The A22 was conceived as an evolution of the A21 rather than a clean-sheet redesign, with the most significant mechanical change being a switch from pullrod to pushrod front suspension. In most other respects the two cars were nearly identical. However, the technical direction of the project was complicated by an engine change. When Renault announced its return to Formula One for 2001 and acquired Supertec, Arrows found itself facing the prospect of purchasing expensive customer engines. Tom Walkinshaw instead secured a deal with Asiatech, a private venture built around the development of the Peugeot V10 engine that the Prost team had used in 2000. The deal was attractive on cost grounds, and technical director Mike Coughlan believed the engine's characteristics could suit the Arrows chassis. Initial testing began in August 2000. In practice, however, the Asiatech unit proved less powerful than the Supertec it replaced and suffered from reliability problems. The car struggled significantly during its initial shakedown, barely completing a lap.
Faced with a power deficit, the team adopted an aggressive low-fuel strategy to maximise the A22's speed in the early laps of each race. The light fuel loads gave the car a performance advantage in qualifying and in race openings, particularly for Verstappen, whose race pace significantly outpaced that of Bernoldi despite the latter generally out-qualifying him.
At the Malaysian Grand Prix, racing in wet conditions, Verstappen ran as high as second at one point before dropping out of the points after a fuel stop in the closing stages. Other flashes of promise appeared during the season, but results were scarce. Verstappen's sole points finish came at the Austrian Grand Prix, where he scored a single championship point.
The Monaco Grand Prix brought the team unwanted attention when Bernoldi held up David Coulthard's leading McLaren for nearly 40 laps using aggressive defensive driving. Coulthard publicly criticised both Bernoldi and Arrows after the race. Separately, Verstappen attracted a fifteen-thousand-dollar fine for an incident at Interlagos in which he collided with Juan Pablo Montoya's Williams while the Colombian was leading the race.
An elevated front wing design tried during practice at Monaco was immediately banned by the FIA on safety grounds before it could be raced.
As the season progressed, a limited testing budget and constrained finances began to take their toll. Both drivers fell further towards the back of the field in the second half of the year. Orange continued as title sponsor, but Eurobet withdrew mid-season after significant losses, and Paul Stoddart transferred his European Aviation logistical support to Minardi after purchasing that team. Bernoldi's Red Bull backing partially offset these losses.
The team finished tenth in the Constructors' Championship with a single point.
Despite the difficult season, Arrows secured a supply of customer Cosworth engines for 2002 as Tom Walkinshaw looked to stabilise the team's technical programme. One A22 chassis was later used in BOSS GP, driven by Bernd Herndlhofer, extending the car's competitive life beyond its Formula One career.
The A22 illustrates a recurring theme in Arrows' history: a promising chassis undermined by factors beyond its designers' control. The decision to switch engine suppliers for the second consecutive year, driven by financial necessity rather than technical ambition, squandered much of the progress the A21 had represented. The car's low-fuel strategy highlighted the team's ingenuity under constraint, but could not compensate for a fundamental power disadvantage against better-funded rivals.
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