JUNE 18, 2002

Prost goes to Le Mans

A very discreet visitor at the Le Mans 24 Hours was Alain Prost, who turned up at the classic French endurance racing event as a guest of Audi.

A very discreet visitor at the Le Mans 24 Hours was Alain Prost, who turned up at the classic French endurance racing event as a guest of Audi. The visit was very low profile but our spies report that Prost had dinner on Saturday night with Franz-Josef Paefgen, the man who is in charge of running Bentley and the VW group's motorsport activities.

Prost is known to want to re-establish his image in France after the collapse of his Formula 1 team and the whisper is that he might try to do this at Le Mans.

It is suggested in sports car circles that Audi is going to quit the scene having now won Le Mans on three consecutive occasions. It is expected that Bentley will now become the major challenger for VW with a three-car team in British racing green next year.

It is not clear how Prost would fit into the scheme of things but perhaps Audi would like to sell the existing cars and let them be run by privateers...