Editing Alain Prost (section)

===Prost Grand Prix===
{{Main|Prost Grand Prix}}

During 1989 Prost began to contemplate starting his own team, as his relationship with his McLaren teammate, Ayrton Senna, had turned sour. Prost and [[John Barnard]], formerly chief designer at McLaren, came close to founding a team in 1990; but a lack of sponsorship meant that this was not possible, so Prost moved to Ferrari and Barnard left Ferrari to join [[Benetton Formula|Benetton]]. After falling out with the Italian team at the end of 1991, Prost found himself without a drive for 1992; after the failure of extensive negotiations with [[Guy Ligier]] about buying his [[Equipe Ligier|Ligier]] team, Prost decided to join Williams for 1993.<ref name="Prost Renault">{{Cite web |last=Saward |first=Joe |date=1995-09-01 |title=Team Prost - a dream or reality? |url=http://www.grandprix.com/ft/ft00198.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140605084146/http://www.grandprix.com/ft/ft00198.html |archive-date=2014-06-05 |access-date=2024-11-27 |website=Grandprix.com}}</ref> By 1995, when Prost was working for Renault, people had assumed that a Prost-Renault team would be formed. Renault refused Prost's request to supply engines for his team, ending the speculation.<ref name="Prost Renault" />
[[File:Olivier Panis 1998.jpg|thumb|left|[[Olivier Panis]] driving for the Prost Grand Prix team at the [[1998 Canadian Grand Prix]]]]
On 13 February 1997, Prost bought the Ligier team from [[Flavio Briatore]] and renamed it "Prost Grand Prix".<ref name="Prost GP">"GrandPrix.com – GP Encyclopedia – Constructor – Prost Grand Prix" [http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/con-prost.html GrandPrix.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060816000024/http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/con-prost.html |date=16 August 2006 }}. Retrieved 8 September 2006.</ref> The day after he bought the team, Prost signed a three-year deal with French car manufacturer [[Peugeot]], who would supply the team with engines from {{f1|1998}} until {{f1|2000}}.<ref name="Prost GP" /> For the team's first season, Prost kept one of Ligier's 1996 drivers, [[Olivier Panis]], who had won the [[1996 Monaco Grand Prix|Monaco Grand Prix]] the previous year; Japanese driver [[Shinji Nakano]] was signed to partner Panis. The team raced with the [[Mugen-Honda]] engines used by Ligier the previous season, while the car was actually the originally intended [[Prost JS45|Ligier JS45]], but was renamed the Prost JS45. Things looked promising at the start of the season, as the team picked up two points on its Grand Prix debut in [[1997 Australian Grand Prix|Australia]] when Olivier Panis finished fifth. The team scored a further 13 points before Panis broke his leg in an accident during the [[1997 Canadian Grand Prix|Canadian Grand Prix]]. He was replaced by [[Minardi]]'s [[Jarno Trulli]]. From there, things started to go downhill slightly, the team scored only five points during Panis's recovery. He came back at the end of the season to race in the last three Grands Prix. Prost GP finished sixth in the Constructors' Championship in its first season, with 21 points.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/analysis-prosts-dream-of-french-team-in-jeopardy-5058532/5058532/ |title=Analysis: Prost's Dream of French Team in Jeopardy |last=Thomazeau |first=Francois |date=22 November 2001 |website=Autosport |access-date=23 January 2007 |archive-date=29 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229202510/https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/analysis-prosts-dream-of-french-team-in-jeopardy-5058532/5058532/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="essaar">{{cite web |url=http://essaar.co.uk/f1-prost-grand-prix-went-wrong/ |title=F1: Prost Grand Prix – What went wrong? |last=Collins |first=Aaron |date=3 September 2018 |website=Essaar Motorsport |access-date=15 August 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190815013921/http://essaar.co.uk/f1-prost-grand-prix-went-wrong/ |archive-date=15 August 2019}}</ref>

Prost became the president of Prost Grand Prix at the start of 1998. With Peugeot supplying the engines for Prost GP, Mugen-Honda decided to supply the [[Jordan Grand Prix|Jordan]] team. Prost GP scored a single point during the season when Jarno Trulli finished sixth in [[1998 Belgian Grand Prix|Belgium]].<ref name="essaar" />

{{f1|1999}} was a crucial year for Prost GP.<ref>Jean-Michel Desnoues; Patrick Camus & Jean-Marc Loubat <u>Formula 1 99</u> . Queen Anne Press. {{ISBN|1-85291-606-0}}</ref> Prost hired [[John Barnard]] as a technical consultant,<ref name="Prost GP" /> Barnard's B3 Technologies company helping Loic Bigois with the design of the [[Prost AP02]]. Panis and Trulli agreed to stay on with the team for the season. The car was not a major concern but the Peugeot V10 engine proved to be heavy and unreliable.<ref name="essaar" />

Peugeot's final year as Prost's engine supplier in 2000 saw some optimism. Prost hired his 1991 Ferrari teammate [[Jean Alesi]] to drive the lead car and [[Germany|German]] [[Nick Heidfeld]], who had won the [[1999 Formula 3000 season|1999]] [[International Formula 3000|Formula 3000]] championship, to partner him. The season proved to be yet another disastrous one: the [[Prost AP03|AP03]] proved to be unreliable and ill handling. Things weren't helped when the drivers collided with each other in the [[2000 Austrian Grand Prix|Austrian Grand Prix]]. Newly hired technical director Alan Jenkins was fired midway through the year. Prost restructured the team, hiring Joan Villadelprat as the managing director and replacing Jenkins with Henri Durand as the team's new technical director.<ref name="Prost GP" />

In {{f1|2001}} Ferrari agreed to supply engines for the season.<ref name="Prost GP" /> The money ran out at the start of the {{f1|2002}} season and Prost was out of business, leaving debts of around $30 million.<ref name="Prost GP" />