By Dan Moakes
May 4 2002

How do Arrows seem to be doing in 2002, after the first five races? The signs have been mixed, but some reasonable potential has already been shown. Before subh says anything else, I want to try and emphasise that my intent is to try and remain even-handed, and to avoid demonstrating any type of bias. As you will appreciate, this isn’t always easy! I have my favourites, as some of you will know, but let’s try and put all that aside for the purpose of these columns.

So, how do Arrows seem to be doing in 2002, after five races? Well, the signs have been decidedly mixed. For one thing, the orange cars have had the better of the two Jaguars in qualifying, although the reverse was true in Brazil. On the face of it, this should suggest a better chassis package from the Leafield team, but you also have to consider the tyre situation, as the two teams that share the Cosworth engine are in fact supplied by rival rubber companies.

With this in mind, it is not so clear whether the Michelin-shod Jaguars are being let down by tyres, or by aerodynamics, or both! And the apparent overall advantage of Ferrari, Arrows’ Bridgestone stablemates, makes gauging relative tyre merits a little difficult. Nevertheless, Arrows have done encouragingly well in qualifying, despite limited on-track development time.

But the races have been a different matter, showing up a number of weaknesses that might have been eradicated with a greater amount of testing. Until the Spanish Grand Prix, there had not been a race free from technical problems for even one car, and an eleventh for Heinz-Harald Frentzen, in Malaysia, was the only actual finish. But, having said that, only four of seven ‘retirements’ were the result of some kind of technical breakdown. Cars were, in fact, ‘withdrawn’ in Australia (both) and Brazil (Frentzen), for varying reasons that we all know about.

Melbourne’s GP would have given the perfect opportunity to pick up points against the odds, had it not rapidly degenerated into a farcical display from the Arrows team. However, Frentzen’s run to sixth in Barcelona made up for this. Admittedly, part of this achievement was down to good fortune, but it was also a demonstration of Arrows’ improved standing in the overall picture. In fact, the position now sees them as at least a match for the Honda-powered teams, and this means that a realistic goal is currently to make it to sixth best outfit.

So far, the signs are mostly positive, but it’s not suddenly going to become easy. Nevertheless, Heinz-Harald has already proved himself as team leader, and has driven very well, on the whole. And, equally, Enrique Bernoldi has made good forward progress this season, which was well demonstrated in his great battle with Michael Schumacher at Sepang. Keep building, guys...