JULY 10, 2000

Webber and Arrows

THE strained relationship between Mark Webber and the Arrows team is understood to have ended with Webber's manager PaulÊStoddart of the European Arrows Formula 3000 team having cancelled the contract because agreement could not be reached between the young Australian driver and Tom Walkinshaw's team. Webber was scheduled to test for Arrows last week at Silverstone but did not appear in a car.

Webber will continue to race for the European Arrows team (which is not funded by Arrows) but is now expected to look for deals to test other F1 teams with the intention of breaking into F1 full-time next year. There are a variety of possibilities for Webber with Prost being an obvious target but most of the available drives will require him to take money to the teams.

It may be some time before Webber's future can be settled as the majority of teams at the tail of the F1 grid are currently in negotiation over pending sales and so decisions about the future are being held up.