COUNTDOWN TO EXTINCTION! The Story of the 'T-Minus' Saga (1999)

[@AidanMillward]

Need F1 swag for you or someone in your life for Christmas? Great news! Use my affiliate in the description and the code F1BFRIDAY at checkout for 35% off Site wide! *Exclusions Apply Also arrows got four podiums before Boutsen. Kekw.

[@CrunchyMotorsport]

You forgot to pin

[@AidanMillward]

@@CrunchyMotorsport no I didn’t. KZbin does this thing if you edit a pinned comment it can unpin it.

[@CrunchyMotorsport]

​@@AidanMillwardI didn't know that, thanks

[@Vincent-mu2rb]

who was the up and coming nascar driver

[@AidanMillward]

@@Vincent-mu2rb er… might be Jeff Gordon, I dunno.

[@lamikal2515]

Imagine a F1 team falling fir the "Nigerian Prince you never knew you were related to and who wants to give you money for free" scam.

[@VonBlade]

With T-Minus, Rich Energy, Andrea Moda, you could almost do your own SlapShoes "crooks liars and thieves" list vid. Because I know how much you love a list :D

[@Lego_Huracan_SuperTrofeo]

Should ask S1apsh0es to do a Formula 1 vid on that, he might do a video on that 😮

[@AidanMillward]

I did a “five bad sponsors” video a couple of years ago

[@AdamTheMan1993]

Don't forget Shannon with Forti

[@jyhan1q94]

CAUSE I'M A LIAR YES I'M A LIAR

[@shawa666]

@@AdamTheMan1993 And whatever the hell was Onyx/Monteverdi Moneytron

[@VVT4ME]

The Orange livery on the last Arrows. My favorite livery ever. They looked damn good. Especially the orange wheels.

[@prettyprrrrettaygood]

a sponsor called 'minus' ..what could go wrong

[@tylermathis-kx7pu]

Clearly caused a cash underflow. lol.

[@DerGeraet205]

Completely unrelated, in MotoGP and Moto2 about 10 years ago, Mika Kallio always ran with the number -36 on his bike (tho registered as just 36 officially). No sketchy sponsors are the reason, he just does it because he is Finnish and loves riding on ice

[@DBIVUK]

When this was going on, my line manager was the brother of Arrows' head of legal - who was being kept very busy. Don't remember any gossip but at work we did have one of the prototype Carbon fibre coasters (to put under hot drink mugs). Arrows had apparently agreed to spend a few thousand on them as corporate gifts. They made a prototype batch of 10 but found that due to cost of Carbon fibre, they'd spent the entire budget.

[@KingofWolvesii]

🤦‍♂

[@Pewnhound112]

This might be the most “F1 Privateer team” story I’ve ever heard 😂

[@wabba67]

I remember reading an article in F1 Racing about Malik and his great plans for the team -- and after the 1999 season going back to re-read it and go "wait a minute, where did this guy disappear?"

[@upthebracket26]

The Prince was a candidate in the 2023 Nigerian Presidential Election. He got at least 50 votes

[@williamford9564]

So in 1999, Arrows learned what many people today now know. When a Nigerian calls you, hang up the phone.

[@craigcharlesworth1538]

A struggling back-of-the-grid team with black cars being hoodwinked by an "energy drinks" company run by a very dubious individual is such a weird story. I wonder if it ever happened again?

[@lck0ut348]

If I had a nickel for every time that happened, I'd have 2 nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice

[@thatguyfromcetialphaV]

In other words Tom Walkinshaw got scammed lol. Prince Malik did an interview with F1 Racing magazine at the start of 1999 which was entertaining to read. He was bigging himself up as the first black team manager in F1.

[@SpaceHCowboy]

My Dad worked for Dupont (Jeff Gordon) in the early 90s then Agfa (Prost) til he retired. The amount of amazing costly free merchandise i got from the 90s rainbow warriors (Dupont) and Prost (Agfa) was staggering. Sponsors equal money, mostly. Cool vid, Aiden 👍🏼

[@sparky4878]

Money from an energy drink, iffy sponsorship deal? Some things never change.

[@BungleBare]

Yep. There’s definitely a video. No, a SERIES of videos, in the Rich Energy debacle. The whole story has been unpicked in a brilliant thread on the Autosport Forum. It’s well worth a read.

[@OsellaSquadraCorse]

Small note, it wasn't Giancarlo Minardi that Stoddart was buying Minardi from; it was Gabriele Rumi (Mr Fondmetal), who had taken control of the team from Giancarlo in 1996 and PSN. Rumi held a part- but controlling share with the majority shareholder (at 70%!) held by PSN, a TV company & Mazzacane's sponsor. Giancarlo Minardi himself had stayed in control of the team, but had sold shares to Rumi, Briatore and Ecclestone at the end of '95 as the team were in a spot of of financial trouble. Minardi himself also sold Alonso's management contract to Flavio in 2001, to keep the team going into 2002 (having taken Alonso on from former driver Adrian Campos) Rumi propped up the team very solidly during his tenure, but became gravely ill and so was happy to find a buyer who would keep funding the team, not just buy it for cash.

[@y_fam_goeglyd]

A lot of those details weren't available back then. Very few ordinary people were on the internet - I was in 2000, _just._ It was more for academic work than looking up reasons as to why a team you liked went under, especially as so many were doing just that. I remember you talking about the Nigerian prince before, but the extra details really filled the story in. Thanks!

[@blacksterangel]

t-minus was a cautionary tale that for some reason is completely missed by the entire Haas team with their Rich Energy debacle.

[@madmaxWoT]

More a downfall of arrows video. Interviews with Frentzen & Bernoldi on F1 Podcast on the last days of the team are very exciting. The A23 was a great car and with a suitable budget to run and develop it properly, 2002 would have been way more successful. Arrows could have been saved if Walkinshaw had agreed to the offer from Red Bull to buy the team

[@AGB_HDV]

This is perhaps the most important video that illustrates the facts... Another quality production

[@mrterp04]

Aidan’s great

[@GWFires]

there are a lot of things missing ...

[@villehursti]

Nigerian price wants to invest... Where have I heard this?

[@BungleBare]

Arrows just needed to forward him a $1M admin fee and the funds would be sent to them on a pre-paid credit card. 😉

[@paulalexander8874]

Ironically enough, that Surtees car was so ugly you wouldn't need a Durex 🤮😂

[@adamclarke7394]

There's an excellent article in the August 2002 edition of "Formula 1 Magazine" entitled Tom Walkinshaw: Man Without a Plan. It documents the whole sorry saga right up until the day it all unraveled for Walkinshaw and Arrows. If you haven't seen it, it makes entertaining reading.

[@kariolm2579]

Unternehmensberatung. Like all German compound words, it's best to split it into components. Unter-nehmen-beratung. Basically, a business (unter-nehmen) consultant (beratung). English just writes business consultant and not businessconsultant.

[@Pabig93]

10:40 - After that Takagi went to make the thing that makes the most sense for anyone not speaking English: Going to the USA to drive Champcars.

[@terminateshere]

I remember one of the F1 mags posted a quote by Malik which they immediately dismissed - he said "the next Michael Schumacher could be black". At the time, there were very few drivers anywhere in the junior formulae who looked like they might prove him right. The only other person who thought this might be true? Ron Dennis, who'd already been talking to a certain karting up-and-comer called Lewis Hamilton....so Malik got one thing right after all!

[@GWFires]

Well here we go again, in 1998 Arrows let Brian Hart built there engines with the promise that a major car manufacturer could be backing it if needed (Nissan, as a Nissan deligation was present when the A19 was rolled out) In 1999 nothing was heard of that again. In 2001 Verstappen was the sole reason that Arrows did score anything. The car used 2000 Peugeot engines rebranded as Asiatech. Which somehow performed well with low fuel. Jos the Boss did sign mid-season his contract for 2002. All knew that, it was somewhat a big announcement. Then suddenly in Winter 01, HHF signed for Arrows and Bernoldi was confirmed as his partner. Verstappen wasnt informed and only found out via media. The A23 (the last Arrows) was built for Verstappen, as he confirmed testing it while driving for Minardi. There was no interim car for minardi. It was intended , yes. But it never happened. And no Aguri modified A23´s nothing else.

[@HammerHeart3229]

Really good video this! I was a kid back then and the only thing I remember about Arrows was thinking their cars looked really cool and them just vanishing into air but never really knowing why. I remember reading later on that it was because of money problems but this video clears a lot of that up. Just goes to show how one dodgy deal can how grave consequences even if they're not immediately felt I suppose! Also Aidan I'm gonna sound like a total nerd but I have to ask, the title of this video... Is that a Megadeth reference by any chance? 😂

[@herbertschmerbert]

I saw this video and thought "f*ck, yes!" Finally subscribing to your channel. Keep up the good work.

[@SachiGortchi]

COOOL ! you are digging deep and the details are interesting (e.g. 100k from Gold Leaf for Lotus in 1968)

[@michaeldr6070]

Love this channel!

[@markfarebrother8389]

Great video again Aiden

[@bjarulez]

You should do a video on how countries got their colours

[@kevinprior3549]

At first i thought this T-minus video was about T Cars in F1, or spare cars. Perhaps do a video on why spare cars are no longer used in F1 please?

[@tomstevens7452]

They had a huge merchandise tent at the USGP at INDY despite not being in the race. Had a car with no engine on display.

[@joaobaptista8377]

Correction Arrows had already finished on the podium 7 years before Boutsen in Imola 85. that was the Swedish GP in 1978 with Patrese

[@danesorensen1775]

Malik was a man ahead of his time. His mistake was trying to make a splash as the head of a brand that didn't make any money before 2008, when that became just how everyone does business.

[@King_Goat_JJ]

I could be wrong but when he was in F1 ITV did an interview with him, I think ITV also did a piece on T-Minus.

[@upthebracket26]

Rich energy vibes...

[@harrypreece6680]

Side episode on the greatest test driver in F1 history? Surely Badoer gets a shout, even if the summer of 2009 was a shambles

[@willf1sv5]

Brilliant video 👏👍

[@robmortimer4150]

Remember that at least one of the perfume companies (Yardley) was owned by the tobacco industry

[@minibus9]

Exclent video, didn't something similar happen to Liger or have i got confused

[@ibex485]

Arrows always had so much potential, especially in this era. If only they hadn't been weighed down by that mountain of debt from this affair, they would have been a great purchase for someone like Stoddart or Red Bull. Like Tyrrell, even in the lean times with no money they could still get some decent performances. Internally they still had the culture of a real Formula 1 team, one which knew what it was doing. (Unlike Jaguar & BAR for example.)

[@tiadaid]

Would RBR be as successful as they are now if they had bought Arrows instead of Jaguar? I'm not sure.

[@ibex485]

RB would certainly have had to make large capital investments in new facilities much sooner. They would have needed to build a new factory in the first couple of years, to match their ambition. But Jaguar was such a basket-case of a team (although not as bad as it had been) when they took it over, I wonder if with Arrows they might have been more successful in their first couple of years than RBR were historically.

[@chancefugitt4329]

PIAA headlamp bulbs are awesome.

[@pauloluciomachadodebrito8107]

There was a orange arrows in 1981 and 1982 and no, the first arrows podium was not with Boutsen, was with Patrese in 1980.

[@andrewpillinger3]

But it wasn't the French telecoms company Orange though. It had Nordica and Ragno sponsorship in '81 and '82. Also, Arrows' first podium was at the 1978 Swedish GP with Patrese.

[@eamonahern7495]

Basically, that time an F1 team got caught out by a Nigerian scammer

[@icytower38]

I really do miss the days of the true privateers. Yes we still kind of have them, but it just feels different to me.

[@bumblebity2902]

You forgot Patrese brilliance with Arrows 4 podiums (3 P2s).

[@markscarborough1018]

Nice Megadeth title!

[@darren2514fv]

I was surprised that Orange didn't move their Money to a Championship contending team appropriately McLaren so if Orange had gone to McLaren to replace West McLaren would have gone back to their classic Orange and Black livery much earlier

[@orionparish9858]

If I had a dollar for every African prince scam, I could buy an F1 team. Hell, I could buy out Liberty Media and fix everything wrong with modern F1 and still have cash left over.

[@alaricbragg7843]

Sauber also were scammed in a similar way before Red Bull came along.

[@dylanangel2870]

this guy just offered to send me some money so sweet

[@mikehipperson]

Wasn't Malik the original 'Nigerian Prince' who kept emailing all and sundry to ask if he could use their bank accounts for a 'reasonable' return? i.e. all their savings! By the way, whatever happened to Rich Energy?

[@spencerbrayall8678]

Sweet megadeth reference

[@JasonCliftJones]

8:12 - Nope, you aren't. I caught myself referring to our Queen (thinking Elizabeth II, not Camilla!) just last week.

[@ibex485]

Are Arrows still the F1 team with most entries without winning a race? I think so. They used to get criticised for that back in the '90s (by people with more stats then actual knowledge of the sport). Which always seemed unfair. They not only survived when so may other teams didn't, but were a very decent team which consistently scored points (only 1 non scoring season) when competitors with similar resources like Minardi never came close. If only Damon's hydraulics had lasted a few more laps in Hungary, if only they'd had the financing for 1998...

[@AdamTheMan1993]

Yep Arrows started in 382 Grand Prix races but failed to win a single race, the most for a constructor

[@ChrisHopkinsBass]

Onyx and Moneytron springs to mind

[@dylanmorrissey7339]

Schwäbische Finanz- und Unternehmensberatung is German/Swiss for Swabian Finance &Businessconsultancy

[@stefencooke]

Iirc it was the original Nigerian prince scam and unfortunately tom fell for it

[@jordza2k11]

T-minus 3 years to extinction

[@Pewnhound112]

So if I want to scam an F1 team by getting my name on their car for essentially free….I just need to come up with a shell corporation masquerading as an energy drink company? Because yeah, somehow, that’s happened more than once in F1 😂

[@jamespallister2031]

Reminds me of two of slapshoes videos on scrupulous sponsors in Nascar and indycar

[@edstevens2772]

I get Mick Cocklan. Why is Pedro de la Rosa a Lan email nightmare?

[@reptongeek]

Mike Coughlan, Pedro De La Rosa and Fernando Alonso sent emails to each other when Nigel Stepney sent Mike the Ferrari designs

[@CD-Gaming]

A Nigerian Prince... Isn't that jus a classic phone call scam? Oh, wait, now I'm thinking of Prince Nana from AEW... Man, I'm making a lot of AEW references today...

[@CroydonTramp]

Warsteiner. Ex squaddie. Worst hangover ever.

[@PlittHD]

5:00 getting pronounciation right is so easy. Step 1 Put word into a translater app. Have the text to speech voice read it out loud. Step 2 Profit.

[@skojuzija]

Ahhahahahahha. The original "nigerian prince scam"

[@chrismaxwell1610]

No he's still Prince Charles he's just got a promotion

[@baruteku]

So they fell for REAL Nigerian Prince scam. LOL

[@philllawrence1580]

4.8k to RM 😊

[@stanvanuden3840]

Swabische is harder for me than Unternehmensberatung and I live just minutes from the German border lol

[@ivailok3376]

Ain't no way they fell for the Nigerian prince scam 💀

[@jakubwidlarz]

When did you start following the NHL?

[@AidanMillward]

99 or so

[@jakubwidlarz]

So you must've fell in love with Dominik Hasek. He was Hockey's Manuel Neuer in the way he went out of the crease.

[@arztbesucharzt8143]

My brother in christ what happend to your hand?

[@AidanMillward]

Does it matter?

[@arztbesucharzt8143]

@@AidanMillward I mean of youre alright

[@DiscGolfLeagueMVP]

aidan why am i so trash at sim racing?

[@christianschwetz1154]

@Aidan Millward: Next time you're challenged by a german word/name, gimme a heads up & I speak it into my Rode for you 🖖

[@vorpalanvil]

Renewable/Green energy, yeah, there ya go...

[@alepaz1099]

...ok... 😵😵 🤷‍♂

[@Trek001]

"Minadi on life support..." And lately, the rumours have been circulating that they might be taken off that and making a glorious return. I know they have been saying this for a while now, but Stoddard has, I read, applied to have a UK based company named Minadi entered into the rolls at Companies House

[@CroydonTramp]

GET AIDAN UP TO 100K SUBS.

[@andrewbowen4544]

Maybe if I offered a iTunes card