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A tough Christmas for the staff at Arrows

A sad day
By Huw Alban December 2 2002
Today was crunch day. Everyone was hoping that the FIA would be lenient, would consider the job losses, and would consider the German financial deal on the table, but at the end of the day it meant nothing. The entry list for the 2003 Championship, released today, does not list the Arrows F1 Team.
The press release from the FIA first listed the entry list, and was followed by a brief statement with regard to why Arrows was not listed. "An application to compete in the 2003 Championship was also received from Arrows Grand Prix International but was declined for reasons which have been communicated to the Arrows team," the FIA statement read. These reasons will no doubt become clear over the next few days.

For the loyal staff, who have hung in there just in case the team was rescued, this has come as a surprise, and the resentment from some has been quick to appear on this site's message board. With the Christmas period only a few weeks away, this news could not have come at a worse time, and when this site's publisher eats his Christmas dinner and opens the presents with his children this year, the whole experience will be dampened with thoughts of how some Arrows staff will scrape through the day.

In addition, with the 2003 Championship Arrows-less, all Arrows fans will be reminded of today when they don't see the team every two weeks at each Grand Prix venue. For all Arrows fans and for this site, today is a very sad day.

Today's news also means that Arrows will no longer benefit from the TV money that is granted to them as part of the Concorde Agreement, and that Arrows no longer have a say in the Formula 1 Commission.

So what now? Does the German deal still go ahead, and the team rebuild for 2004? What will happen at the next Court hearing, where it may become clear as to whether Morgan Grenfell has any guarantees on the investment they made in the team? Will the team's application for administration now go through, and the company be liquidated? For now these things are small in the big picture. There's a lot of Arrows employees out there today that are facing far more difficult times, and this site's thoughts are with them.

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