BAR 004 to debut at Indy/Suzuka?

[Nicholas]

...from good sources around BAR...the 2002 car (the BAR04) will run at a GP before the end of the season, possibly in America or Japan. If the team have the complete car built up and crash tested this could happen. The winter test ban in November and December means many teams will try novel approaches to rolling out their new car.

Given the trouble they've had with a car that's been developed for over a year, and the efforts needed to secure 4th, it would have to be damned reliable to be worth it. That means passing the crash tests, and all the other tests. So I doubt it.

However it is not believed that any F1 team is this far advanced with a 2002 car and this rumour has not been confirmed by the team

What about Minardi??? According to Stoddart in April/June it was already designed, but then judging by his talk of "definitely works next year," maybe not then...

Edit:

The team have secured Asiatech engines at no charge next year. Asiatech have developed an all new engine for 2002, and are based out of the old Peugeot F1 Engine team's HQ in France. The late announcement has delayed the detail development of the 2002 car.

So maybe they have done something. They still have "no named designer" though after Brunner left to Toyota.



All info ripped off Planetf1