By Huw Alban
May 15 2002

Orange, the Arrows team title sponsor and official communications partner, looks set to withdraw completely from team sponsorship, leaving Arrows completely in the lurch next year. The company have endured a challenging 3 years with the team, but this year the results could finally come ... This news is a bitter blow, especially when the A23 chassis, powered by the Cosworth V10 engine, looks set to finally show it’s true form. Heinz-Harald Frentzen scored the team’s first points in Spain, and had the performance to do the same in Austria. Early rumours at the beginning of this season suggested that Orange had set Arrows a points target in order that the sponsorship deal would continue. According to several reports tonight, it looks like Orange may have other plans after all.

Orange are apparently coming under intense exposure competition from Vodafone, who last year sponsored Benetton (now Renault) and this year are with the Ferrari team. Vodafone have also recently announced their intention to step up their trackside sponsorship programmes, and Orange have been looking to do the same, but in their case concentrating wholly on this kind of brand exposure.

When Orange first burst onto the F1 scene in 2000, Arrows had a reasonably competitive car in the Supertec powered A21, which gained them the accolade of ‘the most improved team’ of the year. Then came 2001 with the underpowered A22, where the only good exposure came from Enrique Bernoldi keeping the McLaren Mercedes-Benz of David Coulthard at bay for the majority of the Monaco Grand Prix. This year has started poorly, but over the last four weeks has improved sharply for the team, now that some development work has started.

It may all be too late for OrangeArrows if this story is true, and it is worrying news in a sport where the costs of competing have become a major talking point in the media.