Tom Walkinshaw’s troubled Arrows Formula 1 team has apparently been saved from ruin by Arabian investors. But this does not mean that the team’s problems are over…
Tom Walkinshaw’s troubled Arrows Formula 1 team has apparently been saved from ruin by Arabian investors. But this does not mean that the team’s problems are over…
On Tuesday it announced that the widely-anticipated deal, which will bring vital money to the cash-strapped outfit, had been concluded. The move could provide a new lease of life for the team that missed six out of the final seven races of the season due to budgetary problems and had looked set to drop out of F1 this year.
Italian newspaper reports said the investors were from the United Arab Emirates and that their company, German Grand Prix Racing, had taken a majority stake in Arrows. Arrows now have until Friday (November 15) to pay the R5,5-million fee to enter next year’s championship.
The company bought out Arrows’ chief shareholder, the investment bank Morgan Grenfell.
“They have bought more than 51 percent of Arrows, but I cannot say how much in total,” Oliver Behring, owner of Asset Trust partners, the holding company of German Grand Prix Racing, was quoted as saying by . “In any case, the acquisition now goes beyond the shareholding of the merchant bank Morgan Grenfell, which is now out of the picture.”
But despite the arrival of German Grand Prix Racing there is no guarantee Arrows will be allowed to race next year. Reports say F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone will demand proof that the company really does have the finances needed to compete for the entire 2003 season. Arrows has no main sponsor, no engine deal, and it lost many team members when the season wound down.
Jaguar Racing boss Niki Lauda this week said he would not settle for anything less than the full amount of money owed to Cosworth by Arrows. The Austrian is fuming because Walkinshaw reneged on a verbal agreement that Ford would get paid for supplying Arrows with Ford engines this season.
“Walkinshaw gave me a personal guarantee at Silverstone that he would pay, and when the first guarantee was due, he told me to **** off, Lauda told magazine. “This I cannot accept. He is a rich man, of that there’s no doubt, and I’m going to go after him to get the money he owes, because then my engine business will break even.”
The British GP at Silverstone was the start of a string of non appearances, the team only racing at the Silverstone circuit because Walkinshaw paid for the engines out of his own personal funds. But Lauda is just one of Walkinshaw’s multitude of creditors… Others include two of his former drivers, Jos Verstappen and Heinz-Harald Frentzen.
