Prost Grand Prix were the last French team to come from the country. Taken over from Guy Ligier's Equipe Ligier, the team were heavily hyped up after the team's buy-in at the end of 1996. The team did start their 5-year career in style, when they signed up top driver Olivier Panis (who had actually scored his first win in the older team-at Monaco). He had also snapped up Japanese rookie Shinji Nakano as Panis' second driver. The team folded at the end of the 2001 season.