As early as 1992, Alain Prost had ambitions to buy the Ligier team, and had tested their 1992 car incognito, wearing Érik Comas's crash helmet, with a view to being a driver-owner, even setting competitive lap times.

[1] Ligier was being supplied with Elf lubricants and Renault engines at the time, and the French manufacturers had strong ties with Prost.

Prost wanted to bring John Barnard, who had designed his title winning McLaren cars in 1985 and 1986 on board as part of the package.

[4] De Rouvre then sold up to Benetton bosses Flavio Briatore and Tom Walkinshaw in early 1994 after being convicted for fraud.

Briatore placed Walkinshaw at Ligier as team boss, but he walked away and bought Arrows after a disagreement with the Italian, taking chief designer Frank Dernie with him.

Olivier Panis lay third in the championship early in the season aided by podium finishes in Brazil (third) and Spain (second).

[8] With its lead driver forced to miss much of the season, Prost struggled with novices Jarno Trulli and Shinji Nakano until Panis's return at the Luxembourg Grand Prix.

There were glimpses, a commanding drive by Trulli in Austria where he led for much of the race before his engine expired, and a run by Trulli again to fourth at Germany showed potential, and a dogged points finish for Panis on his return in Luxembourg meant that Prost wasted no time in signing the pair up for a further season.

[9] 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve later remarked that in the year of his title victory, he had regarded Panis as something of a threat.

Despite a promising driver lineup, Prost finished last in the Constructors Championship, failing to score a single point during the season.

Alesi was very consistent, finishing every race, occasionally in points scoring positions, most notably in Canada when he did a few donuts afterwards and after getting out of the car, threw his helmet into the crowd.

The first start for the race was red-flagged when Burti was launched into the air after crashing at high speed into the back of Michael Schumacher's ailing Ferrari just seconds off the line.

The third one saw a long delay after a huge crash at the fastest part of the circuit involving Burti and Eddie Irvine's Jaguar.

The team never managed to replace the money that Gauloises stopped supplying when they withdrew their title sponsorship at the end of 2000.