Motorsport at a new factory in Brackley and was powered by Supertec (rebadged Renault) engines. At the launch of their new car, BAR unveiled separate liveries for their cars; Villeneuve's car painted in a white and red Lucky Strike livery and Zonta's carrying a blue and yellow 555 livery. However, the FIA deemed the dual liveries illegal under F1 regulations, which state that a team's cars must carry largely identical liveries.
In a disastrous maiden season, BAR failed to score a single point in the Constructors' Championship, being the only one of the eleven teams that season not to do so. The car was relatively quick and often qualified in the midfield, as seen especially in the Spanish Grand Prix, where Villeneuve had briefly been in third place ahead of the Ferraris before pitting in. However, the car suffered from chronic reliability issues, resulting in many instances of the car failing to finish the race.
During the 1999 season, BAR announced that Honda had become their engine supplier beginning in 2000. The Honda deal not only meant they would supply engines, but that Honda staff would work with the team at their Brackley base as well as received full-factory support from Honda including official team vehicles and free engines. The car was once again designed in co-operation with Adrian Reynard despite talk of tension between him and team principal Craig Pollock. In 2000, the new Honda powered BAR did show a significant improvement. It proved to be considerably more reliable than the team's previous effort, but the team still only had a best finish of 4th and the victory they had promised in 1999 still eluded them. At the end of the season, the team finished 5th in the Constructors' Championship.
Early in 2004, the team saw a further upswing in its fortunes, with Jenson Button scoring many podium finishes. He also took their first pole position at San Marino. BAR finished the season in 2nd place in the Constructors' Championship, beating every team except for Ferrari. Despite this, BAR's first win still eluded them.
The start of the 2005 season didn't go according to plan for BAR, as they struggled in the "flyaway" races at the start of the season. Just as they became competitive in San Marino, BAR Honda was disqualified for running with illegal cars. The team was banned for two races, a period which included the lucrative Monaco Grand Prix. When BAR returned at the European Grand Prix, the team struggled to find its feet. In stark contrast to the previous season, BAR failed to score a single point until the midway point, at the 2005 French Grand Prix.
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BAR tested a modified BAR-Honda 007 car, which they intended to use in an attempt to set the land speed record for a car meeting FIA Formula One regulations. The team aimed for 400 km/h (249 mph), and had planned to attempt the record at Bonneville Salt Flats. The driver for this project was Alan van der Merwe. The modified chassis performed a shakedown test on the 10,000-foot (3.0 km) long runway at Mojave Airport in California, on 5 November 2005, under the supervision of safety co-ordinator executive, Jamie Hardwick. The four published times recorded in this test were 393 km/h (244 mph), 405 km/h (252 mph), 410 km/h (255 mph) and 413 km/h (257 mph).
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