Where to for Prost?

[Tristan]

No works deal. No engine. Two ****ed off drivers. Verbally slamming Heidfeld. Poor qualifying. Poor race (at their home track where Ligier/Prost have always done so well). Mechanics on strike. Designers resigning. And a car that handles like a pig at the back of the grid.

What should happen? Will Alain quit? Will Alesi quit? Will Heidfeld be pushed? Do they have a hope in hell for next year? Or is it just the beggining?

[Minardi fan]

Neither Heidfeld nor in particular a driver of such standing as Jean Alesi deserve a car that poor. Something needs sorting, fast.

As for the Mugen Honda deal, does anyone honestly expect it to happen? I, for one, do not.

[Gerard]

Where to go for Prost?

Out the door, to the left, through the gates and then just start walking. And don't look back.

Seriously, I don't know what will happen to Prost.
I've always thought Alain was a better driver than a team captain.

Prost Grand Prix is a business and like all businesses they have a company strategy. In writing this strategy says:

'The year 2000 is particularly important because of all the work we did in the past; each of us needs to see the fruits of this long term effort, in a definite way.
Everyone who has taken part in the making of the Prost Peugeot AP03 must feel proud of - and satisfied with - what they have achieved.
Of course there is still a great deal to be done but, the building era past, it is a new spirit which must reveal itself in 2000, one based on confidence and performance. The confidence of the whole team, everyone's loyalty, the continued support of our partners, all this must be rewarded.'

As you can see there's little reward coming Prost's way.
Are they feeling proud? No, there's nothing to be proud of.
Are they satisfied? No, how can they?
Is there still a great deal to be done? They're right about this one.
Is there a new spirit revealing itself in 2000? Yes, but it's not the kind of spirit they were thinking of.
Is everyone loyal to the team? No, people are walking away from it.
Is there continued support of the partners? No, Peugeot has had enough of it.

So, here's a business which is in big trouble, which hasn't achieved any of the goals they set at the beginning of the year.

Whenever I see Alain Prost on television, all I see is a tormented guy with an agonizing problem.
And I feel sorry for him, because I like the man.

I would not be happy when the Prost team should be forced out of Formula One, so I hope Alain get's his things together very soon now.

[Sharky]

Mhhh....I don't know if you guys saw it but in my TV broadcast there was this shot from a cammera directly onto Alain's face and there was this shot where he looked so desperate....not nice....

I really hope that they can land the deal with Mugen and I believe they can pull it off. That team doesen't deserve this performance.

[Liz]

Many people have said, and I believe, that the characteristics of a world class pilote and of a team manager/owner are entirely different matters. A world class pilote has to be entirely selfish and think only of his own best interests first last and all the time, and to demand that others around him do the same. A team owner/manager has to think of the team, even if it means sacrificing his own interests some or all of the time. And a manager can't be a nice guy who lets people walk on him to keep the peace - and he can't be screaming at his people and denigrating them in public either. And Prost is doing both, and I think it's because he has no idea what to do.

Assuming Alesi hasn't killed Heidfeld by now (and that is a big if), and assuming that Alain and Alesi are still friends after what Alesi said in the papers about the aero package of his woeful car, I think this team is in such terrible trouble that perhaps the best solution is for Alain to hire someone else to manage it and for him to step into the background, at least for awhile. Surely he can find someone who can run the team, which he cannot, and restore some dignity to a rapidly worsening situation.

[Super Tourer]

Prost looks a shambles.

At their supposed best track, the team looked all at sea.

I cannot see an easy way forward, AP can only rely on his personal credentials for so long. It must now be the case that the teams performance determines what engines and sponsors they can attract.

It just goes to show that you cannot make a bad car into a good one, as whatever tweaks they have come up with simply don't work. The car looked awful at MC, which is the track they have done more testing on than anywhere.

The drivers are frustrated and de-motivated, the Alesi/Heidfield incident was unfortunate, but neither of these drivers is used to fighting for 18th place......

If they get a Mugen deal for 2001, they need a very basic simple car, that enables them to run at the top end of the mid-field and build on that. To try and make a big leap from where they are will lead to more disaster.

Also Prost desperatly needs to hire in some proper team management and take more of a back seat role himself. He just has to face the fact that as a driver he was great, as a team boss, he is a failure.

[EERO]

I'm not sure that the team will be able to survive.

I sense that the end is near, and feel great saddness for Prost, whom I admire immensely, Alesi who never got a really decent chance and Heidfeld who is probably damaging what could have been a brilliant future. I for one, never imagined that as Ligier was taken over by the seemingly brilliant Alain Prost, that we would be witnessing the self-immolation of a once great team.
The thought lingers though that Bernie won't let them whither away as the crucial twelth spot in the Lineup has been taken by Toyota-with the demise of the French team, Minardi and Sauber become de-valued as they did with Honda's statement two years ago of non-participation in the WDC.

Anyway you slice it, its a bad situation-and I really there wil be light at the end of the tunnel.


I recall how Trulli lead in Austria three years ago-little chance of a similar event in two weeks I should think.