 Renault May Be Behind Prost Purchase Friday March 1st, 2002 By Timothy Collings
The news comes after Arrows owner Tom Walkinshaw confirmed that a deal had been completed the previous evening for the purchase of the collapsed Prost team's entry into the 2002 Formula One World Championship. Walkinshaw said his TWR engineering company would be employed to provide the expert racing engineering skills required, but he declined to name the people involved. Walkinshaw said he would make a fuller statement when he met the media at a news conference at the end of the opening day's action at the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park. "This deal will underpin the value of the business and the value of the other teams," said Walkinshaw. "It is good for everyone involved if we have a full grid. There should be 12 teams and now there will be. We are going to be involved through TWR to do the engineering." The deal was done in Paris on Thursday evening, said sources close to Walkinshaw. It involved the successful consortium fighting off bids from rivals Minardi to acquire the assets of the bankrupt Prost Grand Prix team from the Paris liquidator who took control of the defunt team at the end of January. The price paid for the assets, including the valuable entry to the Championship, was not revealed. Nor was the identity of the buyer. However, sources close to Alain Prost himself, who is holidaying in Mauritius and recovering from the most traumatic and disappointing episode of his otherwise meticulously successful career in Formula One, confirmed that the deal was done. It is understood that the new team will remain based in France and may emerge, eventually, as a Renault junior team. Flavio Briatore, the Renault UK-based team principal, was unable to confirm any of this on Friday morning. It is understood also that there was little tangible value in the assets of the Prost team apart from the entry as the Frenchman had drawn an advance on his due television income for 2002 from Formula One Management during his struggle for survival last year. Prost had purchased his team from Ligier and there were no registration bonds required to secure his entry to the Championship, as there have since been for Toyota who paid 48 million dollars to secure their participation in this year's contest, their maiden appearance. Although the transaction of Prost's team remains surrounded in mystery, it seemed likely that Renault were the buyers as they and Briatore had often talked of creating a junior team. In Spaniard Fernando Alonso, they have a test and reserve driver who deserves a race seat. The French manufacturer would also relish the opportunity to make the most of Prost's departure to establish themselves as the main Formula One interest in France and to develop further their junior driver programme.
Published at 01:52:26 GMT
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Renault may be behind yesterday's purchase of the Prost Grand Prix assets, sources in the Melbourne paddock revealed today. It was further suggested that the new team would take its place on the grid at the Malaysian Grand Prix, the second of the season, in Kuala Lumpur in two weeks time.
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