Feature: 'Professor' Prost Receives Bitter Lesson

Dubbed "The Professor" in a career as one of the greatest drivers in Formula One, four times World Champion Alain Prost faced up to painful failure as a team principal on Monday.

The diminutive Frenchman collected 51 Grand Prix wins in a career spanning more than 13 seasons, but failed to attract money to save his ailing Formula One team from being declared bankrupt in court.

Launched in 1997 after he bought Ligier, Prost Grand Prix's record in five seasons looks as poor as his personal record was impressive. As a driver, Prost entered 199 Grands Prix and won 51, a record only surpassed by Ferrari's Michael Schumacher this past season.

As a team, Prost Grand Prix took part in 83 races and won none, failing to claim even a single pole position. The failure will be seen by many as a personal one for Prost, who had for so long fought for his dream of a fully French team. He achieved his ambition of becoming a team boss in 1997, when he took over the ailing Ligier team, marking the first step on what he saw as the path to French motor racing glory.

The purchase had political connotations too - former team chief Guy Ligier was a close friend of former socialist president Francois Mitterrand, while Prost has always been a supporter of neo-Gaullist president Jacques Chirac.

Promising Start

In the first season, 1997, everything seemed to be going well. Prost had managed to lure top French driver Olivier Panis - a surprise winner at Monaco with Ligier the previous year - to the team. The car was fine, the Peugeot engine looked a good prospect and Prost Grand Prix finished sixth in the Constructor's Championship with 21 points.

But after such a promising start, matters went from bad to worse. Only one point was scored in the 1998 season, with Panis perhaps still recovering from a serious crash suffered at the Canadian Grand Prix the previous year. There was a slight improvement in 1999 - nine points and Italian Jarno Trulli's second place at the Nurburgring - but it was merely a temporary reprieve.

In 2000, the French team hit rock bottom by finishing last in the World Championship standings with no points. Sponsors left, Peugeot stopped their partnership after a dispute and tensions were reported to be growing in the team garage. Last season, Prost spent most of his time chasing sponsors in vain, a task which looked to be more demanding than pursuing his former rivals Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell.

Strong Character

Rumours of debts estimated at 200 million francs ($30 million) started circulating when the team boss failed to turn up at the season-ending Japanese Grand Prix. He later conceded he needed at least three quarters of that sum from a new sponsor although he still claimed that he could pay some 80 percent of the bill for the Ferrari engines.

For most observers, his failure came ironically from what had made him such a great sports personality - his strong character. Personal disputes and disagreements with staff members and partners climaxed when he parted company with his old friend Jean Alesi, who scored the team's only four points in 2001, after the driver received an angry letter. This left the nominally French team with no French sponsors, no French driver and an Italian engine.

Ironically, Prost's demise was announced the day after French car maker Renault, for whom Prost won his first victory, trumpeted their return to Formula One. Prost was World Champion in 1985, 1986, 1989 and 1993 and fans will never forget his memorable duels with Brazilian arch-rival Ayrton Senna and Nelson Piquet.

He joined Formula One with McLaren in 1980 and shone despite a poor car. The next year he gained his first victory, driving a Renault home in front of French fans at Le Castellet. Later in his career, what he lost in sheer speed he made up for with a great appreciation of tactical driving - a quality in which he was probably unequaled.