Tom Walkinshaw this morning held a press conference to give details about the arrangement with Cosworth, which allows the team to compete at it’s home race despite the fact that payment for the engines is thought to be overdue.

It is, however, by no means certain that the team will not face the same difficulties when they arrive in Magny-Cours for the French Grand Prix, which follows in two weeks. Walkinshaw was quoted as saying, “We are currently negotiating with three different parties interested in acquiring the team as a whole or part of it. I’m optimistic that the future for Arrows is secure. Whether I’m part of it or not, I’m not sure.”

The Autosport website reports that the problems that arose were down to an injunction placed by investment bank Morgan Grenfell, which prevented Arrows from allowing new investors to purchase a stake in the team, and that this situation started a year ago when Coral Eurobet, a division of Morgan Grenfell, failed to make it’s agreed sponsorship payments to Arrows. Apparently third parties have been interested for some time, but the injunction was only placed last week, which has not pleased Walkinshaw.

“I think Arrows will complete the season,” he has said. “Common sense should prevail. You can’t have injunctions that bleed a company dry for a long period of time.” This site will bring you more on this, as it becomes known.

In the meantime, Arrows finally took part in the practice sessions today, and have reason to be optimistic. In completely dry conditions, Enrique Bernoldi managed eighth position in the first session, with Heinz-Harald Frentzen an impressive fourth. Whilst the German was almost two seconds behind the leading Ferrari pair, he was less than a tenth behind Kimi Räikkönen in the third placed McLaren Mercedes-Benz.

In second practice, Frentzen remained just under two seconds away from the pace setter, Ferrari’s Rubens Barrichello, but this translated to ninth position, following the improvement of a number of other drivers. Bernoldi was six places behind his team-mate, in fifteenth. Both drivers suffered software shutdowns on their cars, but their pace was obviously not hindered by these setbacks. Prospects for at least one car in the top ten for qualifying are high.

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