Arrows Will Race, Says Walkinshaw

Arrows will be on track at the French Formula One Grand Prix on Saturday after missing Friday's free practice, team boss Tom Walkinshaw said.

"The cars will go tomorrow, definitely," he told a news conference when asked if they would run.

For the second race in a row, Arrows were absent from Friday's two practice sessions despite passing scrutineering as negotiations continued over the future of the financially- troubled team.

At the last British Grand Prix, the problem involved payments to engine suppliers Cosworth but that was no longer a sticking point for the team. Walkinshaw said payments were up to date with Cosworth and there were three parties interested in either taking over Arrows or investing in the team.

One of them is known to be Austrian Red Bull sports drink owner Dieter Mateschitz, while former British American Racing (BAR) boss Craig Pollock has also been mentioned in connection with Arrows. But shareholders Morgan Grenfell, who have invested a significant amount of money in the team, have secured an injunction preventing any sale of assets without their permission.

"As we speak there are still negotiations going on in London with investors in the team," said Walkinshaw, who would not name the interested parties. "We were advised the best thing to do was to do very little today so that consequences of anything happening on the track wouldn't interfere with the negotiations. It's as simple as that really.

"There are negotiations with Morgan Grenfell and with investors who are coming in to the team. But they are not in contact with each other."

Confident

Walkinshaw, whose team have scored two points so far this season, was confident they would survive and the problems be resolved soon.

"I'm sure in the end it will be okay, it's just a rather drawn out process and it's a bit unfortunate it had to be done in the public arena," said the Scot, who used his own money at Silverstone to pay for the engines.

Failure to race in France would have serious consequences, with the team's place in the World Championship in jeopardy. One team, Prost, have already gone out of business this year.

"Negative publicity isn't good for anyone," said Walkinshaw. "But I think in the fullness of time when the proper full story of this comes out, I don't think we'll have anything to be ashamed of.

"It's a case of now focusing on the priorities. The first priority is to get new investment in the team. After we've done that, we'll deal with all the peripheral nonsense that's gone on around and about this deal."