JANUARY 22, 1996

Arrows to name Verstappen and Rosset

ARROWS GRAND PRIX INTERNATIONAL is expected to announce on February 7 that it has signed Jos Verstappen and Ricardo Rosset for the coming season.

The team is to receive backing from the soft drinks firm Hype, although most of the sponsorship money will have come from the drivers. The team has failed to secure backing from a motor manufacturer for the Hart V8, and so the engines will once again be known only as Harts.

The chassis continues to be called a Footwork - Footwork boss Wataru Ohashi retaining an option every year to buy back the team if he chooses to do so - and the Footwork-Hart FA17 has been designed by Alan Jenkins and his team at MiltonÊKeynes. Jenkins will be leaving the team to join the new Stewart Grand Prix team, but Arrows boss Jackie Oliver says that the designer is under contract to him for the whole of 1996.

Aerodynamic work on the new car has been done by Arrows's new windtunnel expert Simon Jennings, formerly of SouthamptonÊUniversity and Lola, who replaced Dominic Smith last summer.

1995 Arrows driver Gianni Morbidelli does not have the money to secure an F1 drive this year, while Taki Inoue is now trying to take his pot of Japanese gold to Minardi.