Prost Crisis a 'Concern' for F1, Says Todt

Ferrari's sporting director Jean Todt says the financial crisis at Prost is a concern to the whole sport and believes the recession is already making it harder for teams to find the big-money backers they need in the high-powered, high-cost sport.

Speaking at a news conference at the World Champion winning squad's winter retreat in the Dolomites, Frenchman Todt said it was tough to keep a Formula One team going in the current economic environment.

"Definitely it is difficult to run a F1 team," said Todt. "It is very difficult to find the budget. You need to have a lot of income through the sponsors. The world situation does not allow you to find sponsors easily and the inflation on the cars, if you want to be competitive, is much higher than normal inflation.

"So definitely it is a concern for lots of teams in Formula One and probably the ones who have suffered the most from this situation are Prost," added the Ferrari chief.

The French team, run by four times World Champion Alain Prost with around 300 employees, are in receivership after amassing debts of about $28 million with the 2002 season due to start in Australia on March 3. Ferrari have an indirect stake in Prost's future as they supply the team's engine, but Todt said the Italian-based team would wait for the outcome of any rescue bids before deciding what steps to take in their relationship with Prost.

"First of all we will know in the coming days if he has found some partners and then depending on the answers it will be up to us to decide what to do," said Todt.

Glamour Team

Despite acknowledging that teams face hard times on the financial front, Todt said Ferrari, without doubt the glamour team on the circuit, remain in a healthy situation thanks to a strong team of multinational sponsors.

"On our side we are very pleased to have so many good partners...this allows us to see the future quite positively," said Todt.

Minardi boss Paul Stoddart, recently warned that more teams could go to the wall without help from the wealthier squads.

"Unless there is a fairer redistribution of wealth in Formula One, Prost probably won't be the last one that goes down. Formula One eats money and you need wicked amounts of it to keep going," said Stoddart.

"There are the haves and have-nots in Formula One and the haves are getting richer while it's getting harder for the have-nots. And September 11 did not help," added the Minardi boss.

Lotus are the biggest name to have fallen out of the sport due to lack of finances in recent years when they were forced to withdraw in 1995. But since then, Formula One has managed to avoid similar high-profile failures. Simtek and Pacific made less of a splash mid-season in 1995, Forti in 1996.