The car was designed by Malcolm Oastler, who made use of the collaboration of Andrew Green of Reynard, an engineer with whom Jacques Villeneuve and Craig Pollock had already triumphed in the Indianapolis 500 and the 1995 American Formula Cart.

The bellies, due to the new crash tests, became even more robust compared to the already voluminous ones of the 002: the air inlets on the sides were modified, with more rounded and less squared shapes, allowing greater generosity for cooling of the Honda RA001E engine, credited with approximately 815 HP.

On the eve of the season, BAR's hope was to become the third force in the championship behind Ferrari and McLaren and to win some Grand Prix, while the more immediate objective was to beat Jordan who used the same engines, although Honda technicians would have guaranteed greater technical assistance to Craig Pollock's team.

The BAR 003 with Villeneuve was also the protagonist of a terrible accident in Australia, which caused the former Canadian world champion to shift a vertebra and above all the death of a track marshal, struck by a wheel that detached from the single-seater.

The BAR 003 paid above all for the poor speed on a single lap in qualifying, due to an engine that tended to cool down too quickly and which forced the team to start far away from the first six places too many times, nullifying a fairly solid behavior in the race.

The car was also decorated, on both sides, with a line composed mostly of black and a minority of red and dark khaki, which extended from the nose to the rear axle, also incorporating the rear-view mirrors.