Arrows... what happened ?

[fatbloke]

What happened to the great Arrows bandwagon which everyone was jumping on at the start of the season ? They did look pretty reasonable at Silverstone, but these performances certainly haven't brought any results. What's happening ?

[AL Racing]

Maybe they lost their traction-control when the new rules were enforced.

Or maybe they are only team now who haven't developed a new one.

[Tristan]

When PDLR posted the fastest time EVER around Barcelona pre-season, I think we can safley assume that was one underweight car. It was simply a stunt to get sponsorship. Besides, I don't think they've been so bad this season. Most of their problems have come from reliability rather from lack of pace. It's a nice car none the less.

[Minardi fan]

But if the Supertec was in the back of the Minardi they'd be doing a far better job than Arrows are.

[fatbloke]

Why ? I seem to remember them saying that back in the early 90's. When they actually got a big lump in the car (Ferrari) what happened ? They found that they were going no where as they seemed totally unable to design a car around anything but a Ford.

[Gerard]

I think Tristan said it very well.
They are not doing that bad this season.
Last year they qualified at the back of the grid, this year they are in midfield.

And things are always exaggerated at the beginning of a new season, by all teams.
Mika Hakkinen was going to win his third world title, BAR were going to win their first Grand Prix and the Prost team were very optimistic.
It's all PR talk.

The drivers are OK but the car doesn't look too reliable at the moment.
Let's take a look at what Arrows have achieved so far.
In Australia both drivers were impressive until a suspension failure kicked them out of the race.

In Brazil de la Rosa finished 8th, while Verstappen was lying 3rd before fitness problems caused him to slow down
He still managed to finish 7th.

In San Marino de la Rosa suffered gear selection trouble before spinning off while Verstappen's race was ruined by two unscheduled pit stops for wheel vibrations.

At the British Grand Prix both drivers had to retire with electronics failures. Verstappen started in 8th place.

In Spain de la Rosa qualified 9th but was relegated to the back of the grid after a fuel sample didn't match the 'fingerprint' submitted to the FIA.
In the race he collided with Jean Alesi and had to give up.
Verstappen was in 8th place when he had to retire at the first pit stop because the gearbox refused to engage first.

The European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring saw de la Rosa score his first point while Verstappen collided with Eddie Irvine, which resulted in a suspected suspension damage.

In Monaco they didn't do very well. De la Rosa's race ended after that freak accident at Loews while Verstappen threw it away big time at Tabac.

So, with 14 starts (both drivers) we have 1 sixth place, 1 seventh place, 1 eighth place, 1 wheel vibration problem, 2 suspension failures, 2 gear selection failures, 2 electronic failures and 4 crashes/spins.

If we treat the crashes/spins as driver errors we have:

50% reliability failures
29% driver errors
21% finishes

That's not a good record ofcourse, but it is obvious the Arrows team has got to do something about the reliability.
The pace is alright, they have the upper hand when it comes to top-speed.
There's work to do for Tom Walkinshaw.

[jvilleneuve2000]

Arrows have improved alot from last year, they just havent had the reliabilty to finish in point scoring positions regulary. Did anyone notice that Arrows suddenly recived all of that new sponsorship after those times were set???
I think that the car was very underweight.