FEBRUARY 21, 2001

Prost threaten legal action over De la Rosa move to Jaguar

PROST GRAND PRIX threatened Jaguar with legal action on Tuesday after claiming they had already signed a deal with Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa.

De la Rosa was confirmed as a test driver for Milton Keynes-based Jaguar on Tuesday after previously agreeing to join Guyancourt-based Prost.

Prost claim they have exclusive rights to former Arrows driver De la Rosa and issued a statement to signal their intentions to take legal action against Jaguar and the Spaniards representatives.

"We learn, with a strong disapproval, the finalization of a test driver's agreement with Pedro de la Rosa and Jaguar," the Prost statement read.

"We regret this signature, made in spite of our formal warnings to the different parties involved.

"We have an giving us exclusive rights on test driver's services of Mr. Pedro de la Rosa. This is public knowledge. Mr. De la Rosa himself declared it on several occasions, and even began the execution of this agreement on the test track.

"We intend to exercise our rights against him as well as his representatives and agents and if necessary against our competitor.

"For us it is mainly a question of having the interests of our team respected, both on principle and for professional ethics and because of the prejudice suffered by our company which wrongly preferred, some weeks ago, Mr. De la Rosa to other candidates."

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