JULY 27, 1998

Panis to stay at Prost

OLIVIER PANIS has re-signed to stay with Prost Grand Prix. The deal is believed to be for another two years. Panis had been unhappy with the team but after looking around at the other available options concluded that it was better to stay where he was and try to improve the situation. That has now been done and so the team will remain unchanged in 1999 with Panis continuing to partner Jarno Trulli. The Italian was in demand from Williams but was unable to get out of his two-year Prost contract.

The team also held talks with Ralf Schumacher and Heinz-Harald Frentzen but it was decided that it is better to maintain stability to allow the team to grow more. There are, however, expected to be changes in the engineering structure of the team with John Barnard once again tipped to be joining the team in a consultancy role and we expect some recruitment in the engineering team with rumors that Prost wants to get his hands on David Brown, the former Williams engineer who worked with Alain before joining McLaren. Brown is currently running the West Competition Formula 3000 team, a McLaren offshoot.