JULY 10, 2001

The future of Prost Grand Prix

THE announcement that Patrizia Spinelli has left Prost Grand Prix is a further indication that the French team is going through troubled times. Despite the best efforts of Alain Prost and his team, which is led by Joan Villadelprat, no money has yet be found and the team has been forced in recent weeks to cut back on its testing schedules in order to save money.

THE announcement that Patrizia Spinelli has left Prost Grand Prix is a further indication that the French team is going through troubled times. Despite the best efforts of Alain Prost and his team, which is led by Joan Villadelprat, no money has yet be found and the team has been forced in recent weeks to cut back on its testing schedules in order to save money. At the moment there is believed to be only one serious bidder for the company for Prost GP. This is the Diniz Family, which owns 40% of the team already and has the money to run the operation if it can take control. But the Dinizes are not going to pour money into the team without demanding some better results and negotiations to date between Prost and Pedro Diniz have resulted in no deal being possible because Alain is asking too much money, perhaps holding out for a better Concorde Agreement, which could raise the value of the operation.

But the longer he holds out the more of a risk the business becomes for Prost because eventually he will have to invest his own money to keep the business running and he is not about to do that.