Lot 309: Honda 006 Formula 1 Racing Single-Seater

In the 2004 FIA Formula 1 World Championship series the BAR-Honda team at last achieved true world-class success. Team driver Jenson Button in particular enjoyed a brilliant year in which he scored no fewer than ten podium finishes in cars such as this individual 060-series model, chassis '002', offered here. This splendid BAR-Honda 060 is a contemporary 2004 race chassis which was driven by Jenson Button to finish sixth in the year's Australian Grand Prix in Albert Park, Melbourne, before being reserved for 'T-car' duties in the Malaysian, Bahrain, San Marino and Monaco Grand Prix race meetings at Sepang, Sakhir, Imola and Monte Carlo. It was subsequently dedicated to the BAR-Honda test team for extensive use in experimental development running during that year. After achieving its third-ever podium finish in only the second race of the 2004 season, BAR-Honda went on to claim 11 more! The team established itself in fourth place in the Constructors' Championship table at the opening of the season, and then brilliantly displaced Williams with Jenson Button's pole position and second place finish in the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola. When Button and Japanese team-mate Takuma Sato finished third and fourth in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, BAR-Honda overtook Renault to claim a fine second place overall in the World Championship at the end of the season  headed only by Ferrari& In these cars Jenson Button scored no fewer than four second places and six third on his way to a well-deserved third place overall in the 2004 Formula 1 Drivers' World Championship. Meanwhile his less-experienced Japanese team-mate, Takuma Sato, started on the front row of the grid in the European GP  the first Japanese driver ever to qualify so strongly  and two races later, at Indianapolis, stood on the podium for the first time. The BAR-Honda 060 model used a brand-new Honda RA004E 90-degree V10-cylinder engine driving through a seven-speed longitudinal semi-automatic transaxle gearbox. Much weight was saved in the 060 model's construction and they ran upon Michelin tyres in place of the team's former Bridgestones.