The Prost AP05 was built on a 50%scale and was tested in a wind tunnel. On December 9, 2001, Alain Prostannounced that the car might not be ready for race one with the plan to start the season with the Prost AP04 and launch the AP05 at the start of the European leg of the season. Prost announced that the new car would be a bigstep forward, but it may not be as reliable as the previous design. Soon the teamlostfinances and pulled out of Formula 1.