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French court orders Prost liquidation Posted: Monday January 28, 2002 11:15 AMUpdated: Monday January 28, 2002 3:31 PM VERSAILLES, France (Reuters) -- Alain Prost's Formula One team was declared bankrupt on Monday in what the former champion said was a failure for France. "It's not a real surprise and I don't consider the decision as a sanction," said Prost, who heard the Versailles commercial court formally pronounce the liquidation of his team with estimated debts of US$28 million. "This decision marks a failure and I must accept it but my first thoughts go to the team. "We had built a real team, the best I think, but we did not have enough [financial] means," said the four times champion who bought the team from Ligier in 1997. Prost had hoped to turn it into a fully French outfit with a French staff, a French chassis, a French engine and a French driver. The lack of results and the resulting lack of resources broke his dream.
In 2000, after three years in the world championship, engine maker Peugeot left as well as French driver Olivier Panis. Lynched French sponsors were the last to leave Prost on his own and he said it was what he deplored most of all. "I received so many blows for months and years that it's almost a relief for me," he said. "I was...lynched in the last couple of weeks and I see it as a total failure for France. "Until the very end, we did everything we could but we did not have any contact with a French investor," said Prost, who claimed the team's debts only amounted to 110 million francs, far less than reported. "It is nothing in the world of Formula One," he said. Lawyer Franck Michel, the team's receiver since Prost Grand Prix was placed into receivership in November, said they had received three serious offers since then, but none had been conclusive. "We explored every solution but we were not in a position to give all the guarantees required. The court could not make any other verdict," he said. Forget about me The opening race of the 2002 world championship takes place in Melbourne on March 3 but Formula One will again have 11 teams since Toyota will be making their Grand Prix debut. The widely expected court decision leaves Prost's 300 employees out of work while clearing the way for German Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who drove for Prost at the end of last season, to join Arrows if a deal is agreed. Launched in 1997 after he bought Ligier, Prost Grand Prix's record in five seasons was unimpressive. As a driver, Prost entered 199 Grands Prix and won 51, a record only surpassed by Michael Schumacher this past season. As a team, Prost Grand Prix took part in 83 races and won none, failing to claim even a single pole position. After a promising start in 1997, things went from bad to worse for the team, who scored no points in 2000 and lost sponsors as well their engine maker Peugeot. Last season, with a Ferrari engine, Prost finished ninth in the constructors world championship with a meager four points. The announcement of Prost's bankruptcy came the day after French carmaker Renault trumpeted their return to Formula One. Asked about his future, Prost said: "I will bounce back. But for the time being I only want to think about the team and the staff. So please forget about me." Prost joins other champions who stumbled as bossesLONDON -- It takes more than just a few steps across the pit lane to go from Formula One world champion to successful team boss. The odds are stacked against the drivers making the transition and the failure of Alain Prost's team on Monday is further proof of something that men like McLaren team principal Ron Dennis have known all along. The big money world of "Piranha Club" bosses is an unforgiving place in which the talents that got a driver to the top are not enough. "Formula One is a tough business and it is difficult to succeed," said Dennis at the launch of the McLaren 2002 car in Barcelona a week ago. "I'm not directing my comments at Alain Prost or Niki Lauda but I do feel there is a trait of naivete when people expect automatic performance from those who have excelled as drivers," he added. "To run a grand prix team well you need an engineering background, and that's just the beginning. They should also know about budgets, motivating people, solving problems and inspiring." Prost himself recognized that when he was at Ferrari in 1991, before they dispensed with his services: "Ron Dennis is a leader of men, a catalyst of energies, he is completely respected. That's what's missing here," he said. Lauda Austrian Niki Lauda is now the only former champion with a hands-on role in the grand prix paddock as team principal of Ford-owned Jaguar. That team was originally Stewart Grand Prix, founded by three times champion Jackie Stewart until Ford took over and renamed it in 2000. Stewart at least saw his team win a race, more than Prost did or Lauda has done yet, with Johnny Herbert steaming through the rain to triumph at the Nuerburgring in 1999. Australian Jack Brabham stands out as the first driver to win both a race and a championship in a car bearing his own name. Graham Hill died in 1975 after starting up his Embassy Racing Team. Briton John Surtees, a motorcycle and Formula One champion, had his own team from 1970 to 1978 but never won a race as a constructor. "He thought he knew everything there was to know about racing," his former driver and future champion Alan Jones commented years later. "Former drivers always think they know best. Their driver is just a surrogate for themselves." The more successful team owners, in much the same way that many of the world's top soccer managers made little impact as professional players, do not rank among any list of Formula One's top drivers. Frank Williams and the ever entrepreneurial Eddie Jordan tried and then turned to management, Renault's Flavio Briatore was a manager for Benetton before he entered motor sport and Paul Stoddart made his money in aviation. Three of the current bosses started their motorsport careers in rallying -- Ferrari's Jean Todt and BAR's David Richards as co-drivers -- and Toyota's Ove Andersson as a driver.
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