But why? Surely a team that has been around since 1978, and has taken part in 301 Grands Prix should have won at least one. Indeed they should, by the law of averages, but Formula One isn't just about talent, about a good car but about money. Money talks in modern Formula One, as indeed it has done since Arrows started. If you don't have enough money, you won't get anywhere. And largely speaking, until Tom Walkinshaw took over, Arrows never did have enough money. For the 18 years before Walkinshaw took over, Arrows survived on a diet of rent-a-drivers, and often had to run poor, out-of date cars because there simply wasn't the money for anything better.

The Arrows story starts in late 1977. Imagine a mid-field team, short of money with dissatisfied personnel - this team was Shadow. They'd won one Grand Prix earlier that year with Alan Jones¹, but this was something of a fluke result and some key personnel wanted something better. Thus, team manager Jackie Oliver, Alan Rees, Dave Wass, designer Tony Southgate, Riccardo Patrese and wealthy Italian Franco Ambrosio set up their own F1 team and managed to sign talented Swede Gunnar Nilsson as their number one driver, though tragically he succumbed to cancer before he could take up his position.

They set up shop on a Milton Keynes industrial estate and got two cars ready for the Brazilian GP of 1978, with Rolf Stommelen as their second driver and with additional backing from Warsteiner. Compared to today, running a Grand Prix team was a piece of cake back then. You could design a good car, buy a Cosworth engine off the shelf and be instantly competitive. And, Arrows were. Early on, they led a race, scored a pole position, and achieved a second place in Sweden behind the controversial Brabham fan car (which literally sucked itself to the ground and was subsequently banned). By mid-season, however, Arrows had come up against an unexpected problem. The new Shadow DN9 looked curiously similar to the Arrows FA1. Shadow brought a legal action against Arrows claiming their design had been copied. Shadow subsequently won. Arrows had to design completely new cars, and did so without even missing one GP. The ruling didn't benefit Shadows, who struggled for the next two years until they were taken over in early 1980 and subsequently shut their doors for good.

More problems were to arrive for Arrows, as Patrese was implicated in the crash that claimed Ronnie Peterson's life. Patrese was forced to miss the next GP due to the majority of the other drivers refusing to race if Patrese was allowed to take part -- he was later cleared of any blame. Nevertheless, there have been worse debut years.

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end and in Arrows' case it was their brand new car which was designed to run without wings. Basically, the design didn't work. This coupled with a serious lack of money which culminated in running a completely sponsorless car in 1983 set the team off in a downward spiral which seemed to last for years. A turbo engine also became essential for any success. And, as no big manufacturer wanted to be associated with Arrows, they had to wait until the mid 80's when they got hold of BMW units.

Despite the fact that their cars were, generally speaking, midfield runners, Arrows still attracted some big names. From 1978 to 1996, talents such as Alan Jones (1980 World Champion), Riccardo Patrese, Jochen Mass, Gerhard Berger, Marc Surer (1979 F2 Champion), Patrick Tambay, Thierry Boutsen (who won GPs for Williams), Derek Warwick and Michele Alboreto have all driven for Arrows. The only problem was their drives for Arrows were, usually, either at the start of their career (when they were inexperienced) or at the end (when they were past it). Arrows' best years, since those heady days of 1978, were 1987-1989, in which they experienced one of the few periods of continuity with same drivers, same sponsors, same engine and, consequently, the talented pairing of Derek Warwick and Eddie Cheever (still racing in the BTCC and Indy Racing League respectively). They achieved tbe amazing total of 45 points over these three years. The pinnacle being 5th place in the 1988 FIA Formula One Constructors Championship. However, in true Arrows tradition, the highlights were soon followed by a slump. A very large slump.

At the end of 1989, gigantic Japanese concern Footwork bought their way into Arrows and gave the team large amounts of Yen to invest. This meant new drivers, a personnel shake up (although Jackie Oliver remained at the reins), and large-scale plans for the future -- the biggest of which was a Porsche engine deal for the 1991 season. Unfortunately, the money didn't extend to building a new car. Thus, Michele Alboreto and Alex Caffi spent most of 1990 counting how many times they'd been lapped. Mind you, this was to seems like paradise compared to what was coming. 1991 was the worst year in Arrows' (or Footwork, as they became known until 1994) history. The Porsche engine was grossly overweight and seemed to want to commit hari-kari at every opportunity. Sometimes, it was loath even to complete 3 laps. Because Arrows were doing so poorly, they replaced the Porsche with a reliable Cosworth engine, but any benefit this could have was negated by the fact that they had to pre-qualify from mid-season onwards. This meant they had to qualify for the right to take part in proper qualifying with the dregs and also-rans of Formula One. Even more embarrassing, they often failed.

Things did get somewhat better in the next two years, but Arrows were again feeling the squeeze by late '93. Footwork were losing money at home and had to pull out of all racing activities. This left Arrows in the lurch with not much in the way of money, engines or drivers. Jackie Oliver managed to rebuild the team, with very little money, around a suitably ordinary but competent car -- with suitably ordinary engines but talents in the form of current Sauber pilot Gianni Morbidelli and Swift IndyCar driver Christian Fittipaldi. As you'd expect from a low budget operation, results were fairly scarce and it didn't improve in '95 when Arrows had to hire the inexperienced, wealthy rent-a-driver Taki Inoue. Inoue made fellow Japaneese countryman Ukyo Katayama look like Schumacher.

And so it went until early 1996 when Tom Walkinshaw lost interest in taking over Ligier (Prost) and found the virtually bankrupt Arrows team was up for sale. Apparently, he paid just £6 million for the team which would not see out the season had Walkinshaw not intervened. Therefore, we come to the present... and the future. This year has been a big disappointment to Walkinshaw, who "expected to win races", and with the expected departure of arguably the team's biggest asset, Damon Hill, the future does not look as positive as it did last year. The current package needs more time than the 1997 season will allow. That said, few experts doubt that, in the end, Arrows will get it right. Whatever the future, let's hope it'll finally bring that first, elusive win.

¹ Thanks to Mark Nielsen for the correction of Alan Jones, not Riccardo Patrese, being the winner of the 1977 Austrian GP for Shadow.

Paul is currently studying for A levels in English, French and History and an AS level in Business Studies in Bedford, England. He cheerfully admits he fits into the image of the archetypal student - perennially untidy and lazy. Current passions include soccer, motor racing (anything from F1 and its history to club meetings at Silverstone to banger racing), music (such ecletic tastes as The Prodigy, Orbital, Inspiral Carpets, Sex Pistols, Supergrass and the Pet Shop Boys), British "off the wall" comedy such as Bottom and Fawlty Towers, collecting obscure memorabilia and, of course, computers (otherwise why would he be writing in an Internet-based publication?).

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