In 1998, former driver Alain Prost began his second season as team manager but above all his first with a single-seater built completely under his direction. In fact, in 1997 the Prost Grand Prix team had used the JS45 which, although renamed Prost, had still been designed by the technical staff of the Ligier team in advance of the change of ownership of the team into the hands of the 4-time French World Champion and consequently a simple evolution of the already valid JS43 of '96, a single-seater which in turn almost faithfully copied the appearance of the winning Benetton B195, World Champion with Schumacher in 1995. For the '98 season Prost also managed to complete one of his main objectives and that is to have an exclusive French engine for its cars, in this case the Peugeot A16, a good 72° V10 capable of delivering 765hp at 15200 rpm on the test bench and therefore, in theory, in line with competing engines. Furthermore, unlike what was previously done with McLaren and Jordan, Peugeot initially guarantees the compatriot team the direct support of its racing department, promising to also contribute during the season to the development of the new AP01, the new Prost Gran Prix single-seater which from this season it uses the initials of owner Alain Prost as its initials.
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| PROST AP01, Jarno Trulli Montréal, Canadian GP '98 |
A few weeks before the start of the Championship, however, the French giant makes a sensational backtrack and decides not to commit to Prost's project and to supply its engines only for a fee, leaving the Frenchman with little or not other choise than to accept the new terms given the little time available to find a new engine supplier, as well as the danger of facing costly consequences with some partners threatening to withdraw their sponsorship. The team is thus forced to divert most of the funds made available by Gauloses, Bic, Alcatel, PlayStation and Canal+, towards the payment of the engines, consequently sacrificing the development of the single-seater. Despite everything, Prost continues on his way and renews the technical staff, calling as Technical Director Bernard Dudot, an engineer with a long militancy in Formula 1 and father of two historic Renault engines that dominated in different periods in the top series, the V6 Turbo 1500cc from the late 70s and early 80s and the 3.5 liter V10 from the early 90s. The former Technical Director Loïc Bigois thus becomes Chief Engineer and project manager of the AP01, while Ben Wood is hired as Head of Aerodynamics.
PROST AP01, Olivier Panis
Magny-Cours, French GP '98
To complete the definitive separation from the previous Ligier team, in the winter of '98 Prost also decided to transfer the team headquarters from Nevers, inside the Magny-Cours circuit, to Guyancourt, a suburb about 20km from Paris, but this transfer creates many problems with the consequent delays in the design and construction of the new chassis which during the homologation phase fail the crash test three times, even putting at risk the team's presence at the first round of the Championship, in Australia. The new AP01 is a very conventional single-seater and still takes up the shapes of the old JS45, with the exception of the nose which is further raised and pointed, while the side bellies maintain the characteristic hollowing towards the bonnet and the rectangular air intake positioned in the outside of the sides. The new frame is a classic carbon fiber monocoque with a honeycomb structure and the suspensions, both front and rear, have the classic deformable quadrilateral scheme in a push-rod configuration. The Frenchman Olivier Panis is confirmed as first driver, while the Italian Jarno Trulli is hired permanently after having performed well in the previous season as Panis's replacement following his injury which occurred during practice for the Canadian Grand Prix and which had kept him away from the racing fields for the rest of the season.
PROST AP01, Jarno Trulli
Magny-Cours, French GP '98
With two excellent drivers, the confirmation of the supply of Bridgestone tyres, the new Peugeot engine and an excellent technical staff, morale in the team is high and everything points to an excellent year, at least at the level of the previous one. Unfortunately, things do not go absolutely as expected, first of all due to a serious problem relating to the transmission, which is heavy, fragile and incapable of covering the distance of a race, and when the gearbox does not break the two AP01s are absolutely non-competitive and travel far from the leading positions. Furthermore, the sudden decision to move the team headquarters causes several organizational problems that undermine the first part of the season. Added to this is the lack of competitiveness of the Peugeot engine, which has not evolved from the previous version and is far from the Ferrari, Mercedes or Mugen-Honda engines in terms of performance. Finally, Panis is still terribly affected by the accident he had in '97 on the circuit dedicated to Gilles Villeneuve, which in fact forced him to play the entire 1998 season with nails in his legs and the fear of having much more serious consequences in the event of an accident, negatively affecting its performance.
PROST AP01, Olivier Panis
Melbuorne, Australian GP '98
The consequence of these factors is a disastrous season, with the French team not scoring a single point in the first twelve races. The fragility of the gearbox and its considerable weight, which negatively influences the use of ballast as well as making the rear axle unstable, are the main reason for Trulli's repeated retirements in the first half of the season, while Panis manages to finish five races, still obtaining a eleventh place as best result. Since mid-season, a complete review of the rear of the car has been underway with a new gearbox and suspension with a new design. However, the new AP01B single-seater was only ready at the end of the season and debuted in the hands of Trulli alone during practice for the Japanese Grand Prix, however obtaining an unencouraging 14th place in qualifying and 12th in the race, preceded by Panis at the wheel of the old AP01. However, Trulli took care of partially saving the season by grabbing an unexpected and fortunate sixth place in the elimination race at Spa, when only eight cars managed to see the finish line. At the end of the year, the four-time world champion's team, with just 1 point in the constructors' standings, only finished ninth, ahead of the only Minardi and Tyrrell.
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