A leading British paper has claimed that Volkswagen, with backing from Arrows boss Tom Walkinshaw, is the power behind the purchase of the bankrupt Prost team last week. F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, a close friend of VW’s future boss and F1 fan Bernd Pischetsrieder was believed to have been the go-between in the deal.
A leading British paper has claimed that Volkswagen, with backing from Arrows boss Tom Walkinshaw, is the power behind the purchase of the brankrupt Prost team last week. F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, a close friend of VW’s future boss and F1 fan Bernd Pischetsrieder was believed to have been the go-between in the deal.
The report also suggests that team could race under the name of Skoda, the Czech firm owned by Volkswagen AG, from as early as the Malaysian Grand Prix in two weeks’ time.
on Sunday revealed that the sale of the Prost team’s assets for around R25 million to British businessman Charles Nickerson’s Phoenix Finance could realise Volkswagen’s long-cherished dream of joining the ranks of Formula One.
“Confirmation that VW are the power behind Nickelson’s consortium would cause further outrage as it would deliver the German company their long-cherished ambition to join F1, at a bargain-basement price, and also give the new team a whole season of on-the-job testing for a concerted championship effort in 2003,” the report said.
Reports in Germany said Volkswagen planned to fit Walkinshaw’s old Arrows engines into the 2001 Prost chassis in order to race in Malaysia, or possibly the Brazilian Grand Prix on March 31.
added that the new team’s drivers were set to be Czech Thomas Enge, who raced for Prost in 2001, and Argentine Gaston Mazzacane. Pischetsrieder, who was a key figure in BMW’s return to F1 before having to quit the Bavarian company over its disastrous purchase of Rover, has always sought a return to top-grade motor sport.
“Everybody knows that I have always been an F1 fan and I would love to own a team there one day,” he told the newspaper.
Pischetsrieder was also recently quoted as saying: “Even if we decided to enter Formula One today, we would lack a team.” For this reason, VW’s initial idea was to supply a team with engines first, following the lines of their German rivals Mercedes and BMW, but the purchase of Prost will lead the Volkswagen Group – be it under the name of VW, Seat or Skoda – to join the grid in their own right.
The Skoda company, founded in 1905, was bought by VW in 1995 and regularly takes part in the world rally championship.