JUNE 21, 2003

No confusion as Stoddart purchases Arrows cars

Despite stories to the contrary the purchase of five Arrows chassis by Minardi sponsors is not confusing at all, if one talks to the people involved. Paul Stoddart has made it clear that he bought the chassis as part of a much bigger lot of equipment which, in F1 terms, cost virtually nothing. His interest in the chassis was sparked because they use the same engines as Minardi currently has and there are elements in the Arrows cars which may be useful for Minardi as Arrows had considerably more money available when the cars were designed than Minardi did when designing the current car. It is Stoddart's intention to test the cars back-to-back in the week after the British GP and see if there is a difference in lap times between them. If the gap is enormous it is possible that Stoddart will decide that he has no choice but to run the Arrows cars. If the gap is smaller the team will analyze where the performance has been gained and will then try to build more speed into the existing cars.