Formula One Features — August 1996

To reach the summit of motor racing, the Formula 1 World Championship, is a bit like climbing Mount Everest.

The big story in recent weeks have been the news that Tom Walkinshaw is buying a controlling interest in the Arrows Formula 1 team and has big plans for the future. But where does that leave Arrows boss Jackie Oliver and why has he sold his team? We spoke to Jackie about the deal with Walkinshaw and found it to be a very revealing interview. Arrows has never really enjoyed a good media profile: in part because the team never achieved the results which were expected of it; but also because Jackie O has never been very comfortable talking to the press... He will not discuss shareholdings or prices or specific plans for the future. He prefers to talk about the broader issues of the deal between Arrows and TWR.

No matter how one looks at it, Yamaha's Formula 1 involvement since 1989 has been a disaster - in terms of results. The first season was so bad that the West Zakspeed team qualified only twice in the 16 races. At the end of the year West withdrew, Zakspeed went out of business and Yamaha found itself out of F1 for the duration of the 1990 season. The engine programme was completely reorganized under new project leader Takaaki Kimura and a new V12 - the OX99 - was planned for 1991. A new alliance was formed with Brabham. Testing of a Brabham-Yamaha BT58Y - using OX88 engines - began in July 1990.