In the last weeks (or even months), there were lots of rumours and articles in many newspapers and motorsport magazines about Alain Prost's future team, Prost Grand Prix. For example, the French newspaper "Le Journal du Dimanche" reported end January, that the purchase of the Ligier team had already taken place and that the team, to be called "Prost Grand Prix" would be equipped by a Peugeot engine for the 1998 season. The same day, French t.v.-channel "TF1" broadcasted "auto moto", where the reporters also said, that Alain has already bought Ligier Team and that he will change the name into "Prost Grand Prix". On 2nd February 1997, Alain said on French t.v., that he has not yet signed the whole project, but that he is in the final lap and he is very confident, that it will come to an end soon. Alain said, that this is now his fourth project going in this direction (to build an own team) and that he never worked for such a long time at a similar project. He said, that it would be a pity, if the whole thing wouldn't get realised, but, as I said, he is very confident about it.

If Alain will sign the whole project, it's quite sure, that the "Prost Grand Prix" cars will be powered by Peugeot engines, of which I think, that they will be quite a lot faster than the today's engines. It seems, that Bernard Dudot will work for "Prost Grand Prix", because Renault is no more in F1 in 1998. Other people behind "Prost Grand Prix" could be the Renault-engineers Denis Chevrier and Bruno Maudit as well as Jean-Jacques His. The big question mark would be John Barnard. It's not yet sure, whether he will stay at Ferrari or whether he will change to "Prost Grand Prix". It seems, that there will be a very big sponsor from the United States, sponsors of the actual team Ligier like SEITA (Gauloises), as well as new sponsors like TOTAL, and Canal+, a French pay t.v.-channel.

Let's hope, that we will see a team called "Prost Grand Prix" in Formula 1 in 1998 - ALLEZ ALAIN!

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