Prost saga: Stoddart's spoiler bid

The Arrows boss claims that buyers have been accepted for the bankrupt French team and that his company TWR will provide technical support. He has denied that he has bought the assets himself.

But Stoddart claims that Walkinshaw has paid 2.586 million Euros for Prost - or more accurately the entry, the intellectual property rights, the AP04s and the rights to the AP05. He claims that there is also a clause in F1's Concorde Agreement specifically excluding what he alleges Walkinshaw has done.

"Which is why I pulled out last night," Stoddart said. "As soon as we had finished scrutineering here and the official documents were out, I withdrew my bid. It was only there as a spoiler anyway to stop Tom doing what he's trying to do. I put in a bid of 2.5 million Euros and I told him yesterday what my bid was - his original bid was lower - I told him what mine was and I told him not to do it. But I see he didn't listen to me and topped my bid.

"I saw Tom in the pit lane and he told me to back off. I told him to forget it, it was all over, then somewhat to my amazement I was woken up at 1am this morning to be told that he had done it. I was quite enjoying the Grand Prix until then but it's all gone a bit pear-shaped..."

Stoddart stressed that he was planning to make sure Prost was not revived and that his bid was purely a spoiling one.

Although Jean Todt has confirmed that Ferrari will not supply any Prost revival with engines, Stoddart explained that it is more than likely that a 1999 TWR engine would appear in the back of the cars if indeed they are seen in Malaysia or Brazil.

It is understood that entries have been submitted for Malaysia with Gaston Mazzacane and Tomas Enge listed as drivers.