Prost's French folly

Alain Prost is one of F1's most successful drivers

BBC Sport Online profiles the career of Alain Prost as the former Formula One world champion is forced to admit failure as a team principal.

Alain Prost enjoyed amazing success in the Formula One driving seat, but, as a team boss, he appears to have met his match.

Another dismal performance in the championship this season was topped off by his team going into receivership on Thursday.

Prost, dubbed "the professor" during his days as one of the greatest drivers in the sport, collected 51 Grands Prix wins over his 13-year career.

But the four times world champion found life far more difficult when it came to attracting money to save his ailing F1 team.

And the Prost team's record over five seasons is a far cry from his personal achievements on the track.

  Prost's career

Born St Chamond, 24/02/55

Racing debut 1971

F1 debut 1980

Grands Prix 199

Total wins 51

World titles 4

Team boss debut 1997

Team races 83

Team poles 0

Team wins 0

As a driver, he entered 199 Grand Prix and won 51, a record only surpassed by Michael Schumacher this season.

But as a team, Prost Grand Prix won none of the 83 races it took part in, failing to claim even a single pole position.

It will be seen by many as a personal failure for the former champion, who had for so long fought for his dream to run a French F1 team.

Prost became team boss in 1997 when he took over the impoverished Ligier team.

The team had been originally formed in 1976 by French rugby star and F1 amateur Guy Ligier, a close friend of former president Francois Mitterrand.

Prost got off to a promising start, luring the best French driver of the time, Olivier Panis, to the team.

With the car and the Peugeot engine looking good, Prost Grand Prix finished sixth in the constructor's world championship with 21 points.

The team has been by financial worries over the last year

But the team came back down to earth with a sudden thud when they only scored one point the following season.

Prost blamed the poor year on a serious crash suffered by Panis at the Canadian Grand Prix and there was a slight improvement in 1999 with a final haul of nine points.

But this turned out to be merely a temporary reprieve when the French team finished last in the world championship standings with no points.

Things went from bad to worse as sponsors left, Peugeot stopped their partnership after a dispute and tensions were reported to be mounting in the team garage.

Last season, Prost spent most of his time chasing sponsors and rumours of debts estimated at £19m started circulating when Prost failed to turn up at the season-ending Japanese Grand Prix

The Frenchman later conceded he needed at least three quarters of that sum from a new sponsor, but said the team's situation was not that dire.

He claimed that he could pay some 80% of the bill for the Ferrari engines, but that was not to be the case.

Alesi exit

Personal disputes with staff and partners reached a climax this season when he finally parted company with his old friend Jean Alesi.

Alesi, who scored the team's only points in 2001, quit to join Jordan.

The team was left with no French sponsors, no French driver and an Italian engine.

Prost's team has not yet gone bankrupt and could still take part in next season's championship.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) said: "We received their application to participate next season before the 15 November deadline, but we won't be publishing the 2002 entry list until 1 December, as usual."

While his future remains in the balance, it is clear that this has been a sad chapter in Prost's glittering F1 career.