By Huw Alban
April 29 2002

Site visitor Alex has a pop at all who are interpreting OrangeArrows' decision not to test in March as a sign that the team are in financial trouble. Alex believes that there are some perfectly clear and simple reasons for the lack of development time, and that the team's decision is sound. So OrangeArrows are choosing not to do any development on the A23 in between the flyaway races of Australia, Malaysia, and Brazil. Instantly the F1 speculators get rambling that the team are in financial trouble and cannot afford to develop the car, the Jos mob latch onto that and start guessing at how much money Arrows have to play with in comparison to Minardi !
Please guys, just take a step back, take a deep breath and start again !

How the heck does a German magazine know how much each team has in it's budget (reported in a message board post) ? The answer is that they don't, they just guess. The media have no more idea about the amount of money available to each of the teams than they do about the exact weight and power of each engine on the grid.

If Minardi have more money to play with than OrangeArrows then I'm not that worried. A successful and profitable business isn't one with the most funds available. It is one that uses it's funds efficiently, with the least wastage and obtaining the maximum gain.

If you look at last years schedule Arrows tested at Silverstone in between Australia and Malaysia, and then again at Barcelona on the run up to Brazil - for each test the team used a prototype A21 chassis, apart from Barcelona where the team had built another A22 chassis to be shaken down. This year the team have taken a design decision not to build a hybrid chassis and concentrate on the proper one instead. If I were being prudent with my funds I wouldn't pay out for the cars to be shipped back to the UK for the Silverstone test, and then back out again to Malaysia.

Everyone has gone on about how Williams and Renault were testing at Silverstone, and none of the other team were. Don't forget that both teams used their development drivers (OrangeArrows haven't signed one) and they also used a hybrid 2001 car. Based on those facts alone it is no surprise that Arrows test team haven't ventured out this month !

Also, everyone has been spouting off about how Tom Walkinshaw is tied up with this Phoenix team and that he has lost his focus on Arrows. Here's another fact for you - company Directors employ managers to look after the day-to-day running of the company. It isn't Tom that is involved with Phoenix, it's his engineering company TWR and I'm sure the management at TWR are quite capable of looking after themselves without Tom having to get heavily involved.

It's all too easy to get sucked into the web of media speculation and gossip and be influenced by the stories of doom and gloom that they love. Don't forget that bad news is good news for a media outlet.

I think (and hope) that the OrangeArrows team have made a wise decision to withhold on any on track development until the F1 circus returns to Europe. Once that happens I expect the team will go all out, attending every test session that is available, in a move to efficiently develop what has already shown to be a competitive chassis. In the long run, bot the the fans and the media will be shown that the team are well in control of both their funds and their long term future.