Sidepodcast

Forgotten F1 Teams - Arrows

• Length: 4:00 
• Size: 3.7 MB 
• File: forgotten4.mp3 
• Transcript: forgotten4.pdf 
• Torrent: forgotten4.torrent 

Welcome to Forgotten F1 Teams – a mini series from Sidepodcast chronicling the rise and fall of teams that couldn’t stay the distance. This is the fourth show, we’ve already looked at Simtek, Pacific and Forti, but today we’re talking about Arrows.

Arrows Grand Prix came to life in 1977, founded by previous Shadow employees, Franco Ambrosio, Alan Rees, Jackie Oliver, Dave Wass and Tony Southgate – the surnames of whom spell out Arrows… sort of. Based in Milton Keynes, their Formula 1 entry was a bit of a rush job, with their first ever car being produced in just 53 days. Riccardo Patrese was brought on board to steer the car and the early signs were promising. They finished tenth in their first race in ‘78, almost won their second, and picked up some points in their third Grand Prix.

Unfortunately, the team didn’t have an easy start to life with some early controversies. Founder Franco Ambrosio had to leave the team after being found guilty of financial misconduct in Italy, and sent to prison. The team were then sued by Shadow for copyright on their chassis, which was upheld by the court. However, this didn’t stop them, as while the decision was being made over the the copied chassis, Arrows had built a brand new car, which then took to the track without them having to miss a race.

Patrese was involved in a serious multi-car pile up at the Italian Grand Prix that year. Fellow driver Ronnie Peterson died after the accident, and James Hunt, who was also involved, led a successful campaign to get Patrese banned from racing at the next Grand Prix.

In 1984, Arrows partnered with BMW, who brought their turbo engines on board, and the team received sponsorship from Barclay – a cigarette company. Their championship efforts improved, from 9th up to 8th the following year. In 1987, when BMW split from the team, things got even better. 6th in the championship that year, and 4th the next.

At the beginning of the next decade, the Japanese Footwork corporation became a prominent sponsor, and in 1991, this became the new name of the team. They kept it until 1996, when the sponsor withdrew support, and they became Arrows again. To replace Footwork, a new investor, Tom Walkinshaw was brought on board, and he successfully signed up defending champion Damon Hill. At the 1997 Hungarian GP, the team so very nearly got their first win, albeit mostly due to luck, but that ran out when a throttle problem meant Hill had to crawl to the finish handing the lead to Villeneuve on the final lap.

Walkinshaw gradually bought out ownership of the entire team, but under his reign, engine partnerships changed at the drop of a hat, and drivers were also coming and going. By 2002, Jos Verstappen was suing the team for breach of contract, Arrows was unsuccessfully trying to sue Pedro Diniz for leaving them, and Heinz-Harald Frentzen was suing them for not having been paid yet. By the middle of the season, Arrows had no money left, and suspicions were beginning to mount about their ability to continue in the championship. At the French Grand Prix, both drivers failed to qualify, but it appeared that they could have had they tried just that little bit harder. The data showed that both drivers had been competitive in the first two sectors but not in the last. They were threatened with bringing the sport into disrepute, trying not to qualify because they couldn’t afford to race. Before anything could be made of the situation though, the team had gone into liquidation.

A friend of Walkinshaw’s bought up some of the team’s assets to partner them with previous purchased Prost team assets, and enter Formula 1. The FIA disagreed. The rights for the chassis were picked up by Paul Stoddart of Minardi, and then by Super Aguri who ran a modified version in 2006.

Although compared to some of our Forgotten teams, lasting 15 years in the sport is a successful campaign, the team’s greatest “achievement” is having participated in 382 races without a win.

That’s it for this edition of Forgotten F1 Teams. Please let me know what you remember of the Arrows team on Sidepodcast.com or via the Voicemail – 0121 28 87225. I will be back tomorrow with our next Forgotten team.

Theme music: Bloc Party, I Still Remember.

Forgotten F1 Teams - Simtek Grand Prix

• Length: 4:07 
• Size: 3.9 MB 
• File: forgotten1.mp3 
• Transcript: forgotten1.pdf 
• Torrent: forgotten1.torrent 

You’re listening to Sidepodcast, and this is the latest mini-series: Forgotten F1 Teams. I think it’s probably self explanatory but this is a series dedicated to profiling some of the forgotten teams. Forget about your Ferrari’s and your McLaren’s, what about those who didn’t make such an impact on the sport, but still have a story to tell? Those are the ones you’ll hear today. Thanks should go to Scott Woodwiss for suggesting the topic, and the teams, and we’ll dive right in with Simtek Grand Prix.

Simtek Grand Prix was born from Simtek Research Ltd, the name standing for Simulation Technology. The company founders were Nick Wirth and Max Mosley, both of whom had serious pedigree within motorsport. Mosley had been a team owner before with March, and Wirth was a mechanical engineering student who was snapped up by March as an aerodynamicist, working underneath Adrian Newey. When March was sold to Leyton House, Mosley and Wirth? both decided to leave, and joined forces to create Simtek. Originally, the company had a single office in Wirth’s house, but it was soon obvious they needed a bigger, more wind-tunnel shaped base, which they built in Oxfordshire.

Mosley had the connections that meant racing teams from all over the globe were interested in using their research technologies, but while keeping the clients satisfied, Simtek began designing an F1 car for BMW in secret. The plan never came to fruition, however, and BMW delayed entry to the sport.

When Mosley became the president of the FIA, he sold his share of the company to Wirth. Another relatively unknown team Andrea Moda bought the unused and now out of date F1 cars originally meant for BMW, but there was absolutely no success in store for them. Simtek went on to design a car for another team, but that also fell by the wayside, leaving Wirth frustrated. He decided to enter his own F1 team, Simtek Grand Prix. Jack Brabham came on board with some financing, and in 1993, the team was announced with David Brabham as one of the drivers. They ran Ford engines, but immediately got it wrong. The first design was based around active suspension technologies, which were suddenly banned, so they changed to an earlier design, which was overweight. Without sponsorship, Simtek searched for a pay driver and signed Roland Ratzenberger, for the first five races. They eventually found backing from MTV as well.

However, it was only the third race in when disaster struck and Ratzenberger was killed. This was the same race weekend in 1994 when Ayrton Senna lost his life, and the tragedy rocked the rookie team. Tradition dictated that Brabham should pull out of the race, but he decided to continue with the weekend, which helped pull his colleagues together, and they decided to honour Ratzenberger by completing the entire season. The rest of the year saw two more serious injuries for Simtek but the team kept on keeping on. Money was tight, and sometimes they would only run one car, but towards the end of the season, things became more even. They scored an impressive, and best, 9th at one race, albeit a weekend with many retirees.

After the season was over, MTV decided to minimise their sponsorship deal, and David Brabham, the hero of the team so far, decided to move to British Touring Cars. Wirth was undeterred and started 1995 with a new chassis, and a new driver in Jos Verstappen. Verstappen managed to equal the best ever 9th position for Simtek in an impressive race at Argentina, but other than that, there were only three finishes from two drivers over five races.

The debts were mounting, as well, as deals were made and broken, and funding couldn’t be found. Simtek auctioned off some of their property, but it couldn’t make a dent in the millions that were owed. The team had to close mid-season. Wirth tried to apply his engineering skills to Benetton in 1997, but after a couple of bad seasons, he left F1 and took up a career in robotics.

That sums up our first forgotton F1 team. Let me know your thoughts either on the team, or this series, perhaps a team that you’d like to hear about. Leave your comments on the blog at Sidepodcast.com, call our voicemail on 0121 28 87225, or email me Christine @ sidepodcast.com. I’ll be back tomorrow with the story of another forgotten team.

Theme music: Bloc Party, I Still Remember.