OCTOBER 20, 2004

Prost wants a job

World Champion Alain Prost says he is considering returning to Formula 1 as a team manager and it looks pretty clear that he is hoping to be picked up by Renault when Flavio Briatore departs at the end of 2005. It is easy to see how people might think that Prost would be a good front man for Renault F1 but at the same time his high profile as a four-time World Champion must be balanced with his disastrous failure when he was running Prost Grand Prix. Since the team went out of business at the end of 2001 he has also been carefully cultivating a relationship with Toyota and so this could also be a possible target.

While Prost may say that the failure of his team was due to sponsors and bad luck, the general feeling in the F1 paddock is that he did not take to management with the same aplomb as he took to driving and it is perhaps best that he stays away from that role in the future. That may be a tough assessment but it is certainly one which any potential employer would have to consider before getting Alain's signature on the dotted line of a management contract.