Alain Prost Buys Ligier, Forms Prost Grand Prix

02/17/97

Reuters reports that Alain Prost, four time world champion in Formula One racing, will buy F1's Ligier team from Italian Flavio Briatore. Prost will change the team's name to Prost Grand Prix, and compete in the 1997 world championship series with drivers Olivier Panis of France and Shinji Nakano of Japan.

Prost will use Ligier's new JS 45 cars this season and stick with the Mugen-Honda engines that they've been fitted with. Starting in 1998, the team will use Peugeot's V10 powerplants, which Jordan also uses.

Ligier was established in 1976 and won eight Grand Prix races between 1977 and 1981. In 1994 Flavio Briatore bought the team, hoping to obtain their Renault engine for the Benneton team which he also owned. Last year Olivier Panis drove the Ligier car to a victory in Monaco and the team finished in sixth position in the constructor's world series.

Alain Prost stopped racing in 1993, after winning a record 51 grand prix races and winning his fourth world championship title.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel