13 replies to this topic

[A3]

Alan Jenkins has been fired by Alain Prost after a group of technical managers threatened to leave.

[A3]

Following a battle of powers between technical director Alan Jenkins and a group of technical managers, the Englishman has to leave Prost Grand Prix. A group of technicians threatened to quit and left Alain Prost nothing else to do but to fire Alan Jenkins. Jenkins leave is a hard blow to the Prost team. Nothing is certain yet for Prost concerning the engine and chassis, it will even be harder now to get improvements done. The technicians do not want to work in the Prost GP headquarters in France, but operating from England is not possible due to sponsor and political matters.

Alan Jenkins will not be without a job for long. It is rumoured that he has already been contacted by Jaguar, the team he left for Prost. When Jenkins left the former Stewart GP team engine supplier Ford was not very pleased, but because they did not have any direct influence they had to accept it. Having fear for bad publicity and losing more personnel Prost chose to send out a misleading press statement during the Monaco Grand Prix, the most important race of the year for this team. It is quite obvious that the French influence is still quite large in Prost GP and it looks like a great number of Englishmen who work for this team will leave too. It is known that Alain Prost wants to limit the French influence and introduce a more British style to shift his team from the backrows forward. On a short term this does not seem possible and, just like it was with BAR and Jordan, people are talking openly about the Prost GP team being for sale.

[boru]

This is why Prost wont make it as a team owner. These guys were left over from the Ligier days and do things the old way. Jenkins is straight forward and not into the political niceties, whereas these chaps do and say the right things. It is rumoured that they did not like the fact that he did not speak French and this caused some of the hassle. This may or may not be true, but if Prost does not assert his authority over them he has had it.

[Pascal]

A3, could you please give us the source of your quote?

I have heard rumours that Jenkins was somehow linked to the Heidfeld incident in Nurburgring in deciding to implement new parts on the car without making sure the latter's weight was still complying with regulations. Internal conflict could be another explanation, but I doubt that Prost would have been foolish enough to fire Jenkins simply because some technical managers were threatening to quit. A lot of the Ligier old-timers have already left the team anyway since its move to Guyancourt, and Prost knows that he can't expect to have a winning structure by simply relying on misplaced nationalism.

[A3]

Sorry, I forgot:
http://www.verstappen.nl/uk/item11/

[boru]

Pascal, this was reported on ITV's website too. Although it wasn't from an official source. But there is no smoke without fire.

[Pascal]

On the internet? You gotta be kidding... Allow me to still doubt until further informed.

[FredF1]

The quote has been taken from 'The Mole' column from the ITV-F1 website. The author comes across as fiercely pro-McLaren, anti-European Union and FIA 'Old Fogeys'. I wouldn't exactly trust everything he says as he is determinedly pro-British (always talking up Jaguar). He seems to think that no team has a right to exist if they're not based in England.

[Pascal]

Thanks Fred!

Okay, I understand better now...
Though I'm not denying this possibility, I will wait to hear from more reliable source before I venture to have a definite opinion.[p][Edited by Pascal on 06-07-2000]

[A3]

Haha, told you so.........

[Pascal]

A3, do you have further information that you may want to share with us?

[A3]

Pizzonia signs a 5 month test contract with benetton after he declined a contract for 5 years.

Pascal, the Verstappen website has always been very accurate. They are always in contact with Verstappen and some other F1 insiders. Thats's why I dared to post this.

[Pascal]

A3, I'm not doubting the overall quality of the Verstappen website, but I have not encountered any correlating evidence confirming that Jenkins departure was the result of the situation you stated in your first quote. I'm not saying this is impossible though, but I'd like to be sure before I venture to have a firm opinion on the subject.

[A3]

I understand.