JANUARY 15, 2002

Prost waits for the administrator to decide

Alain Prost has done all he can do to save his indebted Formula 1 team and he is now waiting to see if the latest offer is enough to convince the team's legal administrator that the team can be saved.

ALAIN PROST has done all he can do to save his indebted Formula 1 team and he is now waiting to see if the latest offer - which he says is worth around $40m - is enough to convince the team's legal administrator that the team can be saved. Prost owes around the same amount of money but says that the team is aiming to pick up more backing as it goes along. The administrator Franck Michel must now decide if this is a sensible solution. It is entirely up to Michel as to whether he thinks there is enough money to keep the team in business. In all probability he will let the business go ahead because the major debts will have been covered and the team has some income already pledged for the season ahead (including money from the TV fund and travel costs).

There are many suggestions as to who is behind the attempt to save the team but clearly whoever it is not throwing money away. In exchange for the money being pledged, the new backers are expecting to get the majority of the shares in the team, although Prost may himself be kept on as a figurehead.