In this week's column, Ann discusses BAR's recent legal problems at the French Grand Prix, the challenges of running a Formula One team, the conundrum that is overtaking, two-seater races and Fernando Alonso's future as a Las Vegas magician...

Magny-Cours does not have many redeeming features. It is a long way from anywhere - Paris airport can be up to three hours by car and Clermont Ferrand is about an hour and a half the other way - and once you get there there is not much apart from a race track. However, its races often have controversy doging the proceedings.

This year has proved no different and it was not long after the transporters rolled into the paddock that the dramas started. It was the BAR team that this year's drama was centred on. On Thursday the team had its cars impounded by the local gendarmes, who were accompanied by bailiffs. Their task was to enforce a seizure order that had been obtained by a company called PPGI claiming that the old guard at BAR owed them £2.1 million in sponsorship commission, which dates back to 1999 when Teleglobe was on the car.

Despite earlier actions around the time of the Monaco Grand Prix, when the case was deferred to an October court date, a Monsieur France Corbeil obviously thought he would give it another go. He timed it so well that there was no way team boss, David Richards, could get it overturned until Friday morning by which time the cars had missed free practice and so had to go into qualifying with no running to find the right set-up on a track that had the final two corners changed enough to reduce the race distance by two laps.

The cars had sat overnight in their transporters, which had big yellow stickers on them declaring 'Objets Saisis' - which translates to Seized Objects. I feel very sorry for the team and can deduct from David Richards' quote that neither he nor his major sponsor, BAT, are best pleased with what happened. He said: "It was a complete abuse of the legal system, and one has to question the morals of the people involved. Now we are going for damages against them." Luckily the team's legal eagles did their job and the cars were back on the track, albeit having missed the very important morning free practice.

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Thinking about this I naturally cast my mind back a year to when Tom Walkinshaw was battling for the survival of the Arrows team. While the circumstances for Tom were very different to those of David, I can't help wonder why two very successful men in other areas of motorsport wish to go into Formula One and why they have not been able to carry over their successes into Grand Prix racing. Formula One is a tough world and there seems to be a pattern that repeats itself. If you look at the early years of completely new teams they seem to have amazing successes - the two I have in mind are Jordan and Stewart Grand Prix (now Jaguar Racing). Although they have both seen their rising star fade recently, in their fledgling years as completely new teams they took on the establishment and showed them it was still possible to win on relatively small budgets. However, when you look at unsuccessful teams that have been taken over by successful men there doesn't seem to be a way the success can be transferred.

Let me list the examples of this. Four times World Champion Alain Prost, the man known affectionately as the Professor for obvious reasons, wanted to form an all French team so bought Ligier, and changed its name to Prost Grand Prix. While Ligier did have nine wins to its credit, including the 'lucky' one for Panis in the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix, as Prost Grand Prix it lasted until the end of 2001 and finally went into liquidation. Then we have the man who won Le Mans twice for Jaguar and gave Volvo a new sexy image and a British Touring Car title, Tom Walkinshaw. He bought the Arrows team in 1996 and vowed he would make it a winning name. The team, that was formed in 1978 by a consortium including the owner at that time Jackie Oliver, had never won a race and its best year had been 1988, when it scored 23 points and was equal fourth in the World Championship with Lotus. Tom spent a fortune on employing reigning World Champion, Damon Hill, for 1997 but eventually lost his battle to keep it going last year and subsequently lost his TWR empire, that had brought him his successes in motorsport and the motor industry.

This brings us up to the modern day. Finally we have David Richards who won rally World Championships for Subaru, made Colin McRae a household name and is popularising the World Rally Championship by televising it worldwide. He took over BAR at the start of 2002, ousting its founder Craig Pollock, and the team immediately had a dreadful year. However, it had not done that well before despite having former World Champion Jacques Villeneuve driving for it and allegedly one of the biggest budgets ever. In its first year in 1999 it didn't score a single point. While I should perhaps also list Minardi owner Paul Stoddart here, his successes have been in the business world and not on the race tracks.

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On a more positive note, it was good to see the Minardis at the top of the timesheets on Friday. Sadly this was because the session started with a wet track and then dried up. At this point I will ignore the fact that Justin Wilson was demoted for an underweight car, as I am sure this made no difference to the times and I believe the team when they say this was most likely due to changing to dry tyres at the last minute - wet tyres are heavier than dry. I still don't like the one lap qualifying, but am looking forward to the day when Justin Wilson is first and Michael Schumacher is last on the grid. Then we will see who is good at overtaking.

It has been quite interesting to see the coverage this week in the UK press of Juan Pablo Montoya's overtaking manoeuvre on Michael in the Nurburgring. While I applaud what he did, how sad that one such action should give rise to such a heated debate. Surely this should be such a common occurrence that it would hardly need special mention. It would if we had racing rather than processions and people were not afraid to take the plunge. Having said this, I wonder what the press would have written if it was Juan Pablo instead of or as well as Michael in the gravel trap. I am hoping they would have still been on his side. Also I hope that Frank and Patrick would have been as supportive!

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Enough of all this now back to what happened last weekend in France, which sadly was a rather boring race with no overtaking. A year ago we were watching Michael Schumacher make history. He won the Drivers' World Championship earlier than any other driver in history and now he is struggling to hold off the opposition. He is just eight points ahead of Kimi Raikkonen with six races still to run, but to me it is even more exciting that Ferrari are only three points ahead of WilliamsF1 in the battle for the Constructors' Championship. If you have ever worked for an F1 team or listened to Frank Williams talk you will know that the Constructors' title means more to the team owners than the Drivers' title that always claims much more publicity. They get bonus money from their engine suppliers for this and it proves they can build two cars that can be consistently quick over a season.

For me the disgrace of the race was the refuelling equipment failures for both Jenson Button and David Coulthard. I cannot remember how many years the teams have been using the refuelling equipment, and also cannot remember how many failures have occurred that have changed the results of races. Surely it is time for some drastic action that will mean we don't see poor Jenson coasting to a halt after running out of fuel and a refueller lying on the ground at the side of his car.

While I always feel sorry for all the teams that had a bad weekend, it makes it doubly distressing when it is a home race. Magny Cours was the home race for Renault F1 and the team had a dreadful time. There in front of 1,500 Renault employees the team had embarrassing engine failures. Having spent many French races with Renault as an engine supplier, I know how important a win on home ground is to the Regie. As is usual, the team and drivers work twice as hard when it is a home race and Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso found themselves visiting car factories, doing fashion shoots, attending sponsor cocktail parties and a hundred other things that would not usually be on their race weekend schedule. Here in the UK ITV followed the team for the weekend and while this can often be the same boring story of how much harder you work at your home Grand Prix, for me it was a revelation as I learnt new facts about both drivers. Did you know that for the past two years Jarno Trulli has followed in his grandfather's footsteps and been a wine producer? Also did you know that Fernando Alonso is a master of magic and most probably could be a regular in a Las Vegas show once he has hung his helmet up? I loved watching Jarno discuss the bouquet of a rather robust red with ITV reporter, Louise Goodman, while Fernando Alonso totally confused her by producing the card she had just selected in a pack from his cap.

I am now looking forward to the British Grand Prix and it would be nice if the race produced a classic with overtaking. However, it is good to hear the powers that be are looking at improving the show. Sunday morning qualifying, celebrity races in the Minardi and McLaren two-seaters are just two of the ideas being floated. I would welcome such ideas as the paying public, who have to part with the best part of £200 or $300 for a grandstand seat for the Silverstone race, do deserve something more than an hour and a half procession for their money.

About the author:
Ann Bradshaw - Annie - began her motor racing career as a teenager, helping out her brother in local rally races in England, where she grew up. In the 1970s she organised motor racing events in England, and was later the press officer for the RAC MSA - the motorsport governing body in Britain. In mid 1980s, she became press officer to team Lotus, where she worked with Ayrton Senna. Shortly after, she moved to the Williams team and was working there for several years, when once again she found herself working with Senna. She worked with Damon Hill after the Brazilian's death, and moved with the British Champion to Arrows. She also worked with the Panoz team in the United States, before becoming a freelance press officer, now working with Compaq and BAR among others. Annie joined Atlas F1 as a regular columnist in April 2002.