MARCH 31, 1997

John Barnard and Arrows

JOHN BARNARD and Tom Walkinshaw are discussing working together in the future - after Barnard buys the Ferrari Design and Development facility and turns it into an independent design house.

Walkinshaw told pressmen in Brazil that Barnard contacted him to see if he was interested in design work being done by Barnard. The two have since had a number of meetings - Walkinshaw's helicopter has been seen landing in Barnard's neighborhood in Surrey - but it is extremely unlikely that FDD (or whatever it becomes) will do anything more than research and development work for Arrows, although there were suggestions in Sao Paulo that the deal for 1998 involved Barnard's engineers building Walkinshaw a gearbox.

This does not mean that Barnard will not work with Alain Prost - as has been rumored a great deal in recent months - but Prost confirmed in Brazil that he does not have an agreement with Barnard, although he would like to work with his old McLaren engineer if it was at all possible. Barnard continues to insist that he be based in England, which may have wiped out any possibility that he would work forÊProst.