Arrows remain sidelined

The Arrows F1 team remained on the sidelines for the first day of the French Grand Prix weekend, much as they did at the last race in Great Britain. The team were prepared in the garage and have retained the Cosworth engines but problems with investors Morgan Grenfell prevented any on-track activity. Drivers Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Enrique Bernoldi are disappointed but can only wait.

"We are fully operational and ready to race, but until some problems are solved we will not drive," said Frentzen. "As far as I see the problem is that there is no agreement over to whom the team will be sold. We just have to wait until Morgan Grenfell makes a decision. The future is not yet safe, and we just have to wait now for news."

Bernoldi was sad to be unable to drive when Arrows should be moving forwards: "It's sad to see the team making progress, and I'm making progress, but we're stuck here not able to go on track," he said. The Brazilian confirmed there were no problems with the cars, only with the shareholders.

"There are no problems regarding engines or any technical department, there is a problem between some shareholders where they are not agreed in some matter. Unfortunately so far this weekend we don't know if we are racing this weekend or not."