The current poor season being suffered by the Prost-Peugeot combination could see the French engine manufacturer quitting F1 at the end of the year.



The Gallic outfit has yet to secure a point in the 1998 world championship, and Peugeot is rumoured to be thinking about breaking its contract with former champion Alain Prost. There is less pressure to remain in F1 following Renault's departure last season, and the recalcitrant AP01 chassis is not showing the company in a good light.


 
(We're paying for our inexperience, our mistakes and a lack of reliability,) said Prost, (We are not well.) He refused to blame drivers Olivier Panis and Jarno Trulli for the current situation, however.


 
Stories also suggest Prost will replace former Renault man and team technical director Bernard Dudot with Arrows' designer John Barnard. The Englishman is a firm friend of Prost's, and worked with him in his driving days at Ferrari and McLaren. Barnard's satellite design company B3 is known to have designed new suspension parts for the current Prost car, but his reluctance to work abroad still clouds the possibility of him working for his former charge on a full-time basis.