Analysis: New Team Faces Huge Task

A new Formula One team to replace failed Prost could be up and running within a month, Arrows boss Tom Walkinshaw said at the weekend.

But unless the new owners can perform miracles or produce bags of money, few people would want to bet on the likelihood of Formula One having a full complement of 12 teams by the Brazilian Grand Prix at the end of March.

"As quickly as possible to make it happen," Walkinshaw declared at the Australian Grand Prix when asked about a time frame for a new team hitting the grid following the purchase of assets belonging to Prost.

"Definitely by Brazil, maybe by Malaysia."

The Prost assets were bought last week by Phoenix Finance Ltd, a company represented by Charles Nickerson and linked to Walkinshaw's TWR Group, who will provide engineering back-up.

Prost's liquidator Cosme Rogeau said in a statement on Friday that the deal covered the team's cars and rights to race in Formula One but not the Prost name or factory.

A further reminder issued on Saturday by both Rogeau and Nickerson stated that the sale "does not include the Prost Grand Prix team but only specific assets.

"It will be a new team which competes in the 2002 Formula One Championship," it added.

But there are many hurdles, some seemingly insurmountable, to be overcome before the statements of intent can become reality and a new team arrives in the paddock.

Legal Obstacles

The first obstacles are legal ones.

Minardi boss Paul Stoddart, who tried and failed to buy the Prost assets himself, has threatened to take court action to prevent Phoenix from competing this season.

The arguments are complicated and shrouded in mystery, since the Concorde Agreement signed by all teams and governing the running of the sport is a secret document whose contents cannot be divulged by the signatories.

Reporters can only speculate about the fine print, helped along by hints from various interested parties and paddock insiders about what the agreement may or may not allow.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) regulations state that a new team entering the sport must first pay a $48 million deposit.

A change of ownership of a team already competing would circumvent that but there was plenty of debate as to whether or not Prost had forfeited their rights by being put in liquidation and failing to turn up in Melbourne.

"It is explicit in the Concorde Agreement that if a company goes into insolvency and it subsequently misses one event, then all its rights fall away," said McLaren boss Ron Dennis.

"If someone attempted to circumvent that by creating a new company, it is just that - a new company - and you can't transfer rights."

Material Difficulties

If the legal difficulties can be resolved, plenty of practical problems remain.

The first is an engine.

The Prost cars were designed for Ferrari's V10 and the Italian team said they will not make engines available to any team this season other than existing clients Sauber.

"We are not going to supply engines for a second (customer) team this year anyway, whoever it is," said sporting director Jean Todt.

It will be hard to shoehorn another engine into the chassis, which must also pass FIA stringent crash tests, but Stoddart hinted at what could happen.

"I think you might find a '99 Arrows engine in the back of this car if it does turn up in Malaysia," he said.

Tyres are the next difficulty and both suppliers Bridgestone and Michelin said at the weekend that they had yet to be approached by any new team.

"We have no desire or intention to take on an extra team," said Michelin spokesman Andy Pope. "Throwing another team into the pot adds all sorts of logistical problems."

Finding two drivers with superlicences at short notice is easier, with Argentine Gaston Mazzacane and Czech Tomas Enge both lined up according to paddock talk, although the latter is contracted to race in Formula 3000.

Both men drove for Prost last year and the team's spokeswoman Virginie Papin said members of the French team were already offering their services.

"I don't think they have a race team right now but Tom (Walkinshaw) would not have been involved if they were not planning to race," she said of Phoenix. "We are trying to give them a list of people who could go to England."

Even if all of the above hurdles are overcome, there remains one obstacle that could be beyond a team put together in such a hurry and such circumstances - qualifying for a race.

Given Ferrari's dominance and the increase in speeds over the past year, wheeling out a three-year-old engine in a year-old car would be like racing a relic of the past.