A team that began its time in Formula 1 under controversial circumstances, Arrows’ 24-year spell in the championship came to an end in 2002 amid mounting financial problems.
Still the team with the most world championship race starts (counting the Footwork years) under its belt – at 382 – without ever taking a victory, Arrows came close to troubling the top step of the podium throughout its curious history – but fell short each time.
The British squad, started up by former Lotus F1 driver Jackie Oliver, Alan Rees and Franco Ambrosio, went through multiple ownership changes in its latter years. It spent six seasons as Footwork in the 1990s, before Tom Walkinshaw took over for 1997 and restored the Arrows name.
Although the team made an encouraging start under his tenure, with the Scot’s investment helping to bring 1996 champion Damon Hill and famed designer John Barnard into the team, it arguably over-reached its capabilities with an in-house engine project.
The future briefly looked bright having claimed a title sponsorship deal with telecoms giant Orange ahead of the new millennium, but Arrows – and Tom Walkinshaw Racing – began to hit money troubles and thus closed its doors in the middle of the 2002 season.
Two decades on, it’s high time to rank the team’s drivers. Unlike many of our previous lists, there’s no win count to help – and thus it proved a difficult task to come up with a definitive top 10…
10. Christian Fittipaldi
Fittipaldi made a good impression during his single season with the team in 1994, peaking with fourth in Aida
Photo by: Motorsport Images
Arrows/Footwork year: 1994
Arrows/Footwork starts: 16
Points with team: 6
Nephew of two-time champion Emerson, Christian Fittipaldi was underrated during his time in F1 and came to Footwork’s attention after his heroics with Minardi.
Fittipaldi set an immediate impression on joining Footwork in 1994, making the most of a decent FA15 penned by Alan Jenkins on a relatively tight budget. Although outqualified by Gianni Morbidelli in the Interlagos season-opener, Fittipaldi 11th to Morbidelli’s sixth, the Brazilian reversed the damage by claiming ninth on the grid next time out and then charged to an excellent fourth in the Pacific Grand Prix at Aida.
The Footworks lined up sixth and seventh at Monaco, Fittipaldi once again ahead of Morbidelli, but the former’s gearbox packed up while running in fifth place – with a very real chance of a podium finish…
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