Cheers Grand Prix

cheers

Surname	Cheers Grand Prix
Companies	Cheers Grand Prix SA
Company headquarters	Guyancourt ( F )
Team boss	Alain Prost
statistics
First Grand Prix	Australia 1997
Last Grand Prix	Japan 2001
Race driven	83
Constructors' championship	0 - best result: 6th ( 1997 )
Drivers World Championship	0 - best result: 9th (1997)
Race wins	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
Points	35

Prost Grand Prix is a former French Formula 1 team (1997-2001), which was named after its majority owner Alain Prost . The four-time Formula 1 world champion took over the traditional French team Ligier in 1996 and christened it with his own name. Prost managed his team himself.

Team history

1997

Cheers JS45 from 1997

When Alain Prost took over the Ligier team in 1996, the planning for the 1997 season had already been completed. The new JS45 chassis designed by Loïc Bigois was matched to the Mugen Honda engine, the new tire supplier Bridgestone was brought on board, and sponsorship contracts continued. Olivier Panis was taken over as driver; With Shinji Nakano, he was provided with a pay driver who owed his cockpit to the Japanese engine supplier. The test driver was Emmanuel Collard .

Olivier Panis was able to achieve some respectable successes at the beginning of the season: He finished third in Brazil and second in Spain - nobody expected the French team to be so far ahead. A solid chassis and the Bridgestone tires, which are superior in the heat, enabled the team to achieve good placings in favorable conditions. Before the Canadian Grand Prix , Panis was surprisingly third in the World Championship standings, but unfortunately broke his legs in an accident during the race. Up- and- coming talent Jarno Trulli from Minardi was hired as a replacement and convinced immediately: In Austria he drove 37 laps until the engine of his Prost gave up. At the German Grand Prix he was able to achieve fourth place and thus his personal best position of the season. At the Grand Prix of Luxembourg at the Nürburgring Panis made his comeback and finished sixth, but could no longer build on his old form. Shinji Nakano won two World Cup points with two sixth places in Canada and Hungary , but overall he was not able to convince.

At the end of the season, the team was sixth in the constructors' championship with 21 points. Panis was ninth with 16 points, Trulli with three points 15th and Nakano with two points 18th. It was by far the most successful season of the team.

1998

Prost AP01 from 1998 (Olivier Panis)

For the 1998 season, Alain Prost recruited Peugeot as engine supplier from Jordan - with the firm goal of shaping and establishing the Prost Grand Prix as a purely French racing team. In addition, the team's base and the newly built factory were relocated from Abrest to Guyancourt . Olivier Panis stayed in the team and his former substitute Jarno Trulli became the second regular driver. With the two talented drivers, Prost seemed to have signed a powerful driver duo. Stéphane Sarrazin was hired as a test driver. In addition, an extremely capable designer, John Barnard, was poached by Arrows .

Prost set high goals for 1998. For 1998, however , the FIA issued a number of extensive rule changes that were causing problems for the financially weaker teams. Grooved tires were introduced, the engines throttled and the track of the cars reduced from two meters to 1.80 m. Prost did not bring a competitive vehicle to the start with the AP01 and the Peugeot engine was too heavy and not very reliable. Accordingly, the season was disappointing. Trulli was only able to score a point with sixth place at the Belgian Grand Prix , where a large number of cars had already retired at the start. The other races were mostly hopeless and were often slowed down by technical problems. Even an enhanced version of the car, the AP01B , couldn't do much about that.

After the end of the season, the team only had a ninth place. Trulli finished 16th in the drivers' championship, Panis 22nd.

1999

In 1999 the team took another small step forward. With Alan Jenkins , another talented technicians has been committed (he came from Stewart ). The driver duo Panis / Trulli remained the same; Sarrazin also remained a test driver. And the new AP02 car was again a little more competitive than its predecessor.

Both pilots were able to score two points each. Panis took sixth place each in Brazil and Germany . Trulli also took sixth place in Spain and was able to benefit from the numerous failures at the chaotic Grand Prix of Europe and achieve a surprisingly strong result with second place. It was the third and last podium for the team at all.

Thanks to Trulli's surprising second place, it was at least seventh in the constructors' championship with a total of nine points, which was the second-best overall result in the team's history. Trulli was eleventh with seven points, Panis sixteenth with two points. All in all, this season again failed to meet expectations. Prost continued to drive only in the lower midfield.

• 

  Cheers AP02 from 1999

• 

  Rear view of the vehicle

• 

  Peugeot V10 A18, the engine for the 1999 season

2000

Cheers AP03 from 2000

A completely new driver duo was hired for the 2000 season with the experienced Jean Alesi and the young reigning Formula 3000 champion Nick Heidfeld . This became necessary after Trulli moved to Jordan in the hope of better results and Panis' contract was not renewed. However, Stéphane Sarrazin remained the test driver.

The 2000 season was the lowest point in the history of the Prost team. The AP03 was completely inferior and the now technically outdated and poorly performing Peugeot engine was not competitive either. Reliability was also a major problem. As a result, the team never managed to get into the points and was often left behind even compared to the notorious backbench team Minardi.

In the end, the team finished last in the Constructors' Championship with zero points at the end of the season. That was by far the worst result in the team's history. Heidfeld was 20th, Alesi 22nd in the drivers' standings.

However, the season was not only bad in terms of sport. Peugeot decided to withdraw from Formula 1 due to persistent failure. Also many sponsors, u. a. also main sponsor Gauloises , left the team. Alan Jenkings even left in the middle of the season. And financially, the season with a loss of $ 3.8 million was also a major setback for Prost.

2001

Prost AP04 from 2001 (Jean Alesi)

For 2001 Prost had no engine and no financially strong sponsors. The team was saved for the time being, but was in dire financial straits for the entire season. Abilio Diniz , father of Formula 1 driver Pedro Diniz , bought 40 percent of the shares in the racing team. Cheers compatriot and friend, Ferrari team boss Jean Todt , gave the team a helping hand and offered customer engines at a special rate. Prost was also able to win a new main sponsor with Acer . The latter even agreed to pay for the Ferrari engines, which in turn were named after the sponsor.

Alesi remained loyal to Prost, but Heidfeld switched to Sauber . Instead, Paydriver Gastón Mazzacane (he brought in the sponsor Panamerican Sports Network ) was signed by Minardi. In addition to longtime pilot Stéphane Sarrazin, Pedro de la Rosa was the test driver , who was no longer employed as a driver at Arrows. The latter, however, switched to Jaguar after a few weeks and before the start of the season . He was replaced by Jonathan Cochet . The emergency vehicle for 2001 was the Prost AP04 - a thoroughly solid car with some potential. From then on, the French manufacturer Michelin was the new tire supplier .

Alesi's experience paid off and the Frenchman achieved four key points in Monaco , Canada and Germany . Little was to be expected from the second driver, however: Gastón Mazzacane could not convince and was replaced after four unsuccessful races by Luciano Burti from Jaguar , who ironically lost the cockpit of his old team to Pedro de la Rosa. Burti's performance wasn't much better - but his best result was eighth in the Canadian Grand Prix. Nevertheless, he should actually contest the entire rest of the season. However, he had a serious accident at the Belgian Grand Prix and was unable to continue the season. For the remaining races he was replaced by Tomáš Enge , who, like his two predecessors, could not meet expectations.

Due to the low budget, the car could not be further developed during the season, which is why it became less and less competitive as the season progressed. In the middle of 2001 Prost and his driver Alesi increasingly clashed because the team boss demanded more commitment. Alesi countered with allegations of incorrect management Prosts. When Jordan fired his pilot Heinz-Harald Frentzen , Alesi seized the opportunity and switched to the Irish-British team. In return, Prost took Frentzen under contract, who waived a salary. He achieved at least one respectable success: at the Belgian Grand Prix he sensationally qualified for fourth place on the grid. In the race, however, he had no chance against the overwhelming competition and was knocked off ninth.

After the end of the season, the team finished ninth in the constructors' table with four points. Frentzen was 13th in the drivers' championship with six points, all of which he had scored for Jordan, Alesi with five points (one of which he scored in Jordan) 15th, Burti with zero points 20th, Enge with zero points 24th . and Mazzacane, who also couldn't get any points, was 25th.

The end of the team

Alain Prost in 2009

After the last race in 2001, it was already clear that Prost Grand Prix would no longer go on, as neither drivers were required for the next season, nor was there an engine contract or something similar. Regardless of this, planning for AP05 has started. The Diniz family ended their engagement in November 2001 due to differences of opinion, although it was speculated during the season that they could take over the team completely - this was rejected by Alain Prost. In the end, numerous different donors were in discussion, but nothing concrete came about. On November 22, 2001, Prost Grand Prix had to file for bankruptcy. At the end of January 2002 the commercial court in Versailles declared the bankruptcy proceedings to have failed. That sealed the end of the team.

In February 2002 the investor Charles J. Nickerson took over the remainder of the team including the PS04B of the previous year and wanted it with the support of Tom Walkinshaw , the owner of Arrows, in the season 2002 under the name Phoenix Finance (later: DART Grand Prix) bring it back to the start. However, this project failed.

Numbers and dates

Statistics in Formula 1

season	Team name	chassis	engine	tires	Grand Prix	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Round	Points	World Cup rank
1997	Cheers Gauloises Blondes	Cheers JS45	Mugen Honda 3.0 V10	B.	17th	-	1	1	-	-	21st	6th
1998	Gauloises cheers Peugeot	Cheers AP01	Peugeot 3.0 V10	B.	16	-	-	-	-	-	1	9.
1999	Gauloises cheers Peugeot	Cheers AP02	Peugeot 3.0 V10	B.	16	-	1	-	-	-	9	7th
2000	Gauloises cheers Peugeot	Cheers AP03	Peugeot 3.0 V10	B.	17th	-	-	-	-	-	0	11.
2001	Cheers to Acer	Cheers AP04	Acer 3.0 V10	M.	17th	-	-	-	-	-	4th	9.
total					83	-	2	1	-	-	35

All drivers of the Prost team in Formula 1

Surname	Years	Grand Prix	Points	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	SR	best WM-Pos.
Olivier Panis	1997-1999	42	18th	-	1	1	-	-	9th ( 1997 )
Jarno Trulli	1997-1999	38	11	-	1	-	-	-	11. ( 1999 )
Jean Alesi	2000-2001	29	4th	-	-	-	-	-	14th ( 2001 )
Shinji Nakano	1997	17th	2	-	-	-	-	-	16. ( 1997 )
Nick Heidfeld	2000	16	-	-	-	-	-	-	20th ( 2000 )
Luciano Burti	2001	10	-	-	-	-	-	-	20th ( 2001 )
Heinz-Harald Frentzen	2001	5	-	-	-	-	-	-	13th ( 2001 )
Gastón Mazzacane	2001	4th	-	-	-	-	-	-	25. ( 2001 )
Tomáš Enge	2001	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	24. ( 2001 )

Results in Formula 1

season	chassis	driver	No.	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	Points	rank
1997	JS45																				21st	6th
		O. Panis	14th	5	3	DNF	8th	4th	2	11	INJ	INJ	INJ	INJ	INJ	INJ	INJ	6th	DNF	7th
		J. Trulli									10	8th	4th	7th	15th	10	DNF
		S. Nakano	15th	7th	14th	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	6th	DNF	11 *	7th	6th	DNF	11	DNF	DNF	DNF	10
1998	AP01																				1	9.
		O. Panis	11	9	DNF	DNF	11	16	DNF	DNF	11	DNF	DNF	15th	12	DNF	DNF	12	11
		J. Trulli	12	DNF	DNF	11	DNF	9	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	10	12	DNF	6th	13	DNF	12 *
1999	AP02																				9	7th
		O. Panis	18th	DNF	6th	DNF	DNF	DNF	9	8th	13	10	6th	10	13	11	9	DNF	DNF
		J. Trulli	19th	DNF	DNF	DNF	7th	6th	DNF	7th	9	7th	DNF	8th	12	DNF	2	DNS	DNF
2000	AP03																				0	11.
		J. Alesi	14th	DNF	DNF	DNF	10	DNF	9	DNF	DNF	14th	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	12	DNF	DNF	11
		N. Heidfeld	15th	9	DNF	DNF	DNF	16	EX	8th	DNF	12	DNF	12 *	DNF	DNF	DNF	9	DNF	DNF
2001	AP04																				4th	9.
		J. Alesi	22nd	9	9	8th	9	10	10	6th	5	15th	12	11	6th
		H.-H. Frentzen														DNF	9	DNF	10	12
		G. Mazzacane	23	DNF	12	DNF	DNF
		L. Burti						11	11	DNF	8th	12	10	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	INJ	INJ	INJ
		T. Narrow																12	14th	DNF

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Web links

Commons : Prost Grand Prix  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Team cheers fansite
• Alain Prost: The Chronology of Failure

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w} Alain Prost: The Chronology of Failure , motorsport-total.com of January 28, 2002; Accessed August 14, 2019
2. ↑ ^{a b} Overview: History of the Prost-Rennstalls , Spiegel Online from November 22, 2001; Accessed August 14, 2019
3. ↑ ^{a b c} F1: Prost Grand Prix - What went wrong? , essaar.co.uk of September 3, 2018; Accessed August 15, 2019
4. ↑ Cheers: Diniz senior acquires shares , Spiegel Online from November 30, 2000; Accessed August 15, 2019
5. ↑ Acer joins the Prost Team as the main sponsor , Horizont from February 27, 2001; Accessed August 15, 2019
6. ^ Prost sign De la Rosa as test driver , grandprix.com of February 6, 2001; Accessed August 15, 2019
7. ^ Jaguar confirm De la Rosa signing , grandprix.com of February 20, 2001; Accessed August 15, 2019
8. ^ Prost Sign Jonathan Cochet as Test Driver , atlasf1.com of April 17, 2001; Accessed August 15, 2019
9. ↑ ^{a b} Phoenix Grand Prix team; The Phoenix that did not rise from its ashes , UnracedF1, March 15, 2017; Accessed August 15, 2019
10. ^ "Escape" from de la Rosa: Burti changes to the Prost team , RP online from April 23, 2001; Accessed August 15, 2019
11. ↑ Burti's horror crash overshadows Schumacher's record victory , motorsport-total.com of September 2, 2001; Accessed August 15, 2019
12. ↑ Pedro Diniz no longer involved in Prost , motorsport-total.com of November 2, 2001; Accessed August 15, 2019
13. ↑ 8.4 million marks loss: is Prost bankrupt? , RP online August 9, 2001; Accessed August 15, 2019
14. ^ ^{A b} Formula 1: Prost is broke , Spiegel Online from November 22, 2001; Accessed August 15, 2019
15. ^ Formula 1: Bankruptcy: 2002 season without Prost Team , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of January 28, 2002; Accessed August 15, 2019