By Site correspondents
September 17 2002

Yesterday’s lead story quoting ITV’s Ted Kravitz as saying that the team staff are about to be laid off, and the factory closed, has attracted a bit of attention. A number of sources available to this site went digging with this information and came up with three nuggets of gold. The first comes from a like minded F1 fan site publisher, who favours the Brackley based British American Racing team. She has a number of good contacts within BAR, which has consequently led to more with other teams. In response to yesterdays ‘Factory to close’ headline she says, “An Arrows team member I asked about this said he hadn’t heard anything about the factory closing at the moment, but no-one is there at the moment and the cars don’t have any engines in them.”

The latter part of this marries up with a forum post reporting that non-essential staff have been given this week off. This has led to forum discussion that the team simply cannot make the trip to the U.S. for the next Grand Prix in two weeks time. There had been suggestions that the team and it’s new American owner were aiming for the Indianapolis event anyway, but the truckie’s view, and the non-essential staff leave news, suggest that the team still have the necessary people on site ready to make the trip. During last week it was revealed here that the team intend to start packing for the trip starting on Friday the 20th - that’s one date this site will keep a close eye on.

Lastly, we move from two items of optimism to one of deep depression. Paddock talk at Monza suggests that title sponsor Orange are far from happy with the team’s behaviour over the last five Grands Prix, and are considering legal action in order claim back some of their sponsorship money.

The reasons behind the move are thought to be that Orange feel that their deal was for the cars and their branded livery to be on show for the entire season. The recent non-appearance of the team at the last three events is said to have angered the mobile communications company’s bosses, who are now considering joining the list of companies filing legal actions against Arrows. It is thought that lawyers for Orange are examining the fine print of the deal to check for such options.

Keep the faith Arrows fans!