14 replies to this topic

[Bob Nomates]

Peugeot, the Prost engine supplier, is expected to announce shortly
that it will quit F1 at the end of this year.

The French firm last year vowed its commitment to Prost despite a
lack of results, but the start to this year, with continual reliability
problems in testing and races, is thought to be the final straw.

Peugeot is focussing on its rallying programme with the successful
206 machine, and is believed to be keen on pouring resources into
the project to gain Championship success.

I thought they might have gone back to Jordan at the end of the season, it looks like Prost and Jordan will be battling again to decide who gets the next engine deal.

[BRG]

It seems strange that when Peugeot entered F1, they had an engine that would last 24 hours, but with careful development, it will now last 24 minutes....

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BRG

"all the time, maximum attack"

[BuzzingHornet]

Peugeot are terrible... Jordan were treated pretty badly by them as well, after making them look good.

Both Jordan and Prost can do better

[Williams]

At the beginning of the season, Peugeot said they would committ to fully supporting Prost for ONE MORE SEASON. This is not news, it was expected that they would hang it up after this season.

[Nathan]

I agree that Peugoet should leave. I think both Prost and Peugoet have not done well enough of a job for each other.

However since every engine maker that leaves F-1 seems to be purchased by another company. Will another company purchase the rights and equipment from Peugoet? (ie Merccachrome/Renault, Arrows/Yamaha and Minardi/Ford.) If Im not mistaken is the Sauber/Ferrari contract over at the end of the season? If so, would it not be hard to say perhaps maybe Sauber or a sponsor like Petronas could purchase the rights to the engine? It dont think Petronas likes spending well over $15-million per season on a top engine that dosnt really help. (But its not the engines fault)

Personally I can see this, with the popularity of the Malaysian and other Asian based GP's, would it be hard to see perhaps both Petronas and Proton show some interest in this project? Everything is all set-up, just needs more funding and enthusiasm.

Red Bull-Petronas-Sauber-Proton in 2001???

[Megatron]

This company has really ruined its repuatation in F1. If they were go getters, they would get with Jordan, Sauber, or Arrows and make a bigger run than ever, but they want out of F1 as soon as they can.

Good ridence.

[Jackdaw]

I don't say good riddance--to me it is bad news. There's a very limited number of engine suppliers already, and now there's one fewer. Many of those that do remain either own or have a principal stake in a single team, and will be more reluctant than ever to supply other teams with engines.

Look for even more teams at the bottom of the grid getting squeezed out and forced to run with two-year-old engines like Minardi is doing this year.



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Jackdaw

"If it wasn't for disappointments, I wouldn't have any appointments"

[Pascal]

Peugeot's management has never wanted to be in Formula 1, and as surprising as it may sound, their involvement in the sport was made by default.

Historically, Peugeot has always favoured rallying. Their involvement peaked with the introduction of the 205 Turbo 16 Group B racer in 1983. But in 1986, following the terrible accident that killed Henri Toivonen in the Tour de Corse Rally, the FIA decided to ban the Group B cars from the 1987 World Championship. Peugeot disapproved loudly that decision, and stated publicly that they would never build a Group A racer since the FIA regulation made no sense to them. Instead, they chose to build the 905 prototype racer to enter in the Endurance Racing World Championship, facing the likes of Jaguar and Sauber-Mercedes. But after one title and two Le Mans victories, it was clearly time to move on to a better advertised form of Motorsport. Jean Todt, Head of Peugeot Sport since the rallying days, pushed to have a complete Formula 1 team, but the management thought the entreprise far too costly. Disgusted, Todt left to become Ferrari's Sporting Director, and Peugeot chose the easy way of building only an engine, figuring out that this would save them a lot of money. This has been their attitude since 1994, and their short-lived collaboration with McLaren.

Three years ago, the FIA created the WRC homologation in the World Rally Championship, and Peugeot quickly made known that they were going to come back. They entered their new 206 racer last year, and they are now trying to win this year's championship. For Peugeot Sport, Formula 1 is more than ever a side activity now, and leaving is a logical step...

[Linus27]

Oh ****, can Alesi have any more bad luck. The engine will get worse as the year goes on as less money will be spent to develop it. This really really ****ing sucks, just as the car seems to be getting a little more reliable and Alesi finished the race at Silverstone. I am so ****ed off about Peugeot and there stinking attitude. Good ridance you bunch of tossers, I just feel sorry for the Prost team and most of Alesi. Bollocks to this.

[Ray Bell]

The bit I can't work out is where the engine co-operation ends... Peugeot and Renault are in bed together with Volvo (and Citroen, owned by Peugeot) with an engine plant.
How does any learning from F1 filter back to this plant? Not easily when they're in competition with each other in F1!
More worrying is the loss of one of the biggest carmakers in the world as an engine supplier.. could this start a stampede of bean-counter directed defections from Fiat and MB and BMW? Then there would be very little F1 at all...

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[Pascal]

Ray, the construction of the PRV V6 engine which was common to PSA (Peugeot-Citroën), Renault and Volvo was made in a factory which is a Renault subsidiary. It has been suspended to make way to the newer design which appeared about 5 years ago. Volvo is out of the deal now, and only the assembling of the engines takes place there. The companies R&D departments are kept well separate...

[404KF2]

As a Peugeot owner and long-time fan of their rallying successes going back to the 1960s, I say it's long overdue that they quit F1.

They were making themselves the laughing stock of F1 for far too long. They were never serious about it. This charade has done them much damage in my estimation. Although I am a rally fan, let's face it, success in FIA world rally is not on a par with F1 success, publicity-wise. And a 206 WRC championship soon is not a sure thing either - there's lots of better-resourced competition out there this year.

To top it all off, Peugeot did not have the bollocks to make some road-going 206 WRC replicas, like Subaru did. Thus any 206 WRC success will give little street credibility to other 206 models, at least among enthusiasts such as me.

In fact I would say that the dedication Peugeot showed to the F1 program was the equivalent of their long-departed marketing "genius" in North America. In a word, crappy! Let us hope that those responsible for this F1 sham will be put out to pasture.

Or will they be in charge of Peugeot's supposed return to North America....

Pascal, ta réponse s'il te plaît...

[Ray Bell]

Any return they make to any marketing anwhere should be with a car with Hotchkiss Drive... torque tubes, worm final drives, the whole bit. Let them lead the world back to sanity in automotive design...

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[404KF2]

I like the way that you think, Ray!!

[Pascal]

404KF2, you will probably be mildly disappointed, but I agree with most of your post...

Nevertheless, I simply wish to add that it is much simpler for a constructor like Subaru or Mitsubishi, which cars are based on a Group A design, to develop street-legal versions of their rally racers. A minimum of 5000 units of the car had to be assembled to get FIA homologation, but that rule was scraped when the new WRC regulation was implemented. That's why we'll never get road-going versions of the newer rally cars like the Ford Focus, Seat Cordoba, and of course Peugeot 206...