JULY 19, 2002

Arrows do not move

THE Arrows team may have arrived in Magny-Cours but as the first practice session began on Friday morning the cars stayed in the garage. This was not because of any problems with payments for the engines but rather because of continued negotiations between Tom Walkinshaw and Morgan Grenfell. The fact that the cars were scrutineered is, in theory at least, an indication that the team has "participated" in the event and so will not fall foul of the rules in the Concorde Agreement. However, there is also a clause in the Concorde Agreement that states that if a team does not compete in a race it will not be eligible to benefits the following year and so if Arrows goes through the weekend without running the team will lose a considerable amount of money.

The situation will not become critical for another 24 hours but if Arrows does not run in qualifying tomorrow there will be a problem.