The Arrows Grand Prix International team was founded in Milton Keynes, England at the end of 1977, by Italian businessman Franco Ambrosio, Alan Rees, former racing driver Jackie Oliver, Dave Wass and Tony Southgate when they left the Shadow team. The team’s first car, the FA1 was essentially Shadow DN9, designed by Tony Southgate in 1977, when he worked for Shadow as a consultant. The FA1 was banned by the London High Courts partway through the 1978 season after a legal protest from the Shadow team, on the grounds was a blatant copy of the DN9. The judgement handed down ruled that over 70% of the FA1 was identical to the DN9 and that all four Arrows FA1’s should be broken up by Arrows and their parts handed over to the Shadow team.
So, FA1 managed to take part in the major part of the season, driven by Riccardo Patrese and Rolf Stommelen. The team debuted in Brazilian GP with the single car driven by Patrese and sponsored by Varig airline, finishing 10th. The race performance by Patrese throughout the season was quite good – he finished 6th in Detriot and Monaco and scored first podium for Arrows in the Swedish Grand Prix. After appearance of new Arrows A1 Riccardo added 3 more points and was 11th in the drivers’ championship.
| Season | Series | Event |
| 1978 | F1WC | Brazilian GP |
| Driver | No. | Entrant |
| Riccardo Patrese | 36 | Arrows Racing Team |
| Scale | Manufacturer | Collection |
| 1:43 | Spark | |
| Cat. No. | Quality | Rarity |
| S3900 | 
| 
|
formula143 