1. Origins

2. Racing history
    Arrows Grand Prix International  Footwork Arrows  TWR Arrows 

3. Final chapter of Arrows Grand Prix International

4. Racing record

5. References

6. External links

Arrows Grand Prix International was a British Formula One team active from {{f1|1978}} to {{f1|2002}}. It was known as Footwork from 1991 to 1996.

Origins

The Arrows Grand Prix International team was founded in Milton Keynes, England in 1977, by Italian businessman Franco Ambrosio, Alan Rees, Jackie Oliver, Dave Wass and Tony Southgate (the team deriving its name from the initials of their surnames A-R-O-W-S) when they left the Shadow team.

Arrows initially ran a copy of the Shadow DN9, with the initials of the team's first sponsor, Franco Ambrosio, used in naming the car, the Arrows FA1. However, Ambrosio left the team in early 1978 when jailed in Italy for financial irregularities and main sponsor became Warsteiner. Shadow sued for copyright infringement, and the London High Courts ruled that the FA1 was a direct copy of the Shadow DN9. Arrows knew that they would lose the case and designed a brand new car, the Arrows A1, in 52 days. It was shown the day after the High Court of Justice in London upheld Shadow's claim and banned the team from racing the FA1.

Racing history

Arrows Grand Prix International

For the team's first season Gunnar Nilsson and Riccardo Patrese were signed as drivers. Ill health prevented Nilsson from driving for the team and he was replaced by Rolf Stommelen for the team's second race, the South African Grand Prix. Nilsson died of cancer later in 1978.

Patrese scored points in the team's third race, the US West Grand Prix at Long Beach. In September 1978, in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, Patrese was involved in an accident which eventually claimed the life of Ronnie Peterson. Patrese was wrongly accused of causing the accident and then subsequently banned from racing at the following event (the United States Grand Prix) by his fellow drivers.

The 1979 Monaco GP could have been the highlight of Arrows' early years, when Jochen Mass' Arrows A1 moved into third place during the race and looked to be closing in on the leaders. However, brake issues dropped him down to sixth position by the chequered flag.

In {{f1|1981}}, Patrese scored the team's only Formula One pole position in Long Beach, which he led until retiring with mechanical problems on lap 33 of 80. Arrows finished joint eighth in the Constructors' Championship that year.

In {{f1|1984}} with BMW M12 turbo engines and sponsorship from cigarette brand Barclay things got much better. That year they were ninth in the Constructors' Championship and eighth in {{f1|1985}}. At the 1985 San Marino Grand Prix, Thierry Boutsen finished third behind Alain Prost and Elio de Angelis. However, after the race, Prost was disqualified because his car was 2 kg underweight, giving Boutsen the second place. In {{f1|1987}}, BMW pulled out of Formula One and the engines were badged Megatron through a deal with Arrows major sponsor USF&G, but the British team had their best seasons yet, finishing sixth in 1987 and fifth in {{F1|1988}} (the final year for turbocharged engines) thanks to frequent points finishes by drivers Eddie Cheever and Derek Warwick.

While 1987 and 1988 were Arrows' best years in F1, they were also the cause of frustration for the team and its drivers Warwick and Cheever. At the start of 1987 the sports ruling body (FIA) mandated that all turbo powered cars were to use a pop-off valve in order to restrict turbo boost. This was done not only to slow the cars down for safety reasons, but it was an effort to curb the rapidly rising costs of Formula One. The problem for Arrows was that the valve would regularly cut in lower than the set limit (4.0 bar in 1987, 2.5 bar in 1988). This meant that the Megatron engines were not producing their full power. It took the team's chief mechanic Heini Mader until just before the 1988 Italian Grand Prix at Monza (Round 12) to find the solution, which was simply moving the valve closer to the engine, something Honda and Ferrari engineers had long before discovered. Although Cheever and Warwick finished the race in 3rd and 4th respectively, it was too little too late as the turbo era ended after the 1988 season.

Warwick and Cheever stayed with the team for 1989 and drove the Ross Brawn designed Arrows A11, which was powered by the Ford DFR V8 engine. The team's best finish came at the United States Grand Prix in Cheever's home town of Phoenix. There, the American scored his final podium finish by finishing third. Ultimately, however, Cheever struggled in the A11 (which had to be specially modified early in the season so the tall American could fit in the car) and he actually failed to qualify at the British and Italian Grands Prix. Warwick's perennial bad luck also continued: a long pit stop during the opening race in Brazil cost him what many believed would have been his first win, while at Round 6 in the wet Canadian Grand Prix, Warwick briefly led, and was in second place when his Ford V8 blew. He had been regularly faster than those behind him (including eventual winner Thierry Boutsen, who drove a Williams-Renault), and could have won when race leader Ayrton Senna blew the Honda engine in his McLaren with only two laps remaining. After finishing fifth in 1988, Arrows dropped to seventh in 1989.

Footwork Arrows

Japanese businessman Wataru Ohashi invested in Arrows in 1990 and the cars started displaying the Footwork logo prominently. The team was officially renamed Footwork in 1991, and secured a deal to race with Porsche engines, but the car was woefully noncompetitive and in 1992 they switched to a Ford V8, and then to Mugen engines. Arrows retained the Footwork name until Ito pulled out before the 1996 season, whereupon the name of the team was changed back to Arrows. Jackie Oliver had retained control throughout the entire period.

TWR Arrows

In March 1996, Tom Walkinshaw bought the team, and in September Walkinshaw signed up World Champion Damon Hill and hired wealthy Brazilian Pedro Diniz to help pay for Hill's salary. The team nearly secured a maiden victory at the 1997 Hungarian Grand Prix, where Hill started in third position and passed Michael Schumacher to take first place. A component failure in the final laps of the race saw him finish second. In the following years Walkinshaw bought the rest of Oliver's shares.

As Hill left Arrows after 1997 season to race for Jordan, the team contracted Finnish driver Mika Salo to partner Diniz for the 1998 F1 season. The 1998 season marked a new era for Arrows, as the team decided to make its own engines and a V10 Arrows T2-F1 was made to power the cars for the team. It proved to be a difficult season, although both cars finished a respectable fourth and fifth at the eventful 1998 Monaco GP, and Diniz went on to score a single fifth place finish at the wet Belgian race. Arrows ended up finishing seventh in the Constructors' Championship, with a total of six points.

At the start of the 1999 Formula One season Malik Ado Ibrahim bought a 25% shareholding in the team, and his T-Minus brand appeared on the cars for most of the year. However, he too could not provide sufficient funding. The idea behind the T-Minus brand was that companies and corporations would purchase the rights to use the name and they would be permitted to use the brand to promote their products. Malik stated that he had intentions to use the brand in conjunction with Lamborghini but a deal never pulled through. An Arrows employee at the time stated 'The T-Minus brand has brought in absolutely no money over the year' and that 'It was simply a dream in the Prince's head and nothing materialised.'^[1] The driver lineup also changed when the team brought in rookie Pedro de la Rosa and 1998 Tyrrell driver Toranosuke Takagi.

In the 2000 season, Jos Verstappen returned to Arrows, where he had driven in 1996 alongside teammate Pedro de la Rosa. The chassis was an Arrows A21 with a Supertec engine. The Supertec engine was not the most powerful, but was still very good, and had been developed further for the season. Allied to an excellent aerodynamic package and good rear end stability, it allowed the Arrows A21 to set the best straight line speeds consistently around the circuits. Generally, both Verstappen and de la Rosa were competitive within a close midfield. During the 2000 season, the Arrows team took part in a thirteen-part TV series named 'Racing Arrows', which followed the team and drivers throughout the year. It was shown on British TV channel ITV in 2001 during late-night slots.^[2]

A switch to Asiatech V10s in 2001 and the loss of a lot of staff left the team rather weaker in 2001 when Tom Walkinshaw decided to replace de la Rosa with F1 debutant Enrique Bernoldi. The team struggled through the season and Verstappen scored the team's only point in Austria.

For 2002, Walkinshaw made a deal to use Cosworth V10 engines and retained Bernoldi (with support from Red Bull) but dropped Verstappen in favour of Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who became available when Prost Grand Prix closed down. This caused Verstappen successfully to sue for breach of contract. That year also saw a costly payout to Pedro Diniz after unsuccessfully suing the Brazilian, who had taken his funding to Sauber for 1999. The team faced a third litigation from Frentzen, who was contracted on a race-by-race basis and who had not yet been paid. Arrows ran out of money in the mid-season and did not appear at all the races at the end of the year, their drivers deliberately failing to qualify for the French Grand Prix.

Negotiations were undertaken throughout the season with potential investors to buy into the team or buy it outright, such as Craig Pollock (who twice made an offer for the team) and Dietrich Mateschitz.

The team went into liquidation at the end of the season, also forcing TWR to close.^[4]

A consortium fronted by Phoenix Finance – run by Charles Nickerson, a friend of Walkinshaw – purchased part of the team's assets, specifically the engines, believing that together with their purchase of old Prost Grand Prix assets, it would gain them entrance for the 2003 season. However, their application was rejected by the FIA.

In their chequered history, Arrows set the unenviable record of 382 races without a win, although they collected nine podium finishes, including five second places.

Final chapter of Arrows Grand Prix International

All the Arrows A23 chassis and the full Arrows Grand Prix International intellectual property rights were bought by the Minardi team, including the initial concept and drawings of the Arrows A24. The Arrows A23 was renamed the Minardi PS04 and in back-to-back tests it was found superior to the Minardi's PS03. Minardi however decided that they could not run a "pure-Arrows" and hence use the Arrows intellectual property to take the best from the PS03, PS04 / Arrows A23 and Arrows A24 design concepts to develop the Minardi PS04B for the 2004 season. For following season the PS04B is developed into the PS05.

In 2005 the Arrows Grand Prix International bloodline continued through into Toro Rosso when Minardi sold the combined Minardi and Arrows Grand Prix International intellectual property rights, as well as the Minardi PS05 cars to Red Bull.

Also in 2005, the newly formed Super Aguri F1 team took over the ex-Arrows Grand Prix International based at Leafield in Oxfordshire and bought three unmodified Arrows A23's from Minardi, as well as some of the Arrows Grand Prix International intellectual property rights. The 2002 Arrows A23's were run (with minor modifications) as the Super Aguri SA05 during the first races of the 2006 season. An update of the 2002 Arrows chassis was designated the SA06 and made its debut at the 2006 German Grand Prix.

In late 2006 when Super Aguri folded, Formtech Composites purchased the intellectual property rights held by Super Aguri and took over the ex-Arrows Grand Prix International based at Leafield. Today Formtech Composites engineer composite components for the automotive, motorsport, military and aerospace industries.

Racing record

References

External links

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20061025164505/http://www.f1rejects.com/centrale/arrows/index.html F1 Rejects article on Arrows from 1996 to 2002]

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