How It Ended
Final years and legacy.
Alain Prost bought Ligier at the end of 1996 and renamed it Prost Grand Prix, which folded in 2001.
History
Origins, eras and the people who shaped them.
Guy Ligier, a former rugby player and Grand Prix driver, built a French national team backed heavily by state-linked sponsorship. Its blue cars were a fixture of the grid for two decades and won nine races.
The team's strongest period came early. Jacques Laffite won five races for Ligier between 1977 and 1981, and the team was in championship contention in 1979 and 1980 before reliability and internal politics undid it.
Ligier's last win came at Monaco in 1996 with Olivier Panis, from fourteenth on the grid in a race of attrition that finished with three cars running. Prost bought the team months later.
Lineage
Formula One entries change names, owners and manufacturers; the entry itself persists.
- 1976–1996Equipe Ligier
- 1997–2001Prost Grand Prix
Timeline
The moments that changed the team's direction.