It was driven by former Jordan test driver Pedro de la Rosa, a Spanish débutant who brought considerable sponsorship from Repsol,[3] and Japan's Toranosuke Takagi, who moved from the defunct Tyrrell team.

[9] The year proved to be a disaster, as the cars were slow and unreliable, and the team ended up battling with Minardi at the back of the grid, and arguably got even slower throughout the season to the point that they were being frequently outqualified by their minnow rivals.

Its only competitive showing came in the opening race of the season at Melbourne, where de la Rosa finished sixth for a point on his début, with Takagi one place back in seventh.

[10] While de la Rosa proved promising, Takagi struggled with communication issues as he could not speak English at the time and left at the end of the season; he was replaced for 2000 by Jos Verstappen.

[11] Mark Webber had his first test in a Formula One car aboard an A20 in November 1999, running the Supertec engine and new gearbox.