January 2002

31 January 2002 Less than 24 hours after the accident in Spain in which his car was partially destroyed, M. Schumacher has been testing the F2001 at Mugello.

30 January 2002 M. Schumacher and Barrichello suffered heavy crashes during tests at Montmelo. Both Ferrari drivers walked away from the accidents, but their cars were seriously damaged. As soon as he stepped out of the car M. Schumacher said that he had no idea what had happened, but later changed his mind and said that he had made a mistake and that there was no problem with the car. The dynamics of Barrichello's accident were about the same as M. Schumacher's and he too said that he had made a mistake. M. Schumacher's car lost the rear wing and both rear wheels, while Barrichello's car was less damaged, but it is unusable. Ferrari have called off the rest of their testing.

30 January 2002 Former Prost driver Jean Alesi has accused Alain Prost to be the sole cause of the Prost team's demise. Alesi used to be a personal friend of Prost and drove for his team for one and a half year before moving to the Jordan team following a fall out over the way the Prost team was being run. Prost is also being blamed by other members of the French racing community. Prost’s former Renault team-mate Rene Arnoux also singled out Alain Prost for the team’s failure. Arnoux said that a great driver does not necessarily make a great team manager. Following the Prost team's failure current Drivers World Champion M. Schumacher said that he has no intention of ever becoming a team manager and he would rather do test drives after he retires from racing.

29 January 2002 Prost Grand Prix's former sporting director, John Walton, has joined Minardi as team manager. The announcement was made by Paul Stoddart, who said that he is chasing some other members of the defunct Prost team.

29 January 2002 Marcel Lasee (19) from Germany has tested the new Jordan E11. His best time was half a second slower than that of Jordan driver Takuma Sato. M. Schumacher and Barrichello were the two fastest drivers, with 1'18"444 in 10 laps (M. Schumacher) and 1'18"607 in 66 laps (Barrichello). Heidfeld on Sauber was the third fastest with a best lap time of 1'18"798.

The Tuesday test times from Barcelona:

1 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari 1m18.444s 2 BARRICHELLO Ferrari 1m18.607s 3 HEIDFELD Sauber Petronas 1m18.798s 4 DAVIDSON BAR Honda 1m19.032s 5 PIZZONIA Williams BMW 1m19.220s 6 R.SCHUMACHER Williams BMW 1m19.407s 7 MASSA Sauber Petronas 1m19.507 8 GENE Williams BMW 1m19.747s 9 BUTTON Renault 1m20.073s 10 TRULLI Renault 1m20.359s 11 VILLENEUVE BAR Honda 1m21.077s 12 SALO Toyota 1m21.340s 13 McNISH Toyota 1m21.664s 14 SATO Jordan Honda 1m22.578s 15 LASSEE Jordan Honda 1m23.137s 16 MONTOYA Williams BMW 1m46.189s

29 January 2002 FIA president Max Mosley said that he is not worried about Prost Grand prix's failure. The small teams are always at risk and not much can be done to protect them, he said. In the last 30 years over 50 teams tried their luck with Formula 1 and every single one has had budget problems.

29 January 2002 Gilles Flaire, a technician at Jordan and formerly a member of the French secret service, has warned that bi-directional telemetry could be exploited by hackers if it allows the modification of car parameters from the pits. According to Flaire, even without sending wrong signals to cars, it would be enough to cover a team's signal to prevent the new information from reaching the car. It might even be possible for someone to discover a signal to stop a car from working.

29 January 2002 Australian Mark Webber (25) has joined Minardi-Asiatech as driver. Webber, who also worked as a test driver for Benetton, will partner Malaysian Alex Yoong.

28 January 2002 Alain Prost said that the decision of the Versailles court that put his team into liquidation is the proof of his defeat. Prost Grand prix will not appeal the decision. All assets are to be auctioned and a solution is currently being sought to help the 200 employees who will lose their job.

28 January 2002 The Prost team has ceased existing. A court in Versailles (France) today put the team into liquidation. The team went into receivership in November with reported debts of $27m and no major backers or sponsors to bail it out.

Last updated on by Federica Massagrande