Twenty-one years ago today, on 12 May 2005, BAR Honda accepted one of the most peculiar penalties in F1 history, a two-race suspension for using a hidden fuel tank system that circumvented the sport’s minimum weight requirements.
The scandal erupted following the 2005 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, where Jenson Button had claimed third place and team-mate Takuma Sato finished fifth.
Post-race scrutineering revealed a startling discovery: after BAR insisted its car’s fuel tank had been completely drained, the FIA found approximately 15 litres of fuel remaining in a concealed compartment.
When weighed without this hidden fuel, Button’s car tipped the scales at just 594.6kg, some 5.4kg below the mandatory 600kg minimum.
The discovery prompted FIA president Max Mosley to deliver a damning assessment, stating that BAR had “left 15 litres in the tank and told us it was empty.”
Initial defiance gives way to acceptance
BAR’s reaction was initially one of outrage. Team CEO Nick Fry publicly denounced the FIA’s findings, insisting that “at no time did BAR-Honda run underweight at the San Marino Grand Prix” and questioning whether anyone truly believed a team owned by “two blue-chip international corporations with huge integrity” would deliberately breach the rules.
The team defended itself at a Paris hearing on May 4, 2005, arguing that the secondary fuel compartment was simply a collector tank rather than an illegal weight-circumventing device.
The International Court of Appeal remained unconvinced, ruling the following day that whilst it could not prove deliberate fraud, BAR had shown “highly regrettable negligence and lack of transparency.”
Despite their initial protestations, BAR eventually chose not to challenge the court’s decision further.
The team was banned from the Spanish and Monaco Grands Prix, with Button stripped of his six points from Imola and Sato losing four.
The penalty proved costly. BAR missed two crucial races during the European season’s opening phase, disrupting its championship challenge at a critical juncture.
When the team returned at the European Grand Prix in Germany, both drivers retired, compounding the team’s misfortune.