In 1999, Villeneuve joined the newly founded British American Racing (BAR) team, co-founded and partly owned by Villeneuve's personal manager, Craig Pollock, and by Adrian Reynard. Joining him as his teammate was Brazilian Ricardo Zonta. There was a lot of media hype about the new squad, but despite the high expectations, BAR had a poor season, retiring from the first eleven races of the season and not scoring a single Championship point. At times the car showed a promising pace, with Villeneuve running in third place at Barcelona, but often technical problems ruined his chances. Villeneuve suffered a high speed crash during practice at the at the Eau Rouge corner, from which he emerged unharmed.