F1 Retro: Good God, it’s an Arrows

F1 Retro June 2002

The German grand prix which took place in July 2002 was won by Michael Schumacher from pole for Ferrari. However, it would also become a footnote in history as the last race the Arrows F1 team, above, would ever compete in albeit with both cars retiring with mechanical problems.

In this month’s great read the much-missed journalist Alan Henry recounts his brush with the team in its early days in 1978 when he remarked casually on the striking similarity between the Shadow DN9 he was looking at in the team garage and an Arrows car.

His remark would see him embroiled in a court case later that year that hinged on the fact that Tony Southgate had designed the Shadow DN9 while working as a consultant for the team then replicated it when he left for Arrows to design the FA1. Henry reports:

“A sharply suited barrister said, ‘Is it true that when you first saw the Shadow DN9 in my client’s garage at Silverstone, you, and let me get this right, remarked spontaneously, “Good God, it’s an Arrows” or words to that effect?’

“I took one look at Arrows’ directors – Jackie Oliver, Alan Rees and Tony Southgate – giving me the beady eye from the dock directly opposite the witness box, and said something like, ‘Er, um, yes.’ This was one of the strangest episodes of my Formula 1 reporting career.”

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