Arrows Pay Creditor, F1 Future Still Uncertain

Arrows have paid a creditor seeking to wind up the struggling team but their future in Formula One and involvement in this weekend's Italian Grand Prix remained uncertain on Monday.

Lawyers for Champion Recruitment Limited said that their clients had been paid, with costs, by Arrows Grand Prix International. The High Court in the northern city of Leeds is due to hear a winding-up petition brought against Arrows by Champion Recruitment on Tuesday.

"The petitionary creditor has been paid but a lot of others are stacked up behind, wanting to step into their shoes. The court will decide whether to allow that," John Alderton, a partner at law firm Hammond Suddards, told Reuters.

Dutch driver Jos Verstappen, abruptly dismissed by the team before the start of the season after agreeing a new contract for 2002, is one of them according to his manager Huub Rothengatter.

Alderton said the likely outcome on Tuesday was for the court to order an adjournment to a later date, possibly giving Arrows a month's breathing space, so that others could register their claims.

Arrows have missed the last two Grands Prix, and failed to compete in three of the last four, as they wrestle with mounting financial problems and try to finalise a sale to an unnamed American investor.

Their problems have reduced the starting grid to just 10 teams and 20 cars since the German Grand Prix in July in a season that has already seen one team collapse. The French Prost team failed to make the season's start in Australia after being declared bankrupt in February.

Written Explanation

The governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) asked Arrows for a written explanation after the team pulled out of the Belgian Grand Prix two weeks ago without competing.

The FIA, who warned Arrows after they made no more than a token effort to qualify in France in July, said last week they had received a communication which they were studying before deciding what action to take next.

Under Formula One rules, laid out in the secretive Concorde Agreement between teams and the sport's rulers, teams lose their rights to compete if declared insolvent. However Arrows have denied they are in that position and have argued force majeure, or unavoidable circumstances, to explain their inability to race.

The team said in a statement at Spa that they had been advised to do nothing that might jeopardise the successful completion of a sale. An Arrows spokeswoman was unable to comment on the negotiations to sell the team or whether or not the team planned to compete at Monza next weekend.

Arrows have a presence at Monza already, having sent a truck and bus, which serves as a motorhome, straight to the Italian circuit from Spa after pulling out on the Friday before the Belgian Grand Prix.

However the race cars were still at the English factory on Monday. The team also have only one known driver at present after Germany's Heinz-Harald Frentzen left in August.