By Huw Alban
May 7 2002

A slightly worrying report has appeared somewhere on F1-live.com indicating that the team's financial position is so dire as to be curtailing their chances to show their true form. Despite quotes from the team to the contrary, these kinds of reports are worrying the fan base. News of this first appeared on this sites message board, and the indication was that the team would have no funds to continue developing the A23 during the second half of the season. This means that the team would need to maximise it's efforts during the first months of the season, and last week was only the second time that the team have been to a 2002 season testing session.

Although this story has no official substance from the team another, similar, story has appeared concerning the A23 development programme. According to the German press, Heinz-Harald Frentzen has been quoted as saying that he is having difficulties in convincing his bosses to test at Valencia prior to the Monaco Grand Prix. The reason for the reluctance is not clear, but is it easy to relate the two stories together, concluding that the team either do not see the value of a Valencia test or have no funds to go there anyway.

What flies in the face of reports like these, is a quote from Tom Walkinshaw a couple of weeks ago under the subject of sponsorship. With recent announcements from the likes of Renault and Sauber of addition sponsors to their portfolio, F1-live.com asked the Arrows team boss how his team would survive with such a sparse sponsor list.

"There is not an issue between now and the end of the season, we'll see that out," he was quoted as saying by the F1 news site. "Half the grid has money trouble, we have support at the moment and will have to keep working at it. Everyone needs more money. We're trying to keep the team together and up to the proper size, rather than slashing the workforce."

I think the subject of finances will rumble throughout the 2002 season in relation to the OrangeArrows team. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.