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.
