Prost Tight-Lipped on Deadline Day

Alain Prost will meet a court-appointed judge on Wednesday to discuss his indebted team's Formula One future but he may have to wait longer for a decision on whether or not they can continue racing.

"We are waiting until midnight for the offers from potential sponsors," said Prost spokeswoman Virginie Papin on Tuesday, deadline day for would-be rescuers to deposit takeover offers with a receiver.

"As far as we don't have all the cards in hand we can't make any comment," she added. "Alain Prost will go to the court (in Versailles) on Wednesday but it might take a few days for a decision to be taken. It might be at the end of this week or maybe next week."

Papin, asked about media reports suggesting that a decision could emerge on Friday, said it was possible but far from certain. The team have said that there are several serious offers that could secure their survival. The season starts in Melbourne on March 3 and Prost's failure to be on the grid would leave Formula One with 11 teams, the same number as last season, since Toyota will be making their race debut.

No Drivers

The team, owned by four times World Champion Prost and with around 300 employees at their factory at Guyancourt near Paris, have resumed work on their 2002 Ferrari-powered car but have no named drivers or title sponsor so far. Prost ended last season ninth overall with four points, all scored by French veteran Jean Alesi. Alesi left the team in August for rivals Jordan and was replaced by German Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

Czech driver Tomas Enge finished the season with the team after Brazilian Luciano Burti was injured in Belgium but the former has decided to go back to Formula 3000 this year while the latter is now a Ferrari test driver. Prost went into receivership in November after amassing debts of around $28 million.

The team boss said at the time that leading sponsors had stayed away because he could not offer guarantees that the team would go on for the whole of the 2002 season.