OCTOBER 23, 2003

BAR invests more in technology

British American Racing has to spend something like $15m last year on Jacques Villeneuve's salary and that meant that the team did not have as big a technical budget as it would have liked. The signing of Takuma Sato on a much smaller salary means that the team will now be able to do more.

"We've got more money to spend on the engineering side next year, quite clearly," said team boss David Richards. "We've got a very clear plan now and Geoff Willis (BAR technical director) is very happy with the proposals we've put to him and the availability of funds he's got for next year."