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PROFILE
Four times world champion Alain Prost's
name appeared on an F1 car for the first time in 1997,
after he had bought the failing Ligier team. The team
had Mugen-Honda power in it's first season, and it was
a succesful one. Olivier Panis, a previous race winner
with Ligier at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1996, finished
second in Spain. The team finished their first season
in a respectable 6th place.
Jarno Trulli joined Panis in 1998, with Peugeot engines.
The reliability of these engines was so poor that a
sixth place by Trulli was the best result all year.
Alain Prost commented that running the team was the
hardest thing he had ever done in his career.
Trulli grew in confidence throughout 99, and after he
knew that he would become Damon Hill's replacement at
Jordan for 2000, his seemed to lose interest in the
team. He stopped delivering the points that it was clear
he could, and fell out with Prost. Panis, however, seemed
to loose interest in the racing itself, and only managed
a couple of sixth places. He became a test driver for
McLaren at the end of the year.
2000 was the team's worst performance ever, scoring
0 points and getting the wooden spoon, with Minardi
finishing above them due to better race finishes. The
Peugeot engines proved extremely unreliable, and they
had less power than all the other engines. The team's
line-up for 2006 is still uncertain, but Prost has managed
to secure a supply of last year's reliable Ferrari engines,
although where the money will come from to buy them
is not clear.
WEB
SITE
http://www.prostgp.com/
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