Arrows anticipated that they would lose against Shadow and designed and built the A1 in under 60 days whilst the court case was being heard.

[2] Given that the FA1 was a carbon-copy of the Shadow DN9, the A1 is the essentially first true F1 car designed and built by Arrows Grand Prix International.

A number of further 4th and 5th places followed in 1979 and that year's Monaco GP could have been the Arrows A1 crowning-glory, with Jochen Mass running as high as third in the race (after qualifying eighth) before brake issues dropped him down to sixth at the chequered flag.

Both A1-05 and A1-06 debuted at the 1979 South African GP and were used by Riccardo Patrese (A1-06) and Jochen Mass (A1-05) till the radical, but unsuccessful, Arrows A2 was introduced.

Charles Clowes Racing competed in the 1979 and 1980 Aurora AFX British Formula One Championships with his three A1's.