Arrows in good shape for Monaco weekend ?

Made headlines in 01
By Huw Alban
May 20 2002

OrangeArrows had an incident filled Monaco weekend in 2001. The much hyped new front wing was run for the first time, in the form of an additional wing mounted above the nose. Jordan also ran an adaptation of this wing, but the FIA promptly banned them for safety reasons.

Still stinging from this acion, the team then suffered from appalling reliability, which saw the two Arrows cars lining up at the back of the field after the qualifying hour. The team’s performance was so poor that Technical Director, Mike Coughlan, was forced to speak out about it. “There is a huge gap between us and the midfield and it’s just not good enough,” he said after the qualifying session. “We had poor reliability this morning, which has resulted in us having a very trying day. Let’s hope for a better day tomorrow.”

The 2001 race started with dramas for McLaren’s David Coulthard, with a formation lap stall demoting the Scot to the back of the grid. This was to prove instumental in the fortunes of the Arrows team as the Scot tailed Enrique Bernoldi for the majority of the race, eventually getting past the Brazilian at the pit stops.

Jos Verstappen made his usual rapid progress through the pack, and looked in line for a points finish, before two pit stop stalls placed the Dutchman down the field to eventually finish in 9th place, with Enrique not far behind in 10th.

This year OrangeArrows have already spent development time on aerodynamic improvements, and downforce doesn’t seem to be a characteristic that the A23 lacks. Reliability, especially during the last test sessions and the Austrian race has been very good, and the recent upturn in the team’s competitive form is also encouraging. Car balance, especially in qualifying trim, seems to be the only major weakness so far, but the last tests have all focused on this area. If the trend follows through, the team will soon understand their car better, enabling them to dial it into circuits far more accurately.

On paper then, the team looks like they could do well, especially if good qualifying positions can be obtained. Perhaps the only thing that might trip the team up is the tight and twisty nature of the Monaco track, although that would also be true for the other teams, and could play into the hands of those competitors left running at the end of the race (hopefully our boys !).