Formula One News — January 2002

The official liquidation of Prost Grand Prix means that Prost Grand Prix must now fold all its activities and sell off as many of the assets as it is able to try to raise as much money possible to pay the team's debts.

The Prost Grand Prix has been put into liquidation by a commercial court in Versailles after team boss Alain Prost failed to find a solution to pay debts of $28m.

Renault's determination to become a leading F1 player alongside Ferrari, BMW Williams and McLaren-Mercedes was demonstrated in uncompromising style yesterday when the team's all-new R202 was unveiled at the French car maker's technical center in the Paris suburb of Guyancourt.

Patrick Faure, the chairman of Renault Sport, has made the French company's position in relation the future of Formula 1 very clear.

John Walton, the sporting director of Prost Grand Prix, has started work at Minardi where he will be the sporting director and team manager of the ambitious Ledbury operation.

Gustav Brunner, the technical director of Toyota Motorsport, has told the Reuters newsagency that Toyota is not expecting huge success early in its Formula 1 program.

Testing in Barcelona continued Monday, with five teams in action. The Williams trio of Ralf Schumacher, Juan-Pablo Montoya and Antonio Pizzonia topped the time sheets, Schumacher in the new FW24.

Prost Grand Prix has been put into liquidation by the Tribunal de Commerce of Versailles with debts in excess of $28m.

The Germany authorities are reported to be investigating the business dealings of Willi Weber, the manager of the Schumacher Brothers.

Renault has landed sponsorship from the Korean company Hanjin.

Renault took the rather strange decision to give the French TV station TF1 exclusivity for its launch in Paris on Sunday and the car had been shown on the television almost an hour before the assembled members of the world's media were given a glimpse of the new car.

Japan is firing in new young drivers into Europe every few weeks at the moment and the latest is Yuji Ide, who is to race in Aguri Suzuki's ARTA team this year's French Formula 3 Championship.

As we suggested some weeks ago all is not well at Ilmor Engineering with the new Mercedes-Benz engine having a number of problems and according to unconfirmed reports a senior Ilmor engineer has been asked to leave the company because of the problems which have been found.

The Kirch Group has been struggling for cash in recent months and that has led to all kinds of rumors about the role of the firm in the sport.

The word on the street in Paris is that Prost Grand Prix is going to be liquidated on money, Alain Prost having failed to find a suitable package to save the team.

CART refugee Bryan Herta has abandoned hopes of landing a test drive with Arrows and has signed to drive for the works Panoz sports car team.

The BMW Williams team has landed a new sponsorship deal from the Federal Express company which was ousted from Ferrari by the signing of the new Vodafone sponsorship deal.

Ron Tauranac has been recognized by the Australian government for his services to motor racing.

After months of pretending that there are no problems, the Formula 1 community is now waking up the reality that there is a recession: the first in 10 years.

Satellite Television operator BSkyB announced Friday that it has worked a deal with Formula One Management to broadcast live interactive coverage of the Formula One World Championship in 2002 and 2003.

Testing continued at the Circuit de Catalunya on Friday, where McLaren test driver Alexander Wurz shattered the track record he set earlier in the week.

Jenson Button has a new manager - but the word on the street is that he is not one of the establishment management names in F1 circles but rather a fairly low-key lawyer called John Byfield.

It may have been wet, damp and cold at Silverstone today (Friday) for the launch of the new Williams-BMW FW24.

The first real cutback in the newly re-branded Ford Rallye Sport empire has come with the announcement that the works-supported Ford Focus program of multiple FIA Middle East Rally Champion Mohammed bin Sulayem is to be axed.

Formula 1 cars are to qualify earlier than normal for the European Grand Prix on June 22 - to avoid the session clashing with quarter-finals of the soccer World Cup.