JUNE 23, 2001

Arrows gets Cosworth V10s!

THE Arrows team will run Cosworth V10 engines next year. The deal, which is believed to be costing the team around $25m, is expected to be announced within the next few weeks. It follows a number of weeks of intense wheeling and dealing over engines with team boss Tom Walkinshaw talking to Asiatech, Renault, Ferrari and Cosworth.

The interesting thing about the deal is that Walkinshaw has managed to organize things despite the fact that Ford Motor Company boss Jac Nasser is not known as a fan of the Scotsman. The deal is believed to have been done at a lower level within the Ford hierarchy, apparently by the boss of Jaguar Cars, Wolfgang Reitzle.

Walkinshaw has enjoyed free engines this years from Asiatech but is expected to be able to cover the cost of the Ford-owned engines thanks to continued sponsorship from Orange (around $30m) and from Red Bull ($5m).

The only drawback of the deal is that Walkinshaw does not have exclusive use of customer Cosworth V10s and so there could be a third supply of the V10 engines, which will continue to be used by Jaguar Racing.

The deal will mean yet another engine change for the Arrows team. But while this is disruptive it will ultimately produce better results.

Jos Verstappen and Enrique Bernoldi will remain as the drivers.

We hear incidentally that Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz has given up the idea of buying into Arrows and may now stay on as a shareholder in Sauber, which is producing great results with the current package.