Tuesday March 5th, 2002

British businessman Charles Nickerson's purchase of the assets of Prost Grand Prix do not give him a route onto the Formula One grid, the sport's ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone has said.

Nickerson bought the assets of bankrupt Prost for £2 million and was ready to use the existing Prost cars this season for the newly-named Phoenix Grand Prix team. But it has emerged that Nickerson has bought the assets and not Prost's place on the grid and will have to pay a £32 million bond to start the Malaysian Grand Prix next week.

"He has bought nothing in Formula One," Ecclestone told The Times newspaper. "All he has bought is some show-off cars. He can forget it. He is wasting his time thinking about racing in Malaysia."

Prost collapsed with debts of around £20 million and Nickerson would have had to pay of the losses and take over the 200-strong staff to take over the place on the grid. The rules of the Concorde Agreement state that Prost's place on the grid has lapsed and can only be bought back from the sport's governing body the FIA by payment of the £32 million bond.

FIA president Max Mosley added: "We are waiting for official communication from the purchasers of the Prost assets but they do appear to have major difficulties if they want to join the grid."

Arrows team owner Tom Walkinshaw had pledged his backing to close-friend Nickerson's attempts to get onto the grid and has offered engineering expertise via his TWR company.

Published at 10:18:43 GMT