Craig Pollock

Craig Pollock
Born	(1956-02-20) February 20, 1956 Falkirk, Scotland
Nationality	Swiss & British

Craig Pollock (born February 20, 1956) is a businessman who was the manager of the Formula One driver Jacques Villeneuve throughout his top-level career, and Founder CEO and Team Principal of the British American Racing team from 1999 to 2002.

Career

Craig Pollock Career:

Pollock worked as a teacher in the late 1970s eventually becoming director of sport at the College Beausoleil in Villars, Switzerland. Here he met a young Jacques Villeneuve who had been sent to the school following the death of his Formula One driver father Gilles. Their shared passion for skiing

After leaving school Villeneuve pursued a career as a racing driver, following in his father's footsteps. The two men were brought back together by a chance meeting at the Suzuka circuit, and Pollock agreed to become Villeneuve's manager. Pollock was representing his employer who owned the rights to the Japanese GP. Villeneuve encouraged Pollock to become his manager and after many visits to Switzerland in his Camaro Pollock agreed and set up Motor Sports Management in Crans pres Celigny. Pollock negotiated a contract with Imperial Tobacco in Montreal assuring Villeneuve 3 years in the States, one year in Formula Atlantic and 2 years in Indy Car with a team built around Villeneuve's needs.

In 1993 Villeneuve raced in American Formula Atlantic before breaking into IndyCar in 1994. After winning a race in his rookie season Villeneuve won the Indy Car championship and prestigious Indianapolis 500 win in 1995. During the 1995 season Pollock made many trips to Europe and especially the UK to negotiate a possible place in F1. Bernie Ecclestone wanted Villeneuve in Ferrari and created a meeting between Pollock and Jean Todt in Italy. Both Pollock and Todt agreed that the risk was too high and left on good terms but without the Ferrari seat. Ecclestone was adamant that the only team that Villeneuve couldn't enter was Williams. Pollock negotiated with Frank Williams and signed a contract for a 3 year period from 196 through 1998.

Pollock started working on a Formula One project during the last year of Villeneuve's Indy Car season having discussed the possibility with Adrian Reynard the morning after Villeneuve's first Indy car win at Elkhart lake. Reynard agreed to be a partner but only if Pollock could find the funding, engine supply and the driver!

Pollock persuaded British American Tobacco to bankroll his ambition as a Team Owner. In 1998 Pollock purchased [[Tyrrell Racing|Tyrrell] to gain entry into F1. He ran Tyrrell in 1998 while building British American Racing (BAR)from a Greenfield site. During the BAR Team announcement Adrian Reynard made claims that Reynard had always obtained pole position in it's first race and won the championship in it's second season and these claims were then attributed to Pollock as the Team Principal. Reynards high hopes proved to be unfounded and BAR finished last in it's first season. The second season saw BAR 4th in the Championship.

Pollock had negotiated the supply agreement with Renault from 2009 through 2001 but managed to convince Honda to give up their own F1 project using his old Tyrrell employees and sign a long term contract with BAR. This brought Honda back into F1 and saved a huge cost to the team.

Pollock negotiated his departure from the team at the end of the 2001 season. Pollock remained a shareholder until BASR Honda was sold by BAT to Honda. BAR F1 was the structure of today's multiple Championship winning Mercedes F1 Team.

Pollock was asked by Kevin Kalkhoven (in November 2002) to find a way to enter the Champ Car Series for the 2003 season with a joint venture team PK Racing Inc (pollock Kalkhoven Racing inc). He agreed and negotiated the purchase of the defunct Pac West Racing Team. After the first season Pollock agreed to sell his share of the team to Kalkhoven.

Pollock managed Villeneuve through the end of his Formula One career 2008

Pollock and Villeneuve ended their business relationship in January 2008.<ref>

In May 2011, Pollock announced his creation of Propulsion Universal et Recuperation d'Energie (PURE SA), an engineering company to design and produce F1 hybrid Power Units for the 2014 technical regulations.

This new project was meant to be funded through himself and CVC Capital and supported by Ecclestone. Pollock ended up fully funding the project through the full design stage but could not carry on to industrialisation. There are currently 2 designs the first straight 4 cylinder and the V6.

Pollock carried on looking for investors or the right project for industrialisation.