Founded in 1977 by Franco Ambrosio, Alan Rees, Jackie Oliver, Dave Wass and Tony Southgate the team took its name from the initials of these men. The first AR from Ambrosio. The ARROWS team was established in controversial circumstances as key members of the Shadows team broke away to form it. ARROWS took 60 days to prepare their first car and it was doing well until the Shadow team took them to court claiming that it was a copy of their car. The court ruled in favour of the Shadow team and ARROWS had to withdraw their car. They built their second car in even less time and continued to race.
In the late 1980's ARROWS recieved heavy sponsership from the Japanese Footwork corporation and the team was renamed Footwork. This sponsership deal has now ended and the cars should be reverting back to their ARROWS name next season.
