Arrows to Unveil New Livery in Australia

The Arrows team will unveil their new sponsors and livery for their new A22 car at a launch in Australia on March 1, just three days before the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Arrows, who have announced that former Jaguar Racing driver Johnny Herbert will test drive for the team this year, will unveil their new car in Melbourne.

The car is expected to have a new front suspension from last year's car after the team worked extensively over the winter in a wind tunnel in an attempt to improve downforce.

The A22 will also have an Asiatech engine, which Arrows team chief Tom Walkinshaw said is a development of Peugeot's V10 power unit that Prost used in 2000.

Walkinshaw said the team were looking for reliability rather than immediate performance from the Asiatech power unit and by the 2002 season Asiatech will have developed a completely new engine for Arrows to use.

"The new car is very similar to last year's," said Arrows driver Jos Verstappen. "We still need to work on its set-up but most of the problems have been worked out and we are looking good for Australia."

Verstappen's new team-mate Enrique Bernoldi, who has replaced Pedro de la Rosa, is equally enthusiastic about his debut on the Formula One grid.

Bernoldi said: "I have learned a lot in testing. I now have a lot of confidence and I have worked harder than ever on my fitness for the new season. I have driven the new car and I'm confident we can do well with it."

The Arrows drivers were speaking at a media conference at the team's Leafield base, but were slightly overshadowed by the news that Herbert will be joining the team as a test-driver.

Herbert, 36, seemed destined to leave Formula One after his departure from Jaguar Racing at the end of last season. But after the failure to land a ChampCars drive in America, Herbert has set his sights on helping Arrows.

"I didn't want to go back into racing," said Herbert, who is set to be involved in 10-15 tests during the year. "My situation changed with ChampCars and Tom Walkinshaw called me a couple of weeks ago. It is a different sphere for me and it will be great to be involved in Formula One again in a different way.

"Hopefully, my experience will help the team and help their development. I have already driven with traction control so that is another factor that will help the team."

Herbert had said this week that he hoped to race in the prestigious Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans 24-Hour races this year and on Thursday he said his Arrows duties will not interfere with those plans.

He added: "Nothing has changed with my plans to race at Indy and Le Mans. I've got two options to drive in Le Mans and everything with Arrows will work around both projects."