Prost was born out of the ashes of the Ligier team which Alain Prost took control of in 1996

Ligier made their debut in 1976 and built some successful cars which took Jacques Laffite and Didier Pironi to Grand Prix victories in the late-Seventies and early-Eighties.

The team then failed to win a race for 15 years until Olivier Panis took his brilliant win in the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix.

The cars became known as Prosts in 1997 and Olivier Panis looked capable of pulling off another surprise after he took third in Brazil and second in Spain. However, it all went sour for Panis when he broke his legs in the Canadian Grand Prix. He was replaced by Jarno Trulli who went on to lead the Austrian Grand Prix.

Trulli and Panis were picked as the team's driver pairing for 1998 although the Prost AP01 was not a good car. It lacked rigidity and the year yielded just a solitary point for Jarno Trulli.

Last season was a little better although the team still has a long way to go before it can challenge regularly for points. Panis' third on the grid in Magny-Cours and Trulli's second place were highlights but it seems Peugeot are reluctant to invest the kind of sums needed to take on F1's big guns.

F3000 champion Nick Heidfeld and veteran Jean Alesi joined the team last Autumn and will head up Prost's F1 attack in 2000.