Wednesday 13th March 2002

Phoenix Formula One, the outfit which bought the remains of the failed Prost team, were told to stay away from the forthcoming Malaysian Grand Prix by the FIA who claimed to have told both parties that their proposed entry was invalid because they had not purchased the all-important “right to compete”. It had arrived in Kuala Lumpur with two of last year’s Prost AP04 cars, which they intended to race on Sunday. The Argentinian Gaston Mazzacane was named as one driver, with the Brazilian Tarso Marques tipped as the other. As it was, faced with the brick wall of the FIA, it never raced.