Despite rumours: Jos stays with Arrows next year

Published on 04 October 2001 by Thorsten Hendriks

At the moment our mailbox is flooded with e-mails from concerned fans about the rumours around the driver situation at Arrows. To ease the fans (and our) minds we had a chat with Jos's manager, Huub Rothengatter about these rumours: Jordan shows interest in Jos and Arrows is talking to Alesi and Frentzen. What is true?

"I am very surprised about the reports in the press" Huub comments, "Sometimes it is like the press know more than me. It is quite simple: we have signed a contract with Arrows for next season and we are looking forward to 2002. The technical package is very good and Jos has good faith in it. The experiences of this year we have to forget, it was very disappointing. Next season will be a lot better with a factory engine from Jaguar and technical support from Ford. With Niki Lauda managing all of this I am quite sure we will have the same material as the Jaguar Team. There are no clues that gives us any doubt about next year."

It is no public secret that everyone is talking to one another in Formula 1 even if there are contracts in place. Do you have contacts with Jordan? "We always have talks and if there is serious interest no harm is done. What is going round at the moment has nothing to do with us. Probably the grapevine started working when Tom Walkinshaw was looking for a second driver, next to Jos. I can assure you this, as long as we do not hear anything from Tom Walkinshaw that he wants to break up the existing, already signed contract for next year, we are not worried about anything." according to Huub.

After all the rumours it is good too read the reality again.