Page 33 - On the Prowl: The Definitive History of the Walkinshaw Jaguar Sports Car Team

ON THE PROWL
1993-2010: Beyond Jaguar
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The all-new car, which had been designed by TWR Arrows’ sixth
new designer, Sergio Rinland, was completed very late and suffered
numerous teething troubles. Both cars were disqualified in the first round
in Melbourne, Frentzen for not stopping at a red light in the pit lane and
Bernoldi for switching to the spare car after the formation lap.
Frentzen grabbed a point in round five in Spain, and another in
Monaco, but behind the scenes things were dire. Walkinshaw’s efforts
to sell the team had found two potential buyers but Morgan Grenfell was
opposed to both offers. The bank wanted any buyer to also buy out its
share too and went to court for an injunction blocking the sale.„4
With no new cash, Arrows fell behind on its bills, most notably with
Cosworth. Jaguar team principal Niki Lauda, who controlled the Cosworth
engines, provided Arrows with an ultimatum prior to first practice at
July’s British Grand Prix to either pay up, or not race. Cosworth engineers
confiscated the engine control units, and neither driver ran on the Friday.
His back against the wall, Walkinshaw paid the £3.2 million bill with his
own money. Lauda had the ECUs re-installed.
The bad news kept coming. On July 15th it was reported that Orange
would not be renewing its sponsorship of the team in 2003, due to parent
company France Telecom’s enormous £40 billion debt.
The following week the team arrived at the Magny-Cours track in
France for the French Grand Prix. Walkinshaw was barely hanging on, in
the hopes of finding a buyer for the team. Every penny mattered. He knew
that he could save a little money and some engine mileage by not actually
racing that weekend, but was also aware of the rules that state you must
participate in a competitive part of the race weekend or face a half-million
dollar fine. His solution was to send the two cars out for qualifying but
have them put in times that would be outside the 107 percent of the pole
time, thus excluding them from the race. It was a debacle.
On July 25th the team arrived at the Hockenheim track in Germany,
this time with a plan to actually race. Both cars retired. It would be the
last race for Arrows.
The following week Frentzen, who had been on a race-by-race
contract, quit the team. When the rest of the F1 circus arrived in Hungary
for the August 18th race, Arrows was not with them. Things very quickly
unraveled. In early December all 150 Arrows staff were let go, shortly
before the news broke that an attempt to sell the team to a consortium
of Arab investors had fallen apart. When the FIA announced that Arrows
would not be allowed to participate in the 2003 season, having failed
to show up for five races in 2002, the investors had backed out. TWR’s
franchise to race was a key asset in the deal and without that, the
investors lost interest.
Shortly into the new year, the court issued a winding up order as a
result of legal claims made by Frentzen for unpaid wages. Following the
order, Arrows went into liquidation. Its assets were auctioned, and the
Australian owner of the Minardi F1 team, Paul Stoddard, purchased the
five A23 chassis.
The house of cards now began to tumble. In the third week of
February, TWR went into receivership, similar to the US Chapter 11
bankruptcy, carrying more than £30 million of debt, and costing 500 jobs.
The following month, Walkinshaw was in court with a number of Arrows’
creditors, including Morgan Grenfell. They claimed that Walkinshaw had
VJaguar did finally arrive in Formula 1, but it was not on the back of its
TWR-based sports car effort. With Walkinshaw now fully-involved in
Arrows, Jaguar instead opted to purchase Jackie Stewart’s F1 team, which
had served up until that point as a de facto Ford works entry. Ford wanted
to use F1 to augment Jaguar’s brand reputation as something associated
with luxury, speed, racing success and glamour. (Matthew Fearn/Alamy)
◊ Fans at the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours in July 2002 clearly
show how they feel about Tom Walkinshaw, during a weekend in which the
Arrows cars did one qualifying lap and parked to save money and engine
mileage while satisfying their contractual obligations to the sport. (James
Moy/Sutton Images)
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