Bye Bye Alain????????

steve nielsen · 6 Jul 2000, 16:04 (Ref:21838)

Prost GP is having a very bad season, they have difficulty with the peugeot engine, and probably will lose that deal, but now gaulloises may quit their sponsorship too, what now for Prost who still has to find an engine for next year, Mugen has quit so that's not possible, Mercedes don't want to suply a second team, maybe Supertec??, I think Flavio will first give his old mate Tom W. a call for that, unless the scot pull another rabbit out of his hat, he has surprised us earlier this year.
It looks very bad for Prost, it seems only a miracle(or Bernie??) can save them.

Minardi fan · 6 Jul 2000, 19:57 (Ref:21889)

It does indeed look grim. With the Peugeots (in the form of ATMs) going almost certainly to Minardi, Prost are without an engine. If Arrows keep the Supertec, then there will be no engines left.

AL Racing · 7 Jul 2000, 00:22 (Ref:21949)

well I agree it look pretty grim, and that's sad, but their chance is a customer Ferrari engine. Alain is talking to his friend Jean Todt and Jean said they might be able to suply a third team. The real difficult part is get the 15$ million for the engine and commiting to a 2-3 year deal, something Alain is not to keen about.

EERO · 7 Jul 2000, 00:53 (Ref:21954)

If Gauloise pulls out, where's the cash coming from to pay for the engines?

Frankly, I doubt that Ferrari would be willing to take on a second customer team. But for Prost's (and Alesi's) sake, I hope they remember old friends.

AL Racing · 7 Jul 2000, 01:00 (Ref:21956)

very true, and on top of that, Yahoo! is not sure if they want to continue sponsoring them for next year either...

EERO · 7 Jul 2000, 01:02 (Ref:21957)

Accch! That's news to me. Its even worse than I thought...

AL Racing · 7 Jul 2000, 01:12 (Ref:21960)

Yeah I won't bet on Prost being WCC next year.

Alesi has an eye for choosing the right team at the right time.

EERO · 7 Jul 2000, 02:07 (Ref:21964)

Aww, heck, He COULD sign with Minardi.

{EERO ducks)

AL Racing · 7 Jul 2000, 02:14 (Ref:21967)

run for cover EERO, MinardiFan could be lurking in the night!!

Sharky · 7 Jul 2000, 04:01 (Ref:21986)

He he he

Well.....using the "full grid" argument once more I would have to say that Prost will be racing next year (unless a buyer appears in these last few months which is very unlikely). However I will like to see how they manage to pull it off. Both Alain and Bernie will have to pull a lot of strings to keep the team running. My guess would be that the prost-heidfeld-mclaren-mercedes connection would come into play in the engine department (customer engines of course). But I don't know what are they going to do for sponsorship is gauloises and yahoo leave...

It's really kind of sad to see Alain going trough such a tough time.

Minardi fan · 7 Jul 2000, 09:48 (Ref:22020)

Gauloises have CONFIRMED they will NOT be sponsoring Prost in 2001. Go get that ££££ MINARDI!!!

If anyone is going to get the third (and 50/50 likely) engine from Ferrari, it's Minardi - they've been in talks for ages, can offer a seat to Badoer, and both are generally very 'chummy' with each other at the moment.

As for Alesi at Minardi... WOWOWOWOWOW!!!!

steve nielsen · 7 Jul 2000, 12:46 (Ref:22055)

There are rumours about telefonica going to benetton with their money, who will sponsor Minardi??

Sharky · 7 Jul 2000, 14:45 (Ref:22062)

Very good question steve. Who will be sponsoring Minardi? It will have to be a breand new sponsors because I don't think that any of their current secondary sponsors would step up the ladder and become a primary sponsor and pay all that money.

Regs · 7 Jul 2000, 21:03 (Ref:22101)

As I understand it, minardi will always have Fonndmetal as a sort of "foundation" sponsor. As the guy who owns Fondmetal" own the team. But Minardi are a scrappy outfit and they'll find someone. As for team Prost, well, things may be grim. With Renaults pruchase of Benetton there may be no need for a French "national" team. Peugeot don't seem very interested . Prost could fall by the wayside. And that would be two bad. Unless they talk VW/Audi into developing an engine a'la Williams/BMW.

Cameron · 7 Jul 2000, 21:51 (Ref:22103)

Remember the pre-race interview with Prost. He did not dismiss out of hand re-locating outwith France so I think he has already accepted your earlier point of the need for Prost being an all-french team not being so advantageous. Or could he be the basis of a VW/Audi team. There is after all a finite number of teams to buy into if you are not prepared to start from scratch.

steve nielsen · 8 Jul 2000, 05:27 (Ref:22125)

You can better start from scratch then with that crappy Prost design I would say, ever seen the hands of Alesi and Heidfelf in the car, you would think thet are milking a cow in stead of driving F1, terrible handling that Prost. There was also a funny incident at the french GP, the Peugeot engineers refused to send the Prost cars out for the warmup, because they where tired of all the criticism, from Alesi and Prost, it reminded me of something: dind'nt Alain get fired from Ferrari because he said it drove like a truck??, he still has'nt learned anything, he should first find a engine then he can say anything he'd like.

Minardi fan · 8 Jul 2000, 09:07 (Ref:22130)

Who knows on the Minardi front???!!!??? Although yes, Fondmetal are always going to be there because one of the team owners is the boss of Fondmetal.

Sharky · 8 Jul 2000, 14:24 (Ref:22147)

That's true MF. Fondmetal is owned by Gabriele Rumi. However I don't think that he'll increase his sponsorship as it would probably mean that the company would have to make a very considerable expense. My guess would be that they'll have to take yet another pay driver for next season....maybe Diniz but as a last option because if they want the ferrari engine they'll need someone that brings in much more than $6 million dollars a year.

As for Prost. I really don't think that Alain is pleased with his life as a team owner. I would be guessing that sooner or later he would be selling the team.....perhaps if VW (audi) decide to enter....

Minardi fan · 8 Jul 2000, 21:46 (Ref:22172)

According to Autosprout, the fight is on between Prost and Minardi for the second set of customer Ferrari engines. Ferrari is said to be SERIOUSLY interested in supplying another team, at a cost of £15 million from the lucky benefactors.

Prost can just afford them, Minardi can't. However, Minardi have a very good relationship with Ferrari...

:confused:

EERO · 8 Jul 2000, 22:33 (Ref:22188)

I think Sauber is paying $25 million for the privlege.
If Minardi or Prost were to get the engines for $10 mill. less, Peter Sauber will be ******-off!

Sharky · 9 Jul 2000, 02:36 (Ref:22216)

Mhhh....I would be guessing EERO that Sauber is paying 25 million dollars...not pounds...but that's just a guess. Hoever I think that if Ferrari offer 2 sets of cutomer engines they would charge the same to both teams. But I'm not sure MF that Prost is in a better situation than Minardi with the departure of Gauloises.....unless there's a new sponsor comming....or that he saved some money.

I personally find it more likely for minardi to end with the Ferrari engines and Prost with some Mercedes customer units.....once again the prost-heidfeld-mclaren-mercedes connection. I'm gonna let you guys on a little secret....something I read some time ago in a local magazine. This info came from a pretty reliable source but since the top guys at the media haven't said anything about it I suggest that you take this info with skepticism. It seems that Nick Heidfeld is the grandson of a very important stock holder at Daimler-Chrisler. Apparently this played a very important role on him landing a test drive with Mclaren and a further drive with Prost. So if this info was true one would only guess that Prost would be more likely to land a deal with Mercedes having Heidfeld on board. But as I said.....I'm not 100% sure on how realiable were the sources of the magazine.

EERO · 9 Jul 2000, 03:42 (Ref:22229)

Sharky, a pox upon me for not reading more carefully...
Pounds..dollars, How could I be so dense?

Mercedes has been pretty adament that they don't have engines for anyone but McLaren-it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Will the Grandpa conection come through?

Minardi fan · 9 Jul 2000, 09:47 (Ref:22250)

I was thinking the same - since Gauloises are pulling out, Prost's budget will be seriously shrunk.

I too see it more likely that Minardi will get the Ferrari engines - and I think this would make it highly likely that Diniz will be at Minardi in 2001. In addition to this, Minardi have been in negotiations with Ferrari for some time - Prost would seemed to have turned to them as a last resort.

Gerard · 9 Jul 2000, 20:31 (Ref:22310)

Although Prost is going to loose Gauloises he's not without any money.
He recently sold half of his team to German sports marketing agency Ufasport.
Rumors are he received $50 million for it.

Cameron · 13 Jul 2000, 07:57 (Ref:22932)

The plot thickens, I see Prost has sold off a part of his share holding to a German communication firm.

Is this a sweetener to Mercedes or VW/Audi?

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