JUNE 3, 2002

David Richards is 50

DAVID RICHARDS today celebrates his 50th birthday and the British American Racing boss will be hoping that his run of success in all different forms of motor sport will eventually bear fruit at BAR as well. The team is currently languishing at the bottom of the list in the Constructors' Championship thanks to poor performance and even worse reliability. There have been several occasions on which the team might have scored this year but all the elements have yet to come together.

Richards has been involved in the sport since he was 16 and won the World Rally Championship as co-driver in 1981, alongside Ari Vatanen. After a brief period running a sponsorship consultancy, he set up his first team and this grew into the impressive Prodrive empire which Richards still controls today. For the last three years Richards has been the owner of the commercial rights to the FIA World Rally Championship and he is believed to be negotiating with the FIA to agree a long-term lease deal similar to that which the federation agreed last year with Bernie Ecclestone.