Grapevine: Prost Keeping Quiet on Reported Rescue Bid

Alain Prost's debt-saddled Formula One team said on Monday they could not confirm French media reports they had clinched a rescue deal, but said they had received serious offers that may ensure their survival.

The team run by the four-times World Champion, which went into receivership in November with debts of around $28 million, faces liquidation if they do not find a partner by a self-imposed January 15 deadline.

French LCI television said a group believed to include French industrialists had agreed to rescue Prost in a 36 million euro ($32 million) deal, but team spokeswoman Virginie Papin said she could neither confirm nor deny the report.

"We have had a lot of propositions and the situation is changing every day. I can tell you we have six to eight serious offers," she told Reuters. "Most of them are from abroad... I don't know if we have had any French offers," she said, adding she was hopeful about a deal but did not want to jeopardise negotiations by commenting on details in the media.

Prost has sounded increasingly pessimistic about the chances of a rescue bid emerging, but Papin said the offers were "becoming increasingly concrete".