It was driven by Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 Champion who had left Williams in order to work with team principal Craig Pollock, his manager and good friend.

The end result was last in the Constructors' Championship with no points, behind much smaller teams such as Minardi, Arrows and Sauber.

The car's livery then had a "zip" up the centre, which spread wide at the end of the nosecone to allow other sponsors not to be affected by the dual colour design.

For races where tobacco advertising was not allowed, 555 was replaced by triple crescent moon (as previously done with Subaru Impreza rally cars), while Lucky Strike was blocked out on the sides and replaced with "Run Free" on the car's nose and wings.

In a retrospective article, Jake Boxall-Legge of Autosport called the 01 one of the best Formula One cars to never score a point, alongside the ATS D6.