Arrows came by its name in a different way to most of the other teams. The team was formed in 1977 after several key members from the Shadow team broke away. Italian Franco Ambrosio, who was to be later imprisoned for financial irregularity, sponsored shadow and he became the 'AR' of the team with the second 'R' coming from the financial director, Alan Rees. The long time managing director and former F1 driver, Jackie Oliver is the ' O ' with the last two initials coming from designers Dave Wass and Tony Southgate.

With over twenty-two years in the sport, Arrows has never won a Grand Prix. The closest they have ever been to victory was when Damon Hill came second in the Hungarian Grand Prix in 1997, although in the teams' second race, Ricardo Patrese led until he was forced to retire with engine failure fifteen laps from the end. Gunnar Nilsson was originally picked to lead the team at the beginning, but he developed stomach cancer before he managed to drive a race, sadly dying a year later. The team then opted for Patrese, who proved to be both quick and wild.

Amazingly enough, their first car was prepared in just sixty short days, but although the very beginning looked hopeful, they quickly ran into trouble. Don Nichols, head of the Shadows team, claimed that the car was a copy of the new Shadow design and took the team to Court. The High Court ruled against Arrows, and informed them that they could not race the car. They built a new car in record time and it was in use by the following race. However the team was plagued by pitfalls. In the Italian Grand Prix, Ronnie Peterson was tragically killed when his Lotus was involved in a multiple car accident at the start. Many top name drivers, including Niki Lauda and James Hunt, started a witch hunt and eventually Patrese was held responsible for the tragedy and was banned from the following race in America.

The distinctive gold livery of the Wersteiner beer company on the 1979 Arrows, coupled with it's futuristic look made the new A2 'buzz bomb' widely talked about. Unfortunately, looks don't win Grand Prix and the car was unsuccessful in the hands of Patrese and Jochen Mass, so the team reverted to a more conventional look. To be competitive in the 1980's, the era of turbo, the team needed a firm link to an engine supplier, but it wasn't until BMW withdrew and rebadged their powerful four cylinder turbo engines to Megatron, that Arrows had a chance. Despite the best efforts of both Derek Warwick and Eddie Cheever, that elusive first win was still not in view.

Late in the eighties, the Japanese Footwork Corporation made a deal with Jackie Oliver, injecting vital funds. The team was renamed 'Footwork' and with the pending arrival of the Porsche engine, the team looked set to finally see victory. Any hopes of repeating McLarens dominant days with the Porsche built TAG engines were dispelled when the 12-cylinder engine arrived. At that stage, a typical unit weighed roughly 145kg, but the Porsche was over 210kg!

The team continued on with the Porsche engines that they had been relying on, before switching to Japanese Mugen engines. In 1994, chief designer, Alan Jenkins designed the FA15 to accommodate a customer Ford engine along with some great rear end aerodynamics, but the new regulations due to the fatalities in the early nineties, greatly hampered the cars. Footwork reduced its involvement in the team and they reverted back to Arrows Grand Prix International. Tom Walkinshaw arrived in 1996, replacing Jackie Oliver and it was he that signed the then World Champion, Damon Hill to drive for the team in 1997 alongside a paying driver, Pedro Diniz. They were running with the Yamaha engine and in Hungary that year it looked as if Hill would finally give the team their first victory, but a throttle linkage failure thwarted the team once more. Hill decided to leave the team at the end of the season and Mika Salo replaced him. Yamaha also moved on and Brian Hart built the engines for 1998. Pedro Diniz scored a sixth place in Monaco and a fifth in Belgium, while Mika Salo took fourth at Monaco.

1999 saw a bad year once again with the team constantly fighting with Minardi, at the back end of the field. Diniz left the team after the 98 season, as did Mika Salo as the team opted for new drivers in Tora Takagi and Pedro de la Rosa. Pedro's sixth place was the only point the team received for the year and they are hoping, and praying, that the year 2000 will be the end to all their woes. Tora Takagi wasn�t retained for the new season, the team opting to go for the experienced Dutch driver, Jos Verstappen to partner de la Rosa. The duo put in some strong performances throughout the year, with Pedro running in a strong third place in the German Grand Prix before a problem in the pits saw him relegated back to sixth.

2001 is a new year with a new engine. Switching to AMT power, rebadged Peugeot engines, the team are confident for a positive season. Here�s hoping that they can run with the best of them and maybe even score some podium finishes.

• Official site : www.arrows.co.uk
• Drivers' sites : Jos Verstappen | Enrique Bernoldi
  

os began his racing career at the age of eight like many other Formula One drivers have, in the world of Karts. In 1984 at the age of twelve, he won his first championship, the Dutch junior championship in Karts, an event he repeated two years later. It was 1989 that saw his most successful season, winning a large number of international races including several European titles.

After seven successful years in the Karting series, 1992 saw Jos make his way into Formula Opel Lotus. Racing in the Benelux championship he rapidly became known as the man to watch, only once failing to score points due to an accident. Apart from that one time, he stole the show winning every time. Not only did he take the Benelux Championship that year, but also joined forces with Martijn Koene to win the Opel Lotus Nations Cup. He was elected the N.A.V. Dutch driver of the year in 1992 and was promised a Formula One test by Ken Tyrrell if he could win the F3 championship the following year.

Choosing to race in the German Championship for the WTS team of Willy Weber in 1993 he won a total of eight victories that secured him the championship and at the end of the season, Jos received the invitation to test a Formula One car for the Arrows team. He was a wanted man in the eyes of the F1 teams, testing a McLaren at Silverstone and Eddie Jordan had also expressed his interest in the Dutchman. But, instead of signing a contract to drive in the 1994 season with any of the before mentioned teams, Jos opted to sign with Benetton.

Benetton offered him a multi-year contract and for the first year he was to be their test driver, but when JJ Lehto crashed heavily during a test at Silverstone and was unable to start in the first few races of the season, as test driver, Jos was the obvious replacement. In only two years from the start of his first major race, Jos was thrown into the role of partnering Michael Schumacher.

His debut race was as spectacular as it was memorable. While attempting to avoid the troubled car of Martin Brundle, he made contact with the Jordan of Eddie Irvine and the crash that ensued saw four cars forced into retirement. JJ Lehto returned to the team two races later, but was again sidelined, leaving the door open for Jos from the French GP onwards.

The German GP in that same year saw Jos once again involved in a spectacular incident, only this time it wasn't on the track, instead it was in the pits. When he came in for his first pit stop the refuelling equipment was malfunctioning which caused the accidental spillage of a few litres of fuel onto the red hot Benetton. The car was engulfed in flames but luckily, the Dutchman was able to escape from the car uninjured. In total he competed in ten races and finished up 10th overall with 10 points. In 1995 he drove with Simtek-Ford, competing in only four races while also retaining his role as test driver for the Benetton team.

His decline from the limelight continued as he signed to drive for Arrows in 96, scoring only one point for the entire season, but 97 was even worse, when, after switching to Minardi, he failed to score even that one solitary finish in the top six.

The end came in 1998 after Ken Tyrrell sold the team to Craig Pollock. Wanting a driver that carried more sponsorship, Pollock hired Ricardo Rosset, leaving Jos high and dry. He was back to test driving for the Benetton team, until mid season, when Jackie Stewart was dissatisfied with Danish driver, Jan Magnussen, and hired Jos to replace him from the French Grand Prix.

Left without a drive in 1999, Jos returned to drive for the Arrows team once again, partnering Spanish driver, Pedro de la Rosa in the 2000 season. He had some strong drives throughout the year, however he finished 12th overall with only five points.

• Official site : www.verstappen.nl
• Arrows : www.arrows.co.uk

Bernoldi began his career at the age of nine, racing karts. After winning two Brazilian Karting Championships he followed the path of many of his countrymen and travelled to Europe to race cars.

It was in Formula Renault in 1996 that Enrique started to attract attention as he won nine out of eleven races and was crowned European Formula Renault Champion before moving on to compete in the British Formula 3 Championship, the proving ground for many stars of Formula One including Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell and Mika Hakkinen.

In 1998, Enrique was runner-up in the British Formula 3 Championship after winning six races and made the decision to move up to F3000. For the past two seasons, he has combined racing in F3000 with F1 testing duties for Sauber.

• Official site : www.enriquebernoldi.com.br
• Arrows : www.arrows.co.uk