Prost (racing team)
Prost Grand Prix was a Formula 1 racing team managed by former
world champion Alain Prost. The team participated in five seasons
from 1997 to 2001.
Alain Prost completed the purchase of the Ligier team in early
1997, and immediately changed the name to Prost. An exclusive
contract for Peugeot engines was announced for 1998, but the team
had to persevere with Mugen-Hondas for 1997. Podium finishes in
Brazil and Spain for Olivier Panis promised much, but the Frenchman
crashed heavily at Canada, breaking both his legs. With its lead
driver forced to miss much of the season, Prost struggled with
novices Jarno Trulli and Shinji Nakano until Panis's return at the
Luxembourg Grand Prix. A commanding drive by Trulli in Austria,
where he led for much of the race, and a dogged points finish for
Panis on his return meant that Prost wasted no time in signing the
pair for a further season.
After serious gearbox problems in testing, the team almost didn't
start the 1998 season-opener as their car still had to pass a
crash-test. They made it to the Australian Grand Prix, but the
season was another relative failure. Several points finishes
amounted to a strong finish in the chaotic 1999 season, including
the team's best race result under the Prost name, second place for
Trulli at the European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, behind
surprise winner Johnny Herbert and ahead of his Stewart Grand Prix
team-mate Rubens Barrichello.
In 2001, things looked to be on the up. The cars now ran with
Acer-badged Ferrari engines. The season began with Alesi and 2000
Minardi driver Gaston Mazzacane, but after four races, the latter
was dropped from the team and replaced by Jaguar's Luciano Burti,
who himself was replaced at Jaguar by Pedro de la Rosa. Alesi was
very consistent, finishing every race, occasionally in points
scoring positions, most notably in Canada, a race he had previously
won with Ferrari, when he did a few donuts afterwards and after
getting out of the car, threw his helmet into the crowd. It was his
best finish with the team. A fallout after the British Grand Prix,
however saw him walk out of the team after the German Grand Prix,
which saw him score another point in a race that saw few finishers.
Indeed the first start was red-flagged when Burti was launched into
the air after crashing at high speed into the back of Michael
Schumacher's ailing Ferrari just seconds off the line. Alesi moved
to Jordan Grand Prix for the rest of the year, and was replaced at
Prost by Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who himself had been sacked from
Jordan after Silverstone. In Belgium, Frentzen qualified a shock
fourth on the grid, but threw it away when he stalled on the
formation lap, the first of three abandoned races. The third red
flag saw a long delay after a huge crash at the fastest part of the
circuit involving Burti and Eddie Irvine's Jaguar. Burti was
transported away from the circuit by helicopter and taken away for
medical observation. At Monza, F3000 driver Tomas Enge became the
fifth driver to drive for the team in 2001.
At the end of the season, specualtion began surrounding the fate of
the team in the light of its increasing debts. Finally, in early
2002 the team went bankrupt, just before the start of the
season.
