Arrows Grand Prix International was a British Formula One team active from 1978 to 2002. It was known as Footwork from 1991 to 1996.
The Arrows Grand Prix International team was founded in Milton Keynes, England in November 1977, by Italian businessman Franco Ambrosio, Alan Rees, former racing driver Jackie Oliver, Dave Wass and Tony Southgate (the team deriving its name from the initials of their surnames) when they left the Shadow team. The team was formed and appeared on the grid for their first race at the 1978 Brazilian Grand Prix, all within three months.
Arrows signed Gunnar Nilsson and Riccardo Patrese to drive, but Nilsson was diagnosed with cancer shortly afterwards. His failing health caused Rolf Stommelen to take his place. The team 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.
fa1
drivers: Riccardo Patrese & Rolf Stommelen
The Arrows FA1 was a Formula One car used by the Arrows Grand Prix International team during the first half of the 1978 Formula One season.
The FA1 was in reality a Shadow DN9, which Tony Southgate had designed for Shadow whilst working as a consultant for them. Southgate mistakenly believed that because he had designed the Shadow DN9 whilst working as a consultant (and not a Shadow employee) that he owned the intellectual rights to the Shadow DN9 design. Based on this misconception Arrows built the FA1, which was essentially a carbon copy of the DN9.
The FA1 was banned by the London High Courts partway through the 1978 season after a legal protest from the Shadow team, on the grounds was a blatant copy of the DN9. The judgement handed down ruled that over 70% of the FA1 was identical to the DN9 and that all four Arrows FA1's should be broken up by Arrows and their parts handed over to the Shadow team.
Knowing it would lose the case, Arrows hurriedly designed and built a new car, the A1, whilst the court case was being heard and did not miss a race.
a1
drivers: Riccardo Patrese, Rolf Stommelen & Jochen Mass
The Arrows A1 was the car with which Arrows Grand Prix International competed in the 1978 and 1979 Formula One seasons. It replaced the Arrows FA1, which was banned by the London High Court on 31 July 1978.
Given that the FA1 was a carbon-copy of the Shadow DN9, the A1 is the essentially first true F1 car designed and built by Arrows Grand Prix International.
The Arrows A1 was one of the first "ground effects" Formula 1 cars and despite being rushed into service without any testing or development after the FA1 was banned, the Arrows A1 proved competitive. Riccardo Patrese finished 4th in the 1978 Canadian GP. A number of further 4th and 5th places followed in 1979 and that year's Monaco GP could have been the Arrows A1 crowning-glory, with Jochen Mass running as high as third in the race (after qualifying eighth) before brake issues dropped him down to sixth at the chequered flag.
In total six Arrows A1 were built, chassis numbers A1-01 to A1-06.
The A1-B update included stiffening the monocoque and revising the "ground-effects" side-pods. The A1-C update included a new rear wing with a single central support, improved rear-suspension geometry and totally re-designed "ground-effects" side-pods which were more swept-up towards the rear tyre.
a2 1979
The Arrows A2 was a Formula One racing car, designed by Tony Southgate and Dave Wass, was used by the Arrows team in the latter half of the 1979 Formula One season. Powered by a Cosworth DFV V8 engine and driven by Riccardo Patrese and Jochen Mass, it was relatively unsuccessful with its best finish being sixth on two occasions.
Unlike most contemporary cars, the engine, a Cosworth DFV V8 engine, and gearbox of the A2 were set at a four-degree angled incline. This enabled the use of aerodynamic underfloor sections across the full width of the chassis. This had the effect of raising the car's centre of gravity. The A2 generated extensive downforce, but at the expense of handling.
drivers: Riccardo Patrese & Jochen Mass
a3 1980-1981
The Arrows A3 was a Formula One car which the Arrows team used to compete in the 1980 and 1981 Formula One seasons.
After the failure of the A2 in the 1979 Formula One season, the A3 was a very conventional design. The A3 featured a short wheelbase and conventional front nose and rear wing. The only aerodynamic novelty was a gearbox enclosure to reduce drag.
The car was used in 1981, as Arrows did not have the resources to create a car with hydropneumatic suspension like the Brabham BT49C.
drivers: Riccardo Patrese, Jochen Mass, Mike Thackwell, Manfred Winkelhock, Siegfried Stohr & Jacques Villeneuve Sr.
a4 1982
The Arrows A4 was the car which the Arrows Formula One team used to compete in the 1982 Formula One season.
The new A4's aerodyamics were little changed from the A3, the main difference under the skin being that the A4 had a honeycomb monocoque. Its debut at Kyalami was a disaster, with Marc Surer writing off his car during testing.
drivers: Marc Surer, Mauro Baldi & Brian Henton
a5 1982
The Arrows A5 was the car which the Arrows Formula One team used to compete in the 1982 Formula One season. The A5 appeared late in the season, and was primarily a development car, with the lessons learned to be applied to the A6 for the upcoming 1983 Formula One season.
drivers: Marc Surer & Mauro Baldi
a6 1983-1984
The Arrows A6 was a Formula One car which the Arrows team used to compete in the 1983 and 1984 Formula One seasons. It was designed by Dave Wass and powered by the Cosworth DFY V8 engine. The A6 used a honeycomb monocoque frame, as a carbon fibre chassis was too expensive.
Drivers of the A6 at various times included Marc Surer, Chico Serra, Thierry Boutsen and 1980 World Drivers' Champion Alan Jones.
The A6 was replaced during the 1984 season by the team's first turbocharged car, the A7.
An Arrows A6 was entered by Roger Cowman in the 1985 Formula 3000 championship for Slim Borgudd.
a7 1984
The Arrows A7 was a Formula One car which the Arrows team used to compete in the 1984 Formula One season. The car made its debut at the 1984 Belgian Grand Prix held that year at Zolder. Driven by versatile Swiss fast man Marc Surer and Belgian Thierry Boutsen, the A7 scored only 3 points when Boutsen and Surer finished 5th and 6th respectively in the 1984 Austrian Grand Prix.
The A7 was the team's first time running a turbocharged engine. This was the same powerful BMW M12 Straight 4 which was also used by the Brabham team, though unlike Brabham who had BMW engineers looking after their engines, the Arrows engines were maintained and developed by Swiss engine guru Heini Mader. This left Arrows with around 800 bhp while the factory units were developing around 900 bhp.
drivers: Thierry Boutsen & Marc Surer
a8 1985-1986
The Arrows A8 was a Formula One car, designed by Dave Wass, which the Arrows team used to compete in the 1985 and 1986 Formula One seasons. Powered by the BMW M12 turbocharged engine, its best finish was when Thierry Boutsen drove it to second place at the 1985 San Marino Grand Prix.
While Heini Mader did a good job in maintaining the team's BMW engines, they lacked the power of the same engines powering the Brabham and later Benetton teams as those particular engines were continually maintained by BMW, giving them access to new parts, information and factory backed development that Mader did not have. This was shown in the results as the Arrows-BMWs rarely out-qualified or out-raced the Brabhams or Benettons.
drivers: Gerhard Berger, Thierry Boutsen, Marc Surer & Christian Danner
a9 1986
The Arrows A9 was a Formula One car which the Arrows team used to compete in the 1986 Formula One season. It was powered by the massively-powerful BMW M12/13 turbocharged inline-four engine. Unlike the BMWs used by the Brabham and Benetton teams whose engines were maintained and updated regularly by BMW, the Arrows engines were maintained by Swiss engine guru Heini Mader and were rated as the least powerful of the BMW runners.
The A9 was supposed to replace the ageing A8 car, but it turned out to be worse than its predecessor. The new car was the team's first carbon composite chassis, built by British Aerospace but delays in manufacture caused the car to be late. Its lack of performance caused Dave Wass to quit Arrows.
drivers: Marc Surer, Christian Danner & Thierry Boutsen
a10 1987-1988
The Arrows A10 was a Formula One car used by the Arrows team to compete in the 1987 and 1988 Formula One seasons. The car was designed by Ross Brawn and was upgraded slightly in 1988, racing as A10B.
For 1987 the engines were fitted with a FIA approved pop-off valve which was mandatory for all turbo engines in the season with turbo boost restricted to 4.0 bar.
During the season the team continually experienced problems with the pop-off valve cutting in well below the 4.0 Bar. Without the resources and financial backing available to the likes of Ferrari or Honda, it would take Arrows until the three quarters of the way through the 1988 season to solve the problem.
drivers: Derek Warwick & Eddie Cheever
a11 1989-1991
The Arrows A11 was a Formula One car with which the Arrows team competed in the 1989 and 1990 Formula One seasons, and at the start of the 1991 season (badged as a Footwork).
Designed by Ross Brawn, the A11 was the first Arrows car following the ban on turbocharged engines at the end of 1988, being fitted with a normally-aspirated 3.5-litre Ford Cosworth DFR V8 engine. It was raced to reasonably good effect by Derek Warwick and Eddie Cheever in 1989, Warwick finishing in the top six on five occasions.
Japanese businessman Wataru Ohashi invested in Arrows in 1990 and the cars started displaying the Footwork logo prominently. Jackie Oliver sold his shares in the team to Ohashi, but remained as team principal. Alan Jenkins was hired as technical director after Brawn moved to TWR, but had a difficult relationship with Oliver. The team was officially renamed Footwork in 1991, and secured a deal to race with Porsche V12 engines, but the car was woefully uncompetitive. The engine was overweight and underpowered and Porsche quickly pulled the plug. Footwork quickly switched to a Ford V8.
fa12 1991
fa13 1992-1993
fa14 1993
The Footwork FA12 was a Formula One car designed and built by the Footwork Arrows team for the 1991 season. The number 9 car was driven by Michele Alboreto and the number 10 car was shared by Alex Caffi and Stefan Johansson. The team had no test driver.
The FA12 was intended to start the season, but the new Porsche 3512 engine was so large and bulky that the car had to be re-designed to install it properly, so a 1990-based car called the A11C was used for the first three race meetings.
The Footwork FA13 was a Formula One car used by the Footwork Arrows team in the 1992 Formula One World Championship and, when updated as the FA13B, in the first two races of the 1993 championship. It was powered by the Mugen-Honda V10 engine.
Designed by Alan Jenkins, it was a conventional and straightforward car. Alboreto scored four times, 5th in both the Spanish and San Marino Grands Prix and 6th in both the Brazilian and Portuguese Grands Prix, the team finishing with six points and equal 7th with Ligier in the Constructors' Championship.
The Footwork FA14 was a Formula One car with which the Footwork team competed in part of the 1993 Formula One season. It replaced the FA13B, a revised version of the previous year's FA13 chassis that had been used for the first two races of that season. It was driven by veteran Derek Warwick, returning from a two-year sabbatical during which he won the 1992 World Sportscar Championship and the 1992 24 Hours of Le Mans driving for Peugeot, and Aguri Suzuki, retained from 1992.
drivers: Michele Alboreto, Alex Caffi & Stefan Johansson
drivers: Michele Alboreto & Aguri Suzuki
drivers: Derek Warwick & Aguri Suzuki
fa15 1994
fa16 1995
fa17 1996
The Footwork FA15 was a Formula One car with which the Footwork team competed in the 1994 Formula One World Championship. The number 9 seat was taken by Christian Fittipaldi and the number 10 seat was taken by Gianni Morbidelli. The team never employed a test driver and did not have a main sponsor.
The FA15 used the Ford HBE7/HBE8 3.5-litre V8 engine, the same engine used on the McLaren MP4/8 from the previous season.
The Footwork FA16 was a Formula One car designed by Alan Jenkins and used by the Footwork team in the 1995 Formula One World Championship. The car was powered by a Hart 3-litre V8 engine and ran on Goodyear tyres. It was driven initially by Italian Gianni Morbidelli, who was in his second season with the team, and Japanese pay-driver Taki Inoue. Another Italian, Max Papis, replaced Morbidelli in mid-season due to the team's financial problems.
The chassis was not the weak link, but the Hart engine was down on power and unreliable.
The Footwork FA17 was the car with which the Footwork team competed in the 1996 Formula One World Championship. It was driven by Dutchman Jos Verstappen, who moved from Simtek, and Brazilian Ricardo Rosset, who graduated from Formula 3000.
Footwork was bought by Tom Walkinshaw from one of the Arrows team's original founders, Jackie Oliver, early in the season. 1996 thus became a write-off as the team's focus switched to 1997. This was something of a disappointment, since the FA17 was competitive at the start of the year in the hands of Jos Verstappen.
drivers: Christian Fittipaldi & Gianni Morbidelli
drivers: Gianni Morbidelli, Max Papis & Taki Inoue
After a failed attempt to buy Ligier, Tom Walkinshaw bought 51% of the team. In so doing he bought out Alan Rees' share in March 1996, and the team dropped the Footwork name (though the team was still listed as Footwork in the constructor standings that year). In taking over Arrows, he brought designer Frank Dernie and several others with him from Ligier and dropped Alan Jenkins, who joined the new Stewart outfit. Walkinshaw had a history of success in various motor sport categories, having won the World Sportscar Championship for Jaguar three times, several touring car championships and had been behind Michael Schumacher's first world title.
Walkinshaw had plans to turn Arrows into a world championship winning team. To that end in September he signed up World Champion Damon Hill and hired wealthy Brazilian Pedro Diniz to help pay for Hill's salary.
Allied to sponsorship problems, Arrows ran out of money in 2002 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. The team went into liquidation at the end of the season, also forcing TWR to close. The FIA rejected Arrows' entry application for the 2003 season prior to start date in Australia.
In their chequered history, Arrows set the unenviable record of 382 races without a win, although they collected nine podium finishes (one under Footwork) including five second places.
a18 1997
The Arrows A18 was the car with which the Arrows Formula One team competed in the 1997 Formula One World Championship. It was driven by Briton Damon Hill, the reigning World Champion who had made the surprising move to the team after being dropped by Williams, and Brazilian Pedro Diniz, who had moved from Ligier.
This was the last Formula One car powered by Yamaha engines after the manufacturer's decision to withdraw from the sport at the end of the season.
a19 1998
The Arrows A19 was the car with which the Arrows Formula One team competed in the 1998 Formula One World Championship. It was driven by Brazilian Pedro Diniz, who was in his second season with the team, and Finn Mika Salo, who had moved from Tyrrell to replace Jordan-bound Damon Hill.
a20 1999
The Arrows A20 was the car with which the Arrows Formula One team competed in the 1999 Formula One World Championship.
It was driven by former Jordan test driver Pedro de la Rosa, a Spanish débutant who brought considerable sponsorship from Repsol, and Japan's Toranosuke Takagi, who moved from the defunct Tyrrell team. Mika Salo was due to stay with the team after a promising 1998 but was dropped just a week before the opening race.
drivers: Damon Hill & Pedro Diniz
drivers: Pedro Diniz & Mika Salo
drivers: Pedro de la Rosa & Toranosuke Takagi
a21 2000
The Arrows A21 was the car with which the Arrows Formula One team competed in the 2000 Formula One World Championship. It was driven by Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa, in his second year with the team, and experienced Dutchman Jos Verstappen, who had driven for the team in its Footwork guise in 1996.
The A21 was a completely new design by Coughlan and Eghbal Hamidy, who had designed the very similar looking Stewart SF3. The A21 benefitted from the revised Supertec engine and an excellent aerodynamic package with a much lower centre of gravity.
a22 2001
The Arrows A22 was the car with which the Arrows team competed in the 2001 Formula One World Championship. It was driven by Dutchman Jos Verstappen, who was in his second year with the team, and Enrique Bernoldi, a Brazilian rookie who brought sponsorship from Red Bull, at the expense of Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa who was unexpectedly dropped shortly before the season started.
a23 2002
The Arrows A23 is a Formula One racing car, used by the Arrows team during the 2002 Formula One season. It was designed by Mike Coughlan, Sergio Rinland and Nicolò Petrucci with engines supplied by Jaguar-works Cosworth customer rather than the Asiatech unit used in the previous year's Arrows A22.
Driven by Frentzen and Enrique Bernoldi, the car scored only two championship points. Both cars were disqualified at the opening race.
drivers: Pedro de la Rosa & Jos Verstappen
drivers: Jos Verstappen & Enrique Bernoldi
drivers: Heinz-Harald Frentzen & Enrique Bernoldi
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 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 Super Aguri when Paul Stoddart sold the combined Minardi and Arrows Grand Prix International intellectual property rights, as well as the Minardi PS05 cars to Red Bull and Aguri Suzuki respectively.
At the end of 2005, the newly formed Super Aguri F1 team took over the former Arrows base at Leafield in Oxfordshire and bought four unmodified Arrows A23's from Minardi, all of the spare parts, as well as the Arrows Grand Prix International intellectual property rights. Many of the ex-Arrows staff were hired to engineer the team, including technical director Mark Preston. 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 2008 when Super Aguri folded, Formtech Composites purchased the intellectual property rights held by Super Aguri and took over the former Arrows base at Leafield. Today Formtech Composites engineer composite components for the automotive, motorsport, military and aerospace industries.
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