[Raceboy]

Prost not the only team in trouble.

Despite the fact that the media spotlight has been shining firmly on his eponymous outfit, Alain Prost is well aware that his is not the only Formula One team in financial trouble.

Britain's Daily Telegraph this week reported that several other midfield teams may find it hard to make ends meet in 2002, according to rumours circulating at the recent Motor SportBusiness congress in Monaco.

Those mentioned in the report included expected stragglers Arrows and Minardi but also, more surprisingly, the names of midfield frontrunners Jordan and Sauber. The Swiss team has been particularly badly hit, with Red Bull defecting, ironically, to Arrows, and its other major backer, Credit Suisse, being hit by the 11 September attacks on New York.

"Our situation is not very different from that of other teams, except that we are really in need of immediate funding and the timing is unfavourable," Prost told the rival Financial Times, "The sponsors keep hearing from the media that only the large car makers will make it [through the crisis], so naturally they do not come to us."

Prost has yet to finalise an engine supply deal for 2002 with Ferrari, but does not count itself among those with ties to a major motor manufacturer.

The Monaco conference also suggested that the forthcoming ban on tobacco advertising would only hit the sport harder, as there were few companies willing, or able, to replace the amount of money pumped in by one of the world's most buoyant industries.

"I don't think you can replace tobacco advertising," warned the US Skip Barber Racing School's director of marketing Jim Bowie, "There are only ten major players on the planet, and consumers spend five dollars a day - the technical sector just doesn't have that."

Whilst its rivals soldier on towards what could be financially strangled 2002 campaigns, Prost, burdened by a multi-million dollar debt, is urgently seeking 75million Euros to fulfil the entry it lodged with the FIA last month. Three potential suitors remain on the horizon, but Prost admits that time is running out

tziet er niet zo goed uit. binnen 3 jaar nog maar 9 teams op de startgrid ?