Brazilian GP Prost race notes

The second Grand Prix of the season ended prematurely for the Gauloises Prost Peugeot team, but the great amount of work accomplished by the team began to show.

Jean Alesi and Nick Heidfeld both suffered from reliability problems throughout the weekend but they have been able to prove the competitiveness and real potential of the Prost Peugeot AP03

"I was quite happy with the car during the race, which felt really better than in qualifying," stated Heidfeld who retired on lap ten. "My initial start was not that good, at least I did not lose any places, but during the first lap I was able to overtake several cars, and to keep the pace of those in front of me. So, I was confident, considering that I was going on a one-stop strategy, even though the car was a bit difficult to drive because of a nervous back end. Unfortunately, the engine failed on my tenth lap."

"As I said yesterday, I did not manage to do a good qualifying because of the panel which fell on my car, the red flags and then the rain... It is really sad because it is not the place we deserve considering our potential," commented Alesi who retired three laps after his teammate. "Last week in Silverstone, we did some good testing but we have not been able to confirm anything here because of reliability problems. However, I am not worried at all since I have proved I could fight on the track and overtake several cars until reaching ninth position. Unfortunately on my thirteenth lap, I had to retire because of an electronic failure. We have some testing planned in Silverstone this week and it will certainly allow us to work on the reliability before Imola. The team did a very good job this weekend and I am sure we will improve further very soon."

" It is really a shame we lack that much reliability, whereas we have clearly a strong potential, as we could show during this weekend," added Alain Prost. "The positive element is the fact that the two drivers have been satisfied with the chassis behaviour during the race. Testing in Silverstone this week will clearly be very important for us in order to sort out our reliability problems before the Imola race." "A considerable improvement has been made in terms of overall performance of the car. But we still lack reliability, especially the engine and the electronics," concluded Corrado Provera, Peugeot Sport Director. "It is all the more of a shame that the whole team did a very good job and that Jean Alesi made a spectacular opening run. "