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The car that cost Prost his French F1 dream

In 2000, Formula 1's French driver, car and engine combination promised much. But it descended into a failure that marked the end of Peugeot's time in grand prix racing and the beginning of the end for Alain Prost's team

Jake Boxall-Legge Apr 23, 2020, 3:08 PM

Before Esteban Ocon threw his lot in with Renault for 2020, the last time that a French driver properly ran in Formula 1 with a French car and engine (we're not counting Romain Grosjean's late 2009 cameo for Renault) was at the turn of the millennium. Back then, Jean Alesi was resigned to trundling around at the back of the field for the Prost team, powered by a Peugeot engine.

Alesi had become friends with team principal Alain Prost during their time racing at Ferrari together in 1991, and decided to join the four-time world champion's squad for the 2000 season when Olivier Panis crossed the Channel (or La Manche, s'il vous plait) to take a test driver role with McLaren.

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Author Jake Boxall-Legge

Jake studied engineering at university, as his original ambition was to design racing cars. He was bad at that, and thus decided to write about them instead with an equally limited skillset. The above article is a demonstration of that. In his spare time, Jake enjoys people, places, and things.