Racing
© Jonathan Borba
BAR Honda was hit with a two-race Formula 1 ban on 12 May 2005 after FIA scrutineering from the San Marino Grand Prix found about 15 litres of fuel concealed in a secondary compartment, leaving Jenson Button’s car at 594.6kg when properly drained, 5.4kg below the 600kg minimum weight limit.
The case began after Imola, where Button had finished third and Takuma Sato fifth for BAR. The results initially looked like a strong points haul, but the post-race inspection changed the picture completely. BAR told officials the fuel tank had been fully emptied, yet the FIA found roughly 15 litres still on board in what it treated as a hidden section of the system.
That detail was central to the ruling. Without that remaining fuel, Button’s car fell under the minimum weight requirement, and the FIA viewed the system itself as the real issue rather than a simple weighing discrepancy. Max Mosley, the FIA president, summed up the governing body’s position bluntly: “They left 15 litres in the tank and told us it was empty.”
BAR strongly disputed that interpretation. Nick Fry, BAR Honda CEO, said “at no time did BAR-Honda run underweight at the San Marino Grand Prix,” arguing that the secondary compartment was a collector tank rather than an illegal device designed to get around the rules. That defense formed the basis of the team’s case at a hearing in Paris on 4 May 2005.
The International Court of Appeal was not persuaded. In its ruling the following day, it said it could not prove deliberate fraud, but concluded that BAR had shown “highly regrettable negligence and lack of transparency.” That finding left the team facing a punishment far more severe than the loss of a race result alone.
BAR was disqualified from the San Marino Grand Prix, wiping out Button’s podium and Sato’s fifth place. Button lost six points and Sato lost four, turning what had been one of the team’s better afternoons into a damaging double blow in the standings.
The penalty did not stop there. BAR was also suspended from the next two races, the Spanish Grand Prix and the Monaco Grand Prix, removing the team from a critical stretch of the early European season. Missing those events put a heavy dent in its campaign at a point when rivals were still building momentum.
The damage carried beyond the ban itself. When BAR returned for the European Grand Prix in Germany, both drivers retired, meaning the fallout from the Imola fuel-tank controversy stretched well past the courtroom ruling and into the team’s on-track results.