Team story
Origins
Alain Prost bought Ligier from Flavio Briatore in February 1997 and gave the team his surname. Its first car remained the JS45, still part of the Ligier lineage, with a Mugen-Honda engine and Bridgestone tyres. Olivier Panis and Shinji Nakano began a season that promised more than the following years would deliver.
The Formula 1 journey
Panis reached the podium in Brazil and finished second in Spain, before his serious accident in Canada kept him away from racing until the Luxembourg Grand Prix. Jarno Trulli replaced him and earned a permanent seat; in 1999 he secured Prost’s third and final podium at the Nürburgring. The 2000 season, with Jean Alesi and Nick Heidfeld, passed without points.
Historical timeline
Three chapters in the story of Prost
Three episodes to revisit the people, cars and races that shaped this journey.
First appearance · Australian Grand Prix
Olivier Panis · Australian Grand Prix 1997. The recorded position is P5; this number alone does not show whether the driver completed the race distance. This is the first recorded race start, or the first entry if the team never started a race.
Sporting landmark · Brazilian Grand Prix
Olivier Panis · Brazilian Grand Prix 1997. The recorded position is P3; this number alone does not show whether the driver completed the race distance. This marks the first win or podium where one exists, otherwise the highest recorded placing for this constructor.
Latest recorded appearance · Japanese Grand Prix
Tomáš Enge · Japanese Grand Prix 2001. The recorded outcome is DNF. This is the last race start attributed to this constructor in the archive, not necessarily the end of the organisation behind it.
A distinctive way of racing
From 1998 the AP designations accompanied the Peugeot partnership: AP01, AP02 and AP03 represented the attempt to build a French programme around chassis and engine. In 2001 the AP04 switched to a Ferrari engine rebadged as Acer. Alesi scored points again, but the technical change did not resolve the organisation’s financial fragility.
What remains
The liquidation ordered in Versailles in January 2002 prevented a sixth season. Driver changes continued even in the final year, with Burti, Frentzen and Enge among those in the cockpit. Prost GP leaves an unfinished transformation of Ligier: the three podiums achieved under the new banner belong to it, while the previous team’s victories remain Ligier results.
