No practice time for Arrows, but they will qualify

A busy time ahead
By Huw Alban
July 20 2002

The start of free practice today saw a worrying time for Arrows fans, as neither car appeared on the track at Magny-Cours for the entire 45 minutes, despite assurances from Tom Walkinshaw yesterday. There was a glimmer of hope, though, ten minutes before the end ...

A trackside source available to this site confirmed that the team garages were open again this morning, but the team mechanics were just ‘milling’ around. In addition there had been no sign of the drivers.

For the duration of the first free practice session today, both cars stayed firmly in the garage with no statement from the team as to why. This continued into the second and last session, leading this site to think the worst.

Then came the glimmer of hope – with ten minutes of the final practice session remaining, both Arrows cars pulled out of the garage and took to the track for a single installation lap. So, it would appear that the team do intend to participate in the qualifying hour and presumably the race – perhaps it was this that Tom Walkinshaw referred to in the FIA press conference yesterday?

The team will now have their work cut out for them, as they have not done any tyre work nor had the chance to look at the car settings. This site hopes that the team have in their possession some useful car setup data from testing at the circuit (I cannot remember whether the team have testing at Magny-Cours this year) and that this will give them a good starting point. The qualifying hour is going to be an exceptionally busy time for the drivers and the mechanics as they attempt to make up for losing three and a half hours worth of valuable track time.