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| December 20, 2001 | Thursday | Shawwal 4, 1422 |
Villeneuve reserves judgement
BRACKLEY (England), Dec 19: Next year’s British American Racing Formula One car boasts a new and more powerful Honda engine but Jacques Villeneuve is reserving judgement until the New Year.
“We will know in January what is possible with the car,” said the Canadian former champion at the launch of the BAR004 on Tuesday.
“Every other year we were hyper-positive even before Christmas and then we started testing and we were a little bit less positive.
“And then at the start of the season we ended up being disappointed so, this time, I want to wait until I sit in the car and be happily surprised.”
Villeneuve took BAR’s first ever podium this year but the team finished sixth overall after the Canadian had regularly expressed his frustration with the car.
BAR’s Australian director of engineering Malcolm Oastler said the new engine was “really the big significant change” technically for what he called a critical year for the team.
“It has allowed us to change the structure of the car a little bit, which will help us,” he explained. “The car’s quite refined now, very nicely integrated.”
Oastler said the old car had been too slow and was hopeful the lighter RA002E engine, with a wider angle and lower centre of gravity, would be a major boost on a car with 90 percent completely new components.
Prost gloomy
PARIS: Alain Prost is holding out little hope for the survival chances of his Formula One team, which slid into receivership last month.
The four times world champion said on Tuesday that the team faced liquidation if a partner was not secured within the next month.
“If, by Jan 14, I have found no partners, it will very likely mean the liquidiation of Prost Grand Prix,” the Frenchman said in an interview to be published on Wednesday in French financial daily newspaper Les Echos.
Prost, which employs staff of around 300, went into receivership in November, saddled with debts of 200 million French francs ($28 million).
The receivership protects the team from bankruptcy for six months but there is a Jan 15 deadline for firms to register their interest, Les Echos said.
Prost has said the team must find a sponsor to help it shrug off its debts and earlier this month expressed optimism over their Formula One future. But he has since taken a gloomier stance.—Reuters
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