Arrows A1B

**Arrows A1B**
	Arrows A1B at the Gran Premio Dino Ferrari 1979
Constructor:	Arrows
Designer:	Tony Southgate Dave Wass;
Successor:	Arrows A2
Technical specifications
Chassis:	Monocoque
Engine:	Ford Cosworth DFV
Wheelbase:	2565 mm
Weight:	589 kg
Tires:	Goodyear
statistics
Driver:	Riccardo Patrese Jochen Mass;
First start:	1979 Argentina Grand Prix
Last start:	1979 Canadian Grand Prix
World Cup points:	3
Podiums:	-
Leadership laps:	-
	Status: end of season 1979

The Arrows A1B was a Formula 1 racing car from the British Arrows motor racing team , which was used in the 1979 World Cup . It was a further development of the Arrows A1 used in the previous year and was a transitional model that the racing team brought up to the start of the newly designed Arrows A2 in summer 1979.

background

The Arrows team was founded in November 1977 by Franco Ambrosio , Alan Rees , Jackie Oliver , Dave Wass and Tony Southgate . The former racing drivers Rees and Oliver and the engineers Wass and Southgate had worked for the Shadow Racing Cars racing team until 1977 . In the final months of 1977 Southgate constructed the DN9 , the Shadow team's emergency vehicle for the 1978 season. Before Shadow had built the first copies of the DN9, Southgate, Wass, Rees and Oliver left the team and founded the team with financial support from the Neapolitan Businessman Franco Ambrosio set up his own racing team in the central English community of Bletchley , which operated as the Arrows Racing Team. Tony Southgate designed the first racing car of the Arrows team, which was named FA1 as a tribute to Ambrosio . The car was so identical to Southgate's Shadow DN9 that a London court ruled the FA1 in July 1978 as a plagiarism of the DN9 and banned the Arrows team from using the car. Arrows then replaced the FA1 with the A1, which did not contain any parts that were interchangeable with the predecessor or the Shadow DN9. The A1 appeared in August 1978. Over the course of the year, Arrows built three chassis that were driven by Riccardo Patrese and Rolf Stommelen . While Patrese regularly took part in the races and brought in three world championship points through fourth place at the Canadian Grand Prix , Stommelen failed four times in the pre-qualification.

The Arrows A1 was technically not up to date. From 1978, the dominance of cars with ground effect became apparent. The A1 had a profiled underbody; but it only produced a slight suction effect because only part of the area under the side pods could be used for aerodynamic purposes. For this reason, Southgate designed the Arrows A2 for the 1979 automobile world championship , which was designed as a “radical wing car”. However, the A2 was not yet completed at the start of the season. Arrows bridged the time up to his debut at the eighth race of the year in France with an evolutionary model of the A1, which is referred to in most sources as the Arrows A1B.

technology

The Arrows A1B was a revised version of the A1 from 1978. The differences to the original model were minor. The strength of the chassis was increased and the wheel suspension changed; In addition, the aerodynamics experienced slight changes. However, with these modifications, Southgate did not succeed in noticeably improving the limited suction effect, which was one of the A1's greatest weaknesses. The car continued to be powered by a 3.0 liter eight-cylinder naturally aspirated Cosworth (DFV) engine. The tires came from Goodyear . Due to the good results of the 1978 season, Arrows received preferential tires in his second year like the British top teams and was no longer dependent on the second-class products known as "wooden tires", with which Goodyear usually supplied smaller teams.

production

In winter, Arrows converted the youngest of the three previous year's A1 (A1 / 03) to the B specification; in this form the car appeared at the first two races of the 1979 season. In addition, three new A1B cars were built in the first months of 1979, with the chassis designations A1 / 04, A1 / 05 and A1 / 06. Arrows did not use any components from last year's cars in them.

Driver and chassis

In the 1979 Automobile World Championship, Riccardo Patrese and Jochen Mass , who replaced Rolf Stommelen at the beginning of the year , drove the A1B. The drivers used the individual chassis as follows:

Grand Prix	A1 / 03	A1 / 04	A1 / 05	A1 / 06
Argentina Argentina	Jochen Mass	Riccardo Patrese
Brazil 1968 Brazil	Jochen Mass	Riccardo Patrese
South Africa 1961 South Africa			Jochen Mass	Riccardo Patrese
United States USA West			Jochen Mass	Riccardo Patrese
Spain 1977 Spain			Jochen Mass	Riccardo Patrese
Belgium Belgium			Jochen Mass	Riccardo Patrese
Monaco Monaco			Jochen Mass	Riccardo Patrese
Canada Canada			Riccardo Patrese

Painting

Like its predecessors, the Arrows A1B was painted gold and had black accents. As in 1978, the main sponsor was the German Warsteiner brewery .

Racing history in the works team

The Arrows A1B made its debut in the first race of the season in Argentina . Patrese damaged his newly built car so badly during qualifying that it could no longer be repaired for the race. In the absence of a replacement car, Patrese did not start. Mass, who started 14th with the revised 1978 model (chassis A1 / 03), crossed the finish line in eighth place, two laps behind the winner. In Brazil , Mass narrowly missed the points with seventh place. For the third race of the season in South Africa , both Arrows drivers received new chassis. They qualified for 16th (Patrese) and 20th starting place and finished in 11th and 12th place. At the subsequent Grand Prix of the USA West in Long Beach , Patrese and Mass achieved starting positions in the front midfield. Mass crossed the finish line in ninth and last position, Patrese retired due to an engine failure. Patrese achieved the first world championship points for the A1B at the Belgian Grand Prix , which he finished in fifth after numerous drivers who had driven in front of him had failed. At the following race in Monaco , Mass also scored: In the race, which was characterized by many failures, he finished sixth and penultimate. He had previously been lapped seven times. Patrese had to retire after four laps due to a suspension damage.

After the Monaco Grand Prix, Arrows introduced the all-new A2, which proved problematic. In autumn 1979, however, the A1B was used twice. At the penultimate world championship run of the year in Canada , the A1B was reported for Patrese, while Mass used an A2 as usual. Mass missed qualifying in the new car on the Circuit Île-Notre-Dame , while Patreses practice time was enough for 14th place on the grid. In the race, he gave up on lap 21 due to suspension problems. Previously, Arrows had already registered an A1B for Patrese at the Gran Premio Dino Ferrari , a race in Imola that is not part of the world championship . Patrese finished fourth here.

Re-use in other series

Arrows sold two of the three A1B models (chassis A1 / 04 and A1 / 06) after their use in the Formula 1 World Championship to independent teams that used the cars in the Aurora AFX Formula 1 series .

Chassis A1 / 04

The British team Charles Clowes Racing took over the Arrows A1B / 04, which Patrese had only driven once in the 1979 World Championship, at the beginning of June 1979. At the same time, the team also used an A1 that was at the technical level of 1978 (chassis A1 / 02). With him, Charles Clowes' top driver Rupert Keegan won the British Formula 1 Championship in 1979. Charles Clowes reported the newer A1B / 04 eight times in the Aurora AFX Formula 1 series in 1979 for Ricardo Zunino , who won once with the car and was second three times. At the end of the year, Zunino finished sixth in the British Championship with 39 points.

At the beginning of the 1980 season , Charles Clowes Racing reported the A1B / 04 initially for Irish racing driver Vivian Candy , who only contested two races with the car. Candy dropped out once and came in seventh again. After Renzo Zorzi started his car at the Lotteria Monza in 1980 , Charles Clowes gave the arrows for the three following races to the Argentine Leon Walger , who was tenth twice and fifth once.

Chassis A1 / 06

The chassis A1 / 06 was sold to the British team Melchester Racing in September 1979 . Melchester reported the car to the last two races of the Aurora AFX Formula 1 series in 1979 for Neil Bettridge , who retired once and was once twelfth. This car then went to Charles Clowes Racing, where it was entered for three more races with Leon Walger, who had previously driven the A1 / 04. Walger did not score any championship points with the A1 / 06. Subsequently, the A1 / 06 appeared in numerous Formula Libre races in Great Britain until 1988 .

Results in the automobile world championship 1979

driver	No.	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	13	Points	rank
Automobile World Championship 1979										3 (5)	9
Italy R. Patrese	29	DNS	9	11	DNF	10	5	DNF	DNF
Germany J. Mass	30th	8th	7th	12	9	8th	DNF	6th

literature

Adriano Cimarosti: The Century of Racing . 1st edition. Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 .
David Hodges: A – Z of Grand Prix Cars 1906–2001 , 2001 (Crowood Press), ISBN 1-86126-339-2 (English)
David Hodges: Racing Cars from A – Z after 1945 , Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7
Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1 , 2nd edition, St. Sulpice, 2000, ISBN 2-940125-45-7
Doug Nye: The Big Book of Formula 1 Racing Cars. The three-liter formula from 1966 . Publishing house Rudolf Müller, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-481-29851-X .

Web links

Commons : Arrows A1B - Collection of images, videos and audio files

History of the Arrows A1B on the website www.oldracingcars.com

Individual evidence

↑ Adriano Cimarosti: The century of racing , motor book publisher Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 , S. 293rd
↑ Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1 , 2nd edition, St. Sulpice, 2000, ISBN 2-940125-45-7 , p. 121.
↑ Doug Nye: The Big Book of Formula 1 Racing Cars. The three-liter formula from 1966 . Verlagsgesellschaft Rudolf Müller, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-481-29851-X , p. 166.
↑ Some sources, however, do not differentiate between the initial and B-model, cf. z. B. History of the Arrows A1 on the website www.oldracingcars.com (accessed on June 6, 2018).
^ David Hodges: Racing cars from A – Z after 1945 , Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 , p. 20.
↑ There is agreement in the motorsport literature that Goodyear supplied tires of varying quality in the late 1970s: high-quality tires were only available to the top teams at the time; other manufacturers and the small private teams were supplied with much slower tires, which were internally referred to as "wooden tires". Compare Doug Nye: The Big Book of Formula 1 Racing Cars. The three-liter formula from 1966 . Verlagsgesellschaft Rudolf Müller, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-481-29851-X , p. 216.
↑ ^a ^b History of the Arrows A1 on the website www.oldracingcars.com (accessed on June 6, 2018).
^ Statistics of the Aurora AFX Formula 1 series 1979 on the website www.motorsportmagazine.com (accessed on June 9, 2018).
^ Statistics of the Aurora AFX Formula 1 Series 1980 on the website www.motorsportmagazine.com (accessed on June 9, 2018).
↑ Arrows scored three world championship points with the A1B. With the successor A2 two more points were achieved by the end of the season, so that the team recorded a total of five points at the end of the year.

[1] Adriano Cimarosti: The century of racing , motor book publisher Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 , S. 293rd

[Ménard-2] Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1 , 2nd edition, St. Sulpice, 2000, ISBN 2-940125-45-7 , p. 121.

[3] Doug Nye: The Big Book of Formula 1 Racing Cars. The three-liter formula from 1966 . Verlagsgesellschaft Rudolf Müller, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-481-29851-X , p. 166.

[4] Some sources, however, do not differentiate between the initial and B-model, cf. z. B. History of the Arrows A1 on the website www.oldracingcars.com (accessed on June 6, 2018).

[Hodges_20-5] David Hodges: Racing cars from A – Z after 1945 , Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 , p. 20.

[6] There is agreement in the motorsport literature that Goodyear supplied tires of varying quality in the late 1970s: high-quality tires were only available to the top teams at the time; other manufacturers and the small private teams were supplied with much slower tires, which were internally referred to as "wooden tires". Compare Doug Nye: The Big Book of Formula 1 Racing Cars. The three-liter formula from 1966 . Verlagsgesellschaft Rudolf Müller, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-481-29851-X , p. 216.

[Oldracingcars-7] History of the Arrows A1 on the website www.oldracingcars.com (accessed on June 6, 2018).

[8] Statistics of the Aurora AFX Formula 1 series 1979 on the website www.motorsportmagazine.com (accessed on June 9, 2018).

[9] Statistics of the Aurora AFX Formula 1 Series 1980 on the website www.motorsportmagazine.com (accessed on June 9, 2018).

[10] Arrows scored three world championship points with the A1B. With the successor A2 two more points were achieved by the end of the season, so that the team recorded a total of five points at the end of the year.