Phoenix / Dart F1 "team"?

[Enforcer]

Anyone know anything about this?

I've seen a throwaway mention or two about a buddy of Tom Walkinshaw's buying Prost's assets, and attempting to enter the Malaysian Grand Prix in 02 or 03 with some old chassis, older Brian Hart tuned engines and Gaston Mazzacane to drive, and having their entry rejected by the FIA.

I know it can't be a proper reject team since they were never entered in a Grand Prix, but if there's more story that anyone knows I'd like to hear. Google has been unrewarding.

[midgrid]

Here's the Phoenix Finance Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Finance

[senorsoupe]

It was a scheme by Tom walkinshaw to get his buddy to buy Prost, run the team for a few races and then merge the teams, (and Prost's share of the TV revenue from 2001). Unfortunately for Tom and his buddy they didn't buy the team, they just bought some old race cars from the bankruptcy auction, after Prost had been declared insolvent. Their attempts to get into F1 earned them a lifetime ban from getting a team license.

[Enforcer]

It was a scheme by Tom walkinshaw to get his buddy to buy Prost, run the team for a few races and then merge the teams, (and Prost's share of the TV revenue from 2001). Unfortunately for Tom and his buddy they didn't buy the team, they just bought some old race cars from the bankruptcy auction, after Prost had been declared insolvent. Their attempts to get into F1 earned them a lifetime ban from getting a team license.

Good old Tom, he'd try to sell art to a blind man.

Thanks.

[Mattswad]

I have searched for many years of ANY existing photograph of the "team's" cars.

They were present at the Malaysian (?? I think ??) Grand Prix. They shipped their cars, engines (1998-spec rebuilt ex-Hart lumps that also formerly powered the Minardis in 1997), pit crew & drivers (Gastone Mazzacane & Tomas Enge, I seem to recall) to the track only to be denied entry to the circuit.

So there were at least TWO cars that were prepared to race in some form.

You would think that surely SOMEONE present SURELY must have taken a picture of at least one of them! Or perhaps the haulers? Or perhaps of a crew member or driver in Phoenix/DART attire!!!!!

But I can find NO photographic evidence of their existance. I would so *LOVE* to see what kind of livery they had. Heck, I would even settle for a glimpse at their "team" logo or some type of graphic. A hat? A polo shirt?

At this point, I am starting to suspect if they just drug the old Prost cars out of the back of a storage facility with White-Out covering the former sponsor's logos and black duct tape over the signage on the crew uniforms!

Can someone help me? Any pictures? Anywhere? Of Anything?

[Faustus]

Very interesting thread.
I remember this well from the coverage at the time. Also, I worked for Arrows in 2002, from April until the bitter end. I remember discussing the whole Phoenix thing with the rest of the guys and they confirmed that none of them had worked on the adaptation of the Prost chassis to the Hart engine. Nobody knew who, in terms of engineers and mechanics, Phoenix supposedly had in Malaysia to run the cars. I still believe the cars were not in any fit state to run.
I'd love to see some photos or logos of the cars and personnel.

[PayasYouDNPQ]

I'd love to see some photos too.

Maybe everyone just imagined them?

[pattav2]

Never fear I have an answer but only 50% though. I have found pictures of what was to be Prosts 2002 livery. http://www.prost-scriptum.com/souvenirs ... /index.htm and http://www.prost-scriptum.com/goodies/index.htm

[noisebox]

Never fear I have an answer but only 50% though. I have found pictures of what was to be Prosts 2002 livery. http://www.prost-scriptum.com/souvenirs ... /index.htm and http://www.prost-scriptum.com/goodies/index.htm

They look dangerously like the mastercard lola cars...

[Faustus]

Never fear I have an answer but only 50% though. I have found pictures of what was to be Prosts 2002 livery. http://www.prost-scriptum.com/souvenirs ... /index.htm and http://www.prost-scriptum.com/goodies/index.htm

I wonder where the sponsorship came from. Repsol from Pedro de la Rosa, maybe? YPF from someone from Argentina? Mazzacane?

[Yannick]

I must say that the colour scheme of the un-raced 2002 Prost livery bears a suspicious likeness to that of Master Card Lola.

[Bleu]

Racing Engineering's GP2 livery (here driven by Giorgio Pantano) is also quite similar.

[thehemogoblin]

Racing Engineering's GP2 livery (here driven by Giorgio Pantano) is also quite similar.

Yeah, but that's GP2... where MasterCard Lola may have actually been successful.