Cosworth engine supply confirmed by Niki Lauda

By Huw Alban
April 27 2002

Recent reports that OrangeArrows were being delayed by Cosworth have been panned by the team itself, and today at the launch of the Jaguar R3 Niki Lauda stated categorically that Leafield were in posession of customer Cosworth engines.

After confirming that Arrows had received its engines, Lauda went on to justify the move that had brought some criticism from inside Jaguar. "We had to decide if we would disturb Cosworth's concentration by producing customer engines and we decided that the operation was big enough and that we had the manpower to do it," said the three-time World Champion. "It will give us four engines on the track instead of two, which will be good for reliability and development.

"If we find something better in terms of development parts, they will first go on the Jaguar and when we have produced enough parts they will be passed on to Arrows."

It has also been revealed that Jaguar have not commited to purchasing the ex-Defence Evaluation and Research Agency wind-tunnel in Bedford. This was thought to be part of the engine supply agreement payment deal, but Jaguar are now turning their attention to a 50% scale facility in Bicester instead. The reason given was that Jaguar already had a large stock of 50% scale items (such as wheels) and that the change everything would have been "a nightmare".

Does this mean that Arrows have secured new backing that means they can pay for the engines outright ? Is the money from an existing source or a new one ? Will it come in the form of a new driver ? Questions, questions ...