Prost team declared bankrupt

Alain Prost's Formula One team folded today after failing to secure financial guarantees to allow them to keep racing.

The French team was placed into receivership last year after running up debts estimated at $28 million. Despite reports that Prost Grand Prix, launched in 1997, had recently received bids from a group of Italian investors, the court found that there were not enough guarantees for the team to continue.

The widely expected court decision leaves Prost's 300 employees out of work while probably clearing the way for German Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who drove for Prost at the end of last season, to join Arrows.

Prost achieved his ambition of becoming a team boss by taking over the ailing Ligier team, marking the first step on what he saw as the path to French motor racing glory.

Last season, with a Ferrari engine, Prost finished ninth in the constructors world championship with a meagre four points.