Prost Confirms Financial Difficulties

Alain Prost, whose absence from the season-ending Japanese Grand Prix fuelled rumours of an imminent collapse of his Formula One team, admits facing financial problems but denies they could be terminal.

"It's unacceptable to spread such rumours," he told sports daily l'Equipe. "At the very moment when a new impulse has been created around the arrival of (German driver) Heinz-Harald Frentzen, it is not tolerable that such unfounded and harmful gossip can be spread."

Prost, who met with France's sports' minister Marie-George Buffet, has said that the he is not seeking support from the government in order to survive the current economic recession.

"We have problems, as everybody knows," Prost told TF1. "There are some people helping us, and this is already something positive. I haven't asked anything from the sports' minister. It was simply important that he became aware of the reasons why French drivers have problems, and why we are not able to find French sponsors.

"I know very well that it won't be in this country where we will find the solution to solve the situation. And, keeping in mind what has happened in the world last month, it is obviously difficult to find sponsors. We have two, three possibilities. And that's better than nothing."

Prost added that such a contributor would have to invest at least 150 million francs ($25 million) in his team. The Frenchman responded to concern expressed by Ferrari, who provide their engine, by saying: "The Ferrari engine for 2002 can already be paid at 80 percent."

Prost have not had any major sponsors since French company Gauloises pulled the plug last season, when the team endured a miserable year which saw them finishing in last place in the Constructors' Championship.

In 2001, however, the French team have scored four points and finished in ninth place ahead of Arrows and Minardi.