Heidfeld Worried About Future at Prost

German Nick Heidfeld said on Friday he feared his Formula One career could be cut short at Alain Prost's struggling team.

Heidfeld, in his debut season after winning the European Formula 3000 title, and his French team mate Jean Alesi collided with each other at the last Austrian Grand Prix and the German was blamed for the accident.

Rumours that the German might be on his way out started circulating.

Asked at his home Grand Prix whether he feared his Formula One adventure might come to a brutal end, Heidfeld replied: "Yes, I am worried.

"The ideal scenario would be for me to score points in the next few races but it remains to be seen whether I can do that."

His manager Werner Heinz said that "Prost will decide on August 27 at the latest whether he keeps Nick.

"We hope he can stay in that team."

The Blues Can Also Lose

Heidfeld is not the only one uncertain about the future at the French team run by former four times champion Prost.

France -- "Les Bleus" -- are world and European champions at soccer but Prost has shown conclusively this season that French teams in blue are not always winners.

Alone with the tiny Minardi team, Prost have yet to take a single point from 10 races so far in 2000.

To add to their problems, French carmaker Peugeot announced this week that they were pulling out at the end of the season after supplying engines to the team with little success for the last three years.

Nicknamed the Professor for his astute approach in his racing days, Prost is struggling to find a remedy for his ailing team and press reports have suggested he may sell up.

Prost declined to comment, saying only that an investment bank was dealing with the financial aspects related to his efforts to find a way out of the crisis.

"I'll take my time," said the most prolific Grand Prix driver of all time with 51 wins, who was aware Peugeot would quit months before it was officially announced.

Alesi Waits For The Word

"All I can tell you is Alain has had several offers, not just one," said a Prost official.

Prost retired from racing after his last world title in a Williams in 1993 and became a team boss by buying the troubled Ligier team and renaming it after him.

The first season, with a Mugen Honda engine in 1997, was encouraging but, as an all-French outfit with Peugeot, they have struggled and taken just 10 points in the last two years.

However everybody at Prost was full of hope when the season started.

The new car, pencilled by new technical director Alan Jenkins and design guru John Barnard, looked promising and so did the pairing of drivers.

Nobody questioned the experience and skills of veteran Alesi while Heidfeld had shown maturity beyond his years as a test driver for McLaren.

The goal, Prost said, was to finish within the top five in the constructors' standings.

But the deep blue AP03 car soon proved just as hard to handle as its predecessor and its Peugeot V10 lived up to its reputation as an unreliable engine.

After a few races, Prost and Jenkins parted company.

The situation went from bad to worse, reaching the low at the Austrian Grand Prix this month.

Alesi, who said he had been contacted by other teams, revealed that he had learned about Peugeot's decision to withdraw by reading the newspapers.

"It didn't change anything to the way the team works," he said. "Now all we can do is to wait for the next step which is for Alain to announce what he does with the team."