The Problems of Prost Grand Prix 

I worked for John Barnard's B3 technologies for the Prost years. There are so many stories behind this story, there's not enough room in these comments to tell all the stories. We witnessed so much from our UK base, and I'm sure the guys in Paris would have even more eye watering stories. The Peugeot engine was a disaster, I was at a test at Silverstone where the engine blew up 10 seconds after being installed in the car. The video gets John Barnards position in the team wrong. John and B3 were consultants, with control over only certain areas of the car. The French chief engineers didn't like him or want him there, and they lied and made working with them near impossible at times. The cars were mechanically pretty advanced. JB had developed our areas to be based on the Ferrari developments he had done a few years earlier. Many of the mechanical designs popular on modern F1 cars started with our work on the Prost. Fore example carbon pedals, the small carbon fire extinguisher and the way brake discs are mounted to the axles. The wind tunnel produced spurious results for AP02, and the French aero guys lied about these results and their calibration processes. I was at the seat fitting for Alesi and Heidfeld and the French mechanics were just horrible to Nick. Running and F1 team in France was difficult, the country including a lot of the suppliers of key parts close for all of August. The rules on employment meant staff couldn't be laid off to save money at key times etc. Plus AP had dodgy directors in place with a focus solely on their own financial well being, which I'm surprised the video didn't cover. The French government had promised to support Prost but never came with the money after all the promises that lead to AP being persuaded that he could get and afford the Ferrari engines.

Man you're the hidden gem of F1 RU-vid. I'm a huge F1 history nerd, and yet your videos always leave me entertained and with new bits of knowledge, without fail. Keep it up

those prosts had utterly iconic liveries with an absolutley gorgeous deep blue mettalic piantwork

I just wanted to join the crowd of people praising you and this video. You're insanely underrated for how high-quality and thorough your videos are, and I wish you all the luck in finding your audience.

If Panis in 97 didn't break his leg & Prost finished well high up in the constructors championship, maybe in 98 when it's his first actually car, putting a team together that would of exposed Prost's skills even quicker. It's one of those things where I only knew Prost as team owner before I knew he used to be one of the best drivers in past

They weren’t the fastest in the cars, but they were a Beauty. The 1999-2001 front wings looks amazing and all of the 2001 car looked amazing as well

Another comment for the algorithm... I liked that you highlighted Ericsson going from a mid-tier F1 driver to a Indy 500 champion. Both he and Alexander Rossi left F1 but still managed to get their names etched in the history books of motorsport. I hope it's a path more F1 drivers will follow in the future. Indycar isn't F1 obviously but it's insanely competitive but with a more laid-back less corporate attitude. My number one dream is to see Daniel Ricciardo going for Indycar championships in the next few years. It would fit his driving style and with his charisma he could become the face of a series that's benefited from the explosion in F1 popularity in the US.

Fantastic look back at Prost GP. Back in 1997 I was really pleased to see Olivier Panis and the team up at the front challenging Williams and Ferrari and then absolutely gutted when he had his awful shunt in Canada. The Prost team always struck me as having unfulfilled potential.

Very good video but there's a quite important thing you didn't mention : Jacques Chirac was a huge support for Prost GP but in 1997, the power changed from his party, RPR, to the left opposition PS and the new government didn't give the support Prost would have been given by Chirac and his crew.

Alain should have maintained the connections with Renault despite their departure from the sport. Renault had to develop their new 111 degree concept in public and i’m sure they could have benefited greatly from having a second team to support that programme. Instead they had a couple of misfiring benettons at the back of the grid for the start of the 2001 season

Fantastic, I’d never done a deep dive on the Prost GP project myself until now, a lot of blanks filled in my knowledge. Great vid!!

This video appeared in my recommendations and it's awesome. I always wanted to know the history of this team and man is it a up and down one.

New to the channel, great content. One note, Senna crashed at Australia in 1989, and would have lost the championship to Prost anyway. Everyone makes a big deal about the crash in Suzuka, but it didn't really alter the final result.

I imagine Flavio laughing like a mad man after ripping Prost off selling him this

I cannot believe you're currently below 6k subs, and not into a sixth digit. Amazing content. I was so happy when I saw this video was >60 minutes, as opposed to a typical 6-10 from a host of other content creators. I hope this is working out for you! It's immediately evident that your videos are well researched and put together. Really appreciate your smooth narration and style. I very much look forward to more. Good luck, and good day!

What amazes me even more is that, although Alain Prost failed miserably as a team owner/manager, he held for decades after that important consultant roles in big manufacturers and teams involved in F1 racing. Despite this being a story i know very well, the video was so well made that it kept me hooked. Congrats!

I can't even imagine how long it took you to research this video; it's honestly tough to source information for midfield/backmarker teams in the last 10 years, let alone when the internet was still in it's infancy. Amazing video!

Oh god that Brundle/Blundell pairing was a nightmare for broadcasters around the world. "Brundell" was the true star that season 😂

This video is truly worth the wait!

Prost gets a lot of credit for just trying. It’s a mountain most men wouldn’t attempt to climb

Mate, your content is a breath of fresh air in a space where most videos are either 1. someone regurgitating blatantly obvious facts about a driver or a race with this moronic feigned excitement, 2. sensationalistic paddock gossip and clickbait, 3. reciting slightly modified Wikipedia articles 4. Someone running his or her mouth about trivialities just long enough so that they can claim ad revenue. Keep up the good work! 😎

Good summary by the Daily Telegraph: "no one made the driving of an F1 car look so effortless but no one made the running of an F1 team look so arduous"..... than Alain Prost. All is said.

Good vid, you missed a couple of points on the management side though, I seem to recall a costly and difficult factory move from Magny Cours (with it's own test track) to Paris and some problems with French unions along the way.

This channel will inevitably blow up

Another incredible video for F1 history lovers like me. Absolutely fantastic. Thank you very much. :)

12:54 The dr evil fade to the cigarette smoking while synched with “200 million” is a thing of beauty.

Prost did show promise in the beginning, despite their 1997 car being a carry over of Ligier's 1996 car but then things came crashing down and I agree that most of the blame for that was Prost just not having what it takes to manage the team which caused the falling out with Peugeot, which was one the catalysts for their lack of money. I still rate Prost a lot as a driver since his career as a driver was a mighty and his more smarter driver style was pretty amazing to hear about. Comparing it to Prost GP is night and day and I can totally see why Prost thought the team was such a massive regret of his. It was really fun learning more about this team especially since it was a team before my time and I can't wait to see what you have in store for the future. The F1 season started interestingly. Despite the Red Bull dominance, Aston Martin lived up to the hype quite well with that podium and it will be fun to see what that team gets up to in the future. I am not expecting a Frenzten in 1999 performance from Alonso where he challenges for the title but I do see more great race results for the Silverstone based team in the future. Also Williams scored a point and you can't complain about that.

Olivier Panis was an underrated driver. Shame about Montreal 97, he was never the same.

Dude this is outstanding. I've been watching F1 since 1993 and often find content creators' lack of historical knowledge frustrating (its my problem as a racing history buff...NOT the content creators') However, you seem to have a similar love of accurate racing history and that's why this channel is AMAZING

Incidentally, Ligier make a lot of "sans permis" (no licence) moped cars in France.

This is my favorite F1 video I’ve seen in a great long while, bravo. You’ve earned a subscription.

That's remarkable content, that is. I don't know why and how I just managed to stumble upon this video (and your channel, to which I subscripted sharpish) only today, but there you go. Thanks so much! That being said, the picture of Trulli signing for Jordan in 1999 reminded me of the huge momentum Trulli, and Jordan, for that matter, created for themselves. I was only a kid back then but in the formative years & process of what would leave me a complete and utter F1 nerd at the current age of 32, almost embarrassingly so (if you asked my wife & friends). To this day I remember the excitement I felt about the prospect of a team that was all the rage back then signing a driver who, as you neatly worked out in this video, showed great potential of being a future champion. But, and this is where I'm going, Trulli never really fulfilled said potential, which would be an interesting story in and of itself. Greetings from Germany!

Great stuff as always. It interesting to learn about the failures from F1's past because we always hear so much about the success. The failures might be more entertaining and (in their own way) more enlightening.

Amazing narration and an excellent conclusion to this history that has made me rethink my own leadership skills. Thank you.

If someone doesn’t know who Prost is they should be caned, unless they started watching F1 in the last six months. Stewart, meanwhile, had a great run for a newbie. Prost’s run in the Ferrari in 1990 was one of the best driver performances in history.

Awesome stuff. Love the (more or less) backmarker content. Looking forward to whatever comes next.

Great video. One does wonder why Peugeot changed the terms of their deal at the last minute - it's quite a step down from five years of free engines to three years that you have to contribute towards...

This is such incredible great content. I Love all your Videos and really recommended them around the German F1 fan podcast community „Starting Grid“. Especially as you always focus on so many details and niches and small Teams and events that Journalist years later always leave out. Keep up the great work, can’t wait for the next!

Excellent work that puts the big media efforts to shame.

Hi mate, great video, 2nd time watching it.. Pointless fact.... During the late 90s when my father was working as the Accounts Manager for Agfa Gaevert, in that period Agfa were a premium sponsor of Prost from 98-01. I remember the Prost merchandise Dad used to bring home for me, hats, jackets, flags, posters, jumpers, bags, models, magazines, teddys, stationery etc etc. All manner of things. My point is and if my memory serves me, the amount of money Agfa paid Prost as sponsor was to the tune of $15 million a year for 4 years. $60 million over 4 years from one sponsor for a midfield team. Mental.....

I love it.. great research and presentation.

This video was great and after looking at your video library, which is unique (while most retrospective channels all cover the same old stories to death), I’ve subbed. I see a bright future here.

I loved binging through a lot of your videos as you always seem to hit the spot with what to choose for topics like many of the videos that you made haven't been nearly documented as well as you do so I have to give you props to that and I am excited to see more videos come from

insanely high quality to come across on first interaction with a channel; after taking a scan of the channel, the other stories you've covered look like they're gonna be fantastic watches. cannot wait to dive into your channel, keep up the great work

The greatest joy about RU-vid for me, is finding small channels which produce great content. I have now doubt your success will multiply in rapid order. Wonderful video.

What a relaxing and informative listen, had this on all throughout work today. Keep doing what you’re doing man, we need more high quality F1 history channels like yourself!

I have looked at one other video that summarized the whole drama between Alain Prost and his dream of owning a team, and I was suprised about how it failed because of engines from an unreliable manufacturer. But after watching this and listening to his Beyond The Grid episode from 2018 I didn't realize how difficult it really is to own and run a team in Formula 1, and there was more to it than Peugeot giving the team a s***box in 1998 and 2000. Alain Prost himself said "2 days before signing the contract and buying Ligier I told the French President I don't want to do it anymore but the French President told Prost we will help you at a later date." Yet of course that never happened as Peugeot left at the end of 2000 but didn't leave completely as they provided engines to Arrows and Minardi until the end of 2002 as Asiatech. Sadly I believe the decline and the end of Prost Grand Prix came from Olivier Panis' (truly his) career ending injury crash at Canada '97 he was never the same driver since then which is a shame considering the true potential he had. He could've being world champion and he could've brought Alain Prost to glory as a team owner it just wasn't meant to be I guess.

Amazing documentary mate! Exactly what i was looking for! Thank you for sharing your passion, i think i have found my new favorite f1 channel!!! thank you!

Great video. I remember watching Prost GP back in the day and the promise they always showed before failure. One thing I will give them though, they were stunning looking cars in that all blue livery.

Just wanted to join in with the praise, for both this video and the channel. I very much enjoy the long-form, documentary style of these videos, and your knowledge, research and delivery are really top notch. Keep up the great work, and from one F1 fan to another, best of luck!

I enjoyed all the information and analysis of the video, thanks for a such quality content. Going back in the 90´s. Can you make another vid about the failure of Tom Walkinshaw Racing in F1 and the latest Arrows days? A similar story with other interesting facts. Greetings from Argentina.

Your narration is great, as well as the humor dispersed within it. Subscribed

This channel is pure gold.

This is superb, entertaining and informative, well edited, and the first futurama reference made me spit tea all over the place due to the unexpectedness :D

Brilliant video. So interesting. I enjoy F1 history, you have a talent, thanks for sharing. You’ve a superb commentary voice.

Great content, you deserve a much larger audience. Very few provide such top quality content even those with tv budgets. Much appreciated. Subscribed so you have one more. Thank you

Keep up this sort of content and I can’t see this channel breaking 100k

Great video. Always liked the color of the car and uniform of the final Prost team.

Wonderful video!! I learned a lot from this. Hope you get more attention!

In 1990 I understood the move from Senna.He was on pole and had to start on a place where they no drive, so no grip. there was a disscusion before the race where Senna want a better place for a pole. So I understood his move in the first corner, no matter how unfair it seemed. By the way, unfair behaviour was really difficult normal in those days. Schumacher for example and it goes on and on. But I liked Prost, he was a super driver, 4 times worldchampion with all his problems. He was great! Where are we going with F1, races in Arabia, America and not in France? Crazy, there is a France team even! Look out F1, was my favorite sport, but they run backwards. I am Dutch and offcourse a big fan of Max. Max, as a relatively young man, is so intelligent, he doesn't want a ridiculous amount of races for example. Lewis had a hugely impressive critique of Saudi last year. No woman is allowed to study there and we race in countries like that. Ridiculous. Money kills F1. Great vlog, Thank you!

This is excellent well done. You are the RU-vid version of bring back v10s.

I'm so glad I found this Video! I'm requesting a ProstGP video for years from the Bring Back V10s Podcast, and they really always just scrape the surface. Now I don't need to listen to them anymore ;) checked your other vids as well and loved them all. Please keep creating! I'd be interested in a Minardi and Arrows Video as well, but no pressure 😄

great great job! I loved. I really knew little about what prost had done since at the time it was very difficult to obtain information. I hope you keep doing this good work. do lotus? the original .

Would you be interested in making a mega Ferrari video where you breakdown every major Ferrari conflicts and political chaos from the history of the sport. From Lauda and Ferrari falling apart to Prost and Ferrari to Schumacher being forcebly replaced to Alonso and Ferrari to Arrivabene and Ferrari to Vettel and Ferrari to Binotto and Ferrari etc... It would be really fitting considering what's happening right now.

This content is absolutely wonderful, seems very much like the F1-focused equivalent to what nascarmanhistory and Brock Beard do for NASCAR and IndyCar. This is really good stuff!

Phenomenal channel, thanks for putting in so much effort into the videos

Great info, on point humour, what a joy to watch! 😂😂 keep up the great work!

Love your detail nish vids. Cheers!

What a fantastic channel to stumble across, finally, something of substance!

This was amazing bud, really enjoyed and have subscribed 🙂

Whilst I agree with your conclusions, you seem to overlook some things about the loss of sponsors - for example, the main reason for the loss of Galloises sponsorship was that they were a tobacco company and tobacco sponsorship had become outlawed; the loss of Total sponsorship was due to the loss of Peugeot engines - French engine manufacturers seem to have longterm partnerships/associations with French oil companies; Elf is usually seen on Renault powered vehicles; whilst Total tends to be associated with Peugeot/Citroën. The Total deal was contingent on Peugeot power. There are likely simple explanations for some other sponsors too, all of which give slightly different context.

absolute in love with your content 👌🏻

Another Mobile Chicane Banger

immaculate content

Loving the channel dude! Now that we're back in season would you ever want to do any current F1 events?

Great video! I was surprised that there was no mention at all of Jackie Stewart and his team along with the others (McLaren, Brabham, etc)

AMAZING😉 show man! Topclass!

Also, the podium at Spain in '97 was the last Francophone podium to date (Jean Alesi coming home third). Plus it's a bit of a reversal of Brazil since Panis finished third behind Gerhard Berger in the other Benetton.

Thanks nice video! In about a week I will post a review video about the Ligier JS37 from 1992 :)

That was a very well made interesting videos. I like to see more of that!

Really enjoyed this thankyou :)

You deserve more subscribers mate, keep at it 👍

This is so relaxing to listen too and live yourself into

Well Done Simon

Excellent, high quality video. 👏

Just discovered you mate, great stuff! Abo done!

Love your Video’s m8 ❤

I really don't remember Prost being mentioned anywhere near as contenders in their time, but i only really remember their last couple of years. Great vid

Nice. The beginning of the end of the semi-independent teams (no more French govt from Chirac 1997 onwards began to pinch them)

Oddly I was only talking to a friend of mine the other day as I have 2 Prost racing company shirts. They were given to me by a guy who worked on R and D for the team.

Hometown Bridge and a ball of wool!! That's so Jean Alesi!! 😂😂

Top quality video as always 👍

Amazing video. The voice over level is a bit low, so made it a bit hard to hear, hope you can fix it for future videos.

Great Video of a dream thats got crushing Down the hard way

Fantastic video!

Are you aware that whenever you talk about Collard you show a picture of Trulli? Was so confused because I recognise Trulli’s lid from karting pictures 😂

Another great video 🏁☮️❤️🎵👍

Oh yes, i love good ambitious but turn mediocre F1 team story. In general Peugeot and their motorsport activity is weird, they seem to make same mistakes all over again - every time they do something right, soon after they decide to ruin it somehow. Like couple years later in WRC - had great success with 206, decide to swap for 307 CC... No wonder Citroën took over after that😅

Glad it's finally here

Well done. Excellent video