Footwork Arrows

Former F1 team

Short_name = Footwork
Long_name = Footwork Arrows | Base = Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
Staff = Jackie Oliver
Alan Jenkins
Drivers = Christian Fittipaldi, Gianni Morbidelli, Taki Inoue
Debut = 1991 United States Grand Prix
Races = 97
Cons_champ = 0
Drivers_champ = 0
Wins = 0 (Best: 3rd, 1995 Australian Grand Prix)
Poles = 0
Fastest_laps = 0
Last race = 1996 Japanese Grand Prix

Footwork Arrows was the name of a Formula One motor racing team, competing during the mid-1990s. Japanese businessman Wataru Ohashi began investing heavily in the Arrows team in 1990, the deal including requiring the cars to display the Footwork logo prominently. The team was officially renamed Footwork in 1991, and secured a deal to race with Porsche engines. Results were poorer than expected, and in 1992 they switched engine supplier to Mugen. Arrows retained the Footwork name until Ohashi withdrew his financial backing before the 1996 season, whereupon the name of the team reverted back to Arrows. Regardless, Jackie Oliver had retained operational control throughout the entire period.

Team History

1991

Arrows was officially renamed Footwork for F1|1991. The season began with the A11C chassis with Porsche engines, but after neither Michele Alboreto or Alex Caffi qualified in Brazil there was a reshuffle with Alan Rees being made financial director and John Wickham named team manager. The prototype FA12 appeared but was then destroyed when its suspension failed in Tamburello Corner at Imola. Alboreto suffered a broken foot which required several stitches and Caffi damaged a second new car at Monaco. Alex was then hurt in a road accident and was replaced by Stefan Johansson for several races.

In June the team decided to replace the unsuccessful Porsche engines with Hart-prepared Cosworth DFR engines. Having failed to score points for a year the team was forced to pre-qualify from the half-way point of the season and appeared in the races only rarely in the second part of the year. Despite the problems the team opened a 40%-scale windtunnel at Milton Keynes.

1992

For F1|1992, Caffi was dropped and Aguri Suzuki joined, bringing a supply of Mugen V10s. The FA13 chassis, designed by Alan Jenkins, was a conventional, straightforward car and Alboreto scored several times, the team finishing seventh in the Constructors' Championship.

1993

For F1|1993, Alboreto was dropped to make way for Derek Warwick who joined Suzuki with Mugen engines and a new Footwork FA14 chassis. It was a disappointing year, however. At the end of the season Ohashi withdrew his sponsorship. The team lost its Mugen engines as a result, and had to return to Ford V8s for F1|1994.

1994

Jenkins designed the Footwork FA15 for young drivers Gianni Morbidelli and Christian Fittipaldi but money was short. The neat car drew a number of admiring glances, with Fittipaldi taking 4th place at the Pacific Grand Prix, before being one of the stars of the Monaco event, running third at one point until his gearbox failed. Initially the car was fragile, but just as the team began to solve the problems, the revised regulations that followed the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna robbed the cars of their neat aerodynamics. Further points were scored in the German Grand Prix, a race of attrition where the cars came 4th and 5th out of eight finishers, but at the end of the year there was a setback when Fittipaldi quit Formula One and headed to the IndyCar World Series in the United States. Wickham also departed.

1995

bought back the shares from Ohashi thanks to assistance from finance house Schwabische Finanz & Unternehmensberatung AG.

1996

In March 1996, Tom Walkinshaw acquired a controlling interest in the team by buying out Rees. Tom controlled 40% of the shares with an associate Peter Darnbrough buying 11% and Oliver retaining 49%. The team was renamed TWR Arrows for the remaining part of the 1996 season.

Complete Formula One results

() (results in bold indicate pole position)