In 2001, things looked to be on the up. The cars now ran with Acer-badged Ferrari engines. The season began with Alesi and ex-Minardi driver Gaston Mazzacane, but after four races, the latter was dropped from the team and replaced by Jaguar's Luciano Burti, who himself was replaced at Jaguar by Pedro de la Rosa.
Alesi was very consistent, finishing every race, occasionally in points scoring positions, most notably in Canada, a race he had previously won with Ferrari, when he did a few donuts afterwards and after getting out of the car, threw his helmet into the crowd. It was his best finish with the team. A fallout after the British Grand Prix, however saw Alesi walk out after the German Grand Prix. For his final race with Prost, Alesi scored another championship point in that race of attrition. Indeed, the first start for the race was red-flagged when Burti was launched into the air after crashing at high speed into the back of Michael Schumacher's ailing Ferrari just seconds off the line. Alesi moved to Jordan Grand Prix for the rest of the year, and was replaced at Prost by Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who himself had been sacked from Jordan after Silverstone.
At the end of the season, speculation began surrounding the fate of the team in the light of its increasing debts. Finally, in early 2002 the team went bankrupt, just before the start of the season. Prost had been unable to raise enough sponsorship to keep the team afloat. Deeply hurt by the episode, Prost described it as a disaster for France. Frentzen had hoped to stay, but ended up at Arrows, which also went bankrupt. The team never managed to replace the money that Gauloises stopped supplying when they withdrew their title sponsorship at the end of 2000.
Alesi was very consistent, finishing every race, occasionally in points scoring positions, most notably in Canada, a race he had previously won with Ferrari, when he did a few donuts afterwards and after getting out of the car, threw his helmet into the crowd. It was his best finish with the team. A fallout after the British Grand Prix, however saw Alesi walk out after the German Grand Prix. For his final race with Prost, Alesi scored another championship point in that race of attrition. Indeed, the first start for the race was red-flagged when Burti was launched into the air after crashing at high speed into the back of Michael Schumacher's ailing Ferrari just seconds off the line. Alesi moved to Jordan Grand Prix for the rest of the year, and was replaced at Prost by Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who himself had been sacked from Jordan after Silverstone.
At the end of the season, speculation began surrounding the fate of the team in the light of its increasing debts. Finally, in early 2002 the team went bankrupt, just before the start of the season. Prost had been unable to raise enough sponsorship to keep the team afloat. Deeply hurt by the episode, Prost described it as a disaster for France. Frentzen had hoped to stay, but ended up at Arrows, which also went bankrupt. The team never managed to replace the money that Gauloises stopped supplying when they withdrew their title sponsorship at the end of 2000.
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pic 1: Europe GP Jean Alesi, Prost Racing F1 2001
pic 2: Europe Luciano Burti, Prost Racing F1 2001
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pic 1: France Jean Alesi, Prost Racing F1 2001
pic 2: Brasil Jean Alesi, Prost Racing F1 2001
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pic 1: Brasil Jean Alesi, Prost Racing F1 2001
pic 2: Canada Jean Alesi, Prost Racing F1 2001
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pic 1: Canada Luciano Burti, Prost Racing F1 2001
pic 2: Austria Jean Alesi, Prost Racing F1 2001
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pic 1: Austrian GP Luciano Burti, Prost Racing F1 2001
pic 2: Belgia Luciano Burti, Prost Racing F1 2001
pic 3: Canada Luciano Burti, Prost Racing F1 2001
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pic 1: Brasil Gaston Mazzacane, Prost Racing F1 2001
pic 2: Austria Luciano Burti, Prost Racing F1 2001
Lots of pictures of team Prost are published here. To see the second post click here, and to see the third one click here
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