Arrows FA1

**Arrows FA1**
Constructor:	Arrows
Designer:	Tony Southgate Dave Wass;
Successor:	Arrows A1
Technical specifications
Chassis:	Monocoque
Engine:	Ford Cosworth DFV
Wheelbase:	2565 mm
Weight:	589 kg
Tires:	Goodyear
statistics
Driver:	Riccardo Patrese Rolf Stommelen;
First start:	1978 Brazilian Grand Prix
Last start:	1978 German Grand Prix
World Cup points:	8th
Podiums:	1
Leadership laps:	37
	Status: end of season 1978

The Arrows FA1 was the first Formula 1 racing car of the British automobile sports team Arrows . It appeared in the 1978 season and was a plagiarism of the Shadow DN9 . It achieved better results than the original vehicle. After a few races, a British court banned the team from using the FA1, after which it was replaced by the newly designed Arrows A1 .

background

Prototype of the Arrow FA1: The Shadow DN9

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 Shadow team's emergency vehicle for the 1978 season, which was designated DN9. Before Shadow had built the first copies of the DN9, Southgate, Wass, Rees and Oliver left the team and, with the financial support of the Neapolitan businessman Franco Ambrosio, founded their 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. His designs were based heavily on the Shadow DN9.

Arrows pursued the goal of becoming a member of the FOCA constructors' association as early as 1978 . According to their regulations, the team was only allowed to skip one race outside of Europe. Arrows succeeded in designing and assembling their first own car within 53 days. The first Arrows FA1 was ready for the second race of the year, the Brazilian Grand Prix , which took place on January 29, 1978, and the second car appeared in the following race. At that time, Shadow was still using last year's DN8 model . At the US Grand Prix (West) in Long Beach , Shadow started Southgates DN9, but did not start the race. A month later in Monaco , the Shadow DN9 drove against the Arrows FA1 for the first time.

After journalist Alan Henry had publicly stated at the International Trophy that the Shadow DN9 was actually an Arrows (“Good God, it's an Arrows!”), Shadow raised allegations of plagiarism against the Arrows team. Arrows initially offered out of court compensation of £ 75,000, which Don Nichols , the owner of the Shadow team, did not accept. Shadow then sued Arrows in the Spring of 1978 in the London High Court . The court found on July 31, 1978 that the Arrows FA1 was 40 percent identical to the Shadow DN9. It saw it as a willful copyright infringement. It was impossible for Arrows to construct a completely own car in the short time available. The court then banned further use of the FA1 and sentenced Arrows to a fine of £ 15,000, according to one source, but only £ 1,000, according to Southgate's retrospective testimony. The litigation costs Arrows had to bear, however, totaled £ 250,000. In the week after the court decision, the Arrows A1 debuted, which Southgate had designed in the meantime, anticipating the expected exclusion of the FA1, and which had been operational since mid-July 1978.

As a further consequence of the ruling, Arrows had to dismantle the four FA1s that had been built in the meantime. The items were given to the Shadows owner Don Nichols. One of the Arrows monocoque was the basis for a DN9 that was rebuilt at the beginning of 1979. Years later, a collector built a new FA1 from numerous individual parts.

Arrows scored eight world championship points in ten races with the FA1. With the successor A1, three more points were achieved by the end of the season, so that the team scored a total of eleven points at the end of the year. Shadow scored four points in twelve races with the DN9 this season.

construction

The Arrows FA1 had an open monocoque made of aluminum sheets. A special feature was a very long, low nose with a cooling air inlet in the tip. Following the trend of the times, the sub-floor was profiled and created a floor effect . However, its efficiency was limited. The rear suspension was attached in such a way that it prevented suction from developing. The front and rear track width was the same as that of the Shadow DN9, the wheelbase was 20 mm shorter. A 3.0 liter eight-cylinder engine from Cosworth (type DFV) served as the drive . The transmission came from Hewland .

The individual chassis

Arrows built a total of four chassis in the first few months of the year. Each of them was used in races several times:

Grand Prix	FA1 / 1	FA1 / 2	FA1 / 3	FA1 / 4
Brazil 1968 1978 Brazilian Grand Prix	Riccardo Patrese
South Africa 1961 1978 South African Grand Prix	Riccardo Patrese	Rolf Stommelen
United States US Grand Prix West 1978	Rolf Stommelen	Riccardo Patrese
Monaco 1978 Monaco Grand Prix	Rolf Stommelen	Riccardo Patrese
Belgium Belgian Grand Prix 1978		Rolf Stommelen	Riccardo Patrese
Spain 1977 1978 Spanish Grand Prix			Rolf Stommelen	Riccardo Patrese
Sweden 1978 Swedish Grand Prix			Rolf Stommelen	Riccardo Patrese
France 1978 French Grand Prix			Rolf Stommelen	Riccardo Patrese
United Kingdom Great Britain Grand Prix 1978			Rolf Stommelen	Riccardo Patrese
Germany 1978 German Grand Prix			Rolf Stommelen	Riccardo Patrese

Painting

When it debuted, the Arrows FA1 was painted white. With the exception of the Brazilian airline VARIG , there were no major sponsors. From the race in South Africa, the car appeared in gold paint and had black accents. The main sponsor was now the German Warsteiner brewery .

The driver

Unlike many other newly formed teams, which only started with one driver in their first year, Arrows competed with two drivers almost from the start. The first regular driver was Riccardo Patrese , who , like Oliver, Rees, Southgate and Wass, had been under contract with Shadow in 1977 . Patrese established the connection between Jackie Oliver and the financier Franco Ambrosio in the fall of 1977, which made the creation of the Arrows team possible in the first place. The Swedish racing driver Gunnar Nilsson was originally supposed to drive next to him for Arrows, whom Southgate knew from their time together at Lotus (1976 and 1977). A corresponding preliminary contract was signed in December 1977. Shortly afterwards, however, Nilsson retired from racing because of cancer. In his place, Rolf Stommelen was hired, who secured the team financial support from sponsor Warsteiner . Patrese made his debut in the second race of the year in Brazil, Stommelen was added at the following World Championship run in South Africa . Both drivers stayed with Arrows until the end of the season.

Races

On his debut under Riccardo Patrese in Jacarepaguá , the Arrows FA1 finished 18th on the grid. Patreses fastest lap time in qualifying was 2.7 seconds over the time of pole sitter Ronnie Peterson (Lotus) and 1.1 seconds over the time of Hans-Joachim Stuck in the best Shadow DN8. In the race, Patrese crossed the finish line four laps behind the winner Carlos Reutemann ( Ferrari ) in tenth and penultimate place. Clay Regazzoni was classified fifth in the second Shadow. At the next race in South Africa, Patrese qualified for seventh place on the grid. In the race, after a series of overtaking maneuvers on the 27th lap, he took the lead, which he held up to the 64th lap. Then it failed due to an engine failure. Patreses new team-mate Stommelen started the race from 21st place and crossed the finish line in ninth place. In the team's third race in Long Beach, Patrese finished sixth, scoring the first world championship point for Arrows. Arrows won the first direct encounter between the Arrows FA1 and the identical Shadow DN9 in Monte Carlo. Patrese started from 14th place, Stommelen from 19th place. Clay Regazzoni missed the qualification with his new Shadow DN9, while Stuck started the race in 17th. Like Stommelen, Stuck fell out early, while Patrese scored again in sixth. Patrese dropped out in Belgium and Spain, while Stommelen crossed the finish line outside of the points. The Arrows FA1 achieved its best result at the following Swedish Grand Prix : Starting from fifth, Patrese finally crossed the finish line in second place with the car. Regazzoni finished fifth in the Shadow DN9. The last three races of the FA1 were the Grand Prix of France , Great Britain and Germany . Here the FA1 could no longer score. Patrese and Stommelen each crossed the finish line twice, but Stommelen's arrival in Germany was not counted. He was disqualified after the end of the race because he had illegally left the track briefly in the early phase.

Results

driver	No.	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	Points	rank
Automobile World Championship 1978												8 (11)	10
Italy R. Patrese	35		DNF	6th	6th	DNF	DNF	2	8th	DNF	9
Italy R. Patrese	36	10
Germany R. Stommelen	36		9	9	DNF	DNF	14th	14th	15th	DNQ	DSQ

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 (French)
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

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Alan Henry: Me and My Arrows. Motorsport Magazine , February 2003, p. 62.
↑ ^a ^b David Hodges: A – Z of Grand Prix Cars 1906–2001 , 2001 (Crowood Press), ISBN 1-86126-339-2 , p. 19.
↑ ^a ^b N.N .: Lunch with… Tony Southgate . Motorsport Magazine, June 2012 issue, p. 81 ff.
^ History of the Shadow DN9 on the website www.oldracingcars.com (accessed on June 4, 2018) .
↑ ^a ^b History of the Arrow FA1 on the website www.oldracingcars.com (accessed on May 31, 2018).
^ David Hodges: Racing cars from A – Z after 1945 , Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 , p. 20.
↑ Adriano Cimarosti: The century of racing, motor book publisher Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 , S. 289th
↑ Arrows scored eight world championship points with the FA1. With the successor A1, three more points were achieved by the end of the season, so that the team scored a total of eleven points at the end of the year.

[Henry-1] Alan Henry: Me and My Arrows. Motorsport Magazine , February 2003, p. 62.

[Hodges_UK-2] David Hodges: A – Z of Grand Prix Cars 1906–2001 , 2001 (Crowood Press), ISBN 1-86126-339-2 , p. 19.

[Lunch_Tony-3] N.N .: Lunch with… Tony Southgate . Motorsport Magazine, June 2012 issue, p. 81 ff.

[4] History of the Shadow DN9 on the website www.oldracingcars.com (accessed on June 4, 2018) .

[Oldracingcars-5] History of the Arrow FA1 on the website www.oldracingcars.com (accessed on May 31, 2018).

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

[7] Adriano Cimarosti: The century of racing, motor book publisher Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 , S. 289th

[8] Arrows scored eight world championship points with the FA1. With the successor A1, three more points were achieved by the end of the season, so that the team scored a total of eleven points at the end of the year.