OCTOBER 26, 1998

Trulli to have interim car in Japan

JARNO TRULLI is to use the interim Prost-Peugeot AP01B at the Japanese Grand Prix. The car, which is a much-modified version of this year's car, uses a development Peugeot V10 engine and a completely new gearbox. It has shown well in testing in recent weeks and may be sufficiently competitive to give the team a much-needed result in the final race of the season.

JARNO TRULLI is to use the interim Prost-Peugeot AP01B at the Japanese Grand Prix. The car, which is a much-modified version of this year's car, uses a development Peugeot V10 engine and a completely new gearbox. It has shown well in testing in recent weeks and may be sufficiently competitive to give the team a much-needed result in the final race of the season.

This is, of course, a risk as the car may prove to be unreliable but the team decided it was worth taking the interim car to Suzuka when it emerged that there was going to be a Bridgestone tire test in the days after the event and that having a car with 1999 parts would produce valuable data when run with 1999 tires.

The car had to undergo crash testing to be eligible for the race but this was completed last week. The AP01B will be raced by Trulli not because he is the favored driver within the team but because he and Olivier Panis agreed to draw straws for the car and Trulli won...