Exclusive: Camel to back Prost?

Team sources confirm that talks have been ongoing, but that the deal 'is perhaps not as close as we'd like to think it was.' The San Marino Grand Prix at Imola over the weekend of April 13-15 appears the logical place for any announcement, since the cars are still on their 'flyaway' to the first three races, and repainting them is virtually impossible while on the road.

The RJ Reynolds-owned brand has been absent from the sport since splitting with Benetton and Williams at the end of the 1993 season. If a deal happens, the cars are likely to appear in predominantly yellow livery, but logic suggests that at least some patriotic French blue would remain in place.

Prost has been urgently searching for major backing since the cessation of its relationship with Gauloises at the end of the 2000 season. The team was backed by the French SEITA tobacco concern for a record 25 years, initially under the Gitanes brand, starting with its Le Mans effort in 1975.

Apart from Peugeot and the Total arrangement that went with the engine deal, Prost also lost Bic, Agfa and Yahoo! at the end of last year. An influx of funds from Pedro Diniz got the team through the winter, but major backing is still required so that the team can keep up with the payments for its Ferrari engines and gearboxes.

It has gained support from PSN and Acer, but the computer company is said to have picked up the valuable naming rights for the Ferrari engine at a bargain basement price. The livery unveiled by the French team in Melbourne, with sidepods adorned only by the Prost name, made it clear that there is plenty of room for extra support.

German media group UFA Sports, which owns 10% of the team, has the job of finding the funds. Prost's selling point is that it is the only team apart from Minardi which can take on a major sponsor and is in a position to adapt its livery to suit.

Any long-term deal would ultimately be book-ended, since the sport's governing body, the FIA, is set to ban all tobacco advertising in the sport at the end of 2006.

Camel's previous seven-year spell in F1 involved a string of famous names. It is best remembered for its association with Ayrton Senna and later Nelson Piquet at Lotus in 1987-90.

The company then split its effort between Williams and Benetton in 1991-93, a period that saw World Championships for Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost with the former, and the first successes for Michael Schumacher with the latter.