By Huw Alban
June 18 2002

It would be fair to say that the European Grand Prix 2001 was one of those races to forget for the OrangeArrows team. Mike Coughlan warned the fans that the circuit would not suit the 2001 car, and as ever he was right. How do the team stand with the 2002 car ? The team had a slow start to the Friday practice sessions, with Jos Verstappen experiencing a power steering problem. A cooler track late on Friday appeared to suit the A22, but on Saturday the team were again struggling for pace. The disappointing form continued into the qualifying hour, and a desperate attempt to improve his position ten minutes from the end of the session, resulted in a short trip across the gravel at the second corner of the Veedol chicane for Jos Verstappen, spoiling his lap. The team started the 2001 European Grand Prix from 18th and 19th positions, with Enrique Bernoldi ahead of his team-mate.

The race performance of the team during the warm-up session showed how hard they were working to improve the performance of their cars. Enrique Bernoldi again managed a slightly quicker lap time than team-mate Jos Verstappen, the two finishing the session in 15th and 16th places - an improvement on qualifying.

At the race start Jos Verstappen made the most of another superb start and the usual race start confusion to be in 14th by the end of lap six. Enrique also improved to 16th. Apparently there was a tussle between the two Arrows drivers at the first couple of corners, with Enrique squeezing his team mate for position...

Both drivers stayed in those positions until lap 22, when Giancarlo Fisichella out braked himself at the Veedol chicane and bounced across the gravel trap. The Italian pitted immediately with Jos gaining a place.

On lap 30 Enrique Bernoldi’s A22 suddenly came to a halt. On the UK TV coverage his car could be seen parked stationary on the grass without any major signs of distress. It later emerged that he had suffered suspected gearbox failure.

11 laps from the end of the race Nick Heidfeld’s Sauber retired and Jos Verstappen found himself in a hard fought 13th, but on lap 61 it all came to an end with the Dutchman pulling off the circuit. According to his official fan site, Jos stated that the car just lost acceleration. The team suspected that there had been some kind of electronics failure.

For the 2002 race there are a few plus points. Firstly the slightly revised circuit has shown that it is still a high downforce track. Arrows appear to be confident that this characteristic will go in their favour. “The A23 has run well on high downforce circuits, so it should suit our car,” said Graham Taylor, OrangeArrows’ Chief Race Engineer in the team’s official preview press release. In addition the team seem to be very confident in their driver pairing for this circuit. Enrique Bernoldi certainly went well there in 2001. “Heinz knows the track well which should allow us to use his knowledge to it’s best advantage and Enrique gained a lot of experience in running here last year, and also in F3000, so hopefully we will be able to enjoy a good performance,” was Taylor’s comment on the subject. The team’s points scoring run came to an abrupt end with a difficult weekend in Canada, so the team certainly deserve a better outing at the Nürburgring.

The weather may also play into the team’s hands, as the conditions can change rapidly. “We will be keeping a close eye on the skies over the weekend, especially on Sunday, as the rain can come particularly quickly here so we will thus keep our strategy quite flexible,” commented Graham Taylor. The team proved in 2001 that the weather can play a big part in performance, as proved by Jos Verstappen’s sterling drive in Malaysia – let’s hope for some rain then !