Arrows

Interesting facts

Arrows Grand Prix International was founded in November 1977 by five former Shadow Racing Cars employees - Franco Ambrosio, Alan Rees, Jackie Oliver, Dave Wass and Tony Southgate - whose surname initials gave the team its name. Remarkably, only three months passed between the team's founding and its first race, the 1978 Brazilian Grand Prix. Shadow successfully sued Arrows, and a London court ruled that the FA1 car was a direct copy of the Shadow DN9; Arrows responded by designing and building its replacement, the A1, in just 52 days. Riccardo Patrese took the team's only Formula One pole position at the 1981 Long Beach Grand Prix. At the 1997 Hungarian Grand Prix, Damon Hill was on course to win for Arrows until a hydraulic seal failed with just two laps remaining, costing him the victory. Across 382 races, Arrows never won a Grand Prix, one of the longest winless runs in Formula One history, collecting only nine podium finishes. In 2002, the financially collapsed Arrows deliberately failed to qualify its cars for the French Grand Prix, and the team was liquidated at season's end after the FIA rejected its entry for 2003. Arrows raced in Formula 1 from 1978 to 2002, across 19 seasons as a British team. The team scored a total of 142 constructors' championship points. The team's best season was 1988, when it finished 5th in the Constructors' Championship with 23 points.