The failure to track down a white Fiat Uno said to have been in the tunnel on the night Princess Diana was killed is a continuing frustration, investigators say.
They told a Channel 4 documentary, Investigating Diana: Death In Paris, that the unknown driver could have helped to try to explain the movements of the black Mercedes that Diana was travelling in.
Martine Monteil, head of the French Brigade Criminelle, said: “I have frustration about the Fiat Uno. For sure, it’s out there. Unfortunately, we don’t have it.”
On Wednesday, it is the 25th anniversary of Diana’s death. She was killed aged 36 in a Paris road tunnel on August 31, 1997.
Two detailed inquiries in France and the UK ruled that Henri Paul, who was driving Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed, was responsible for their deaths after consuming alcohol and losing control of the Mercedes at high speed.
But investigators said a couple at the scene saw a white Fiat Uno coming out of the tunnel with a driver who was focused on his mirrors.
Traces of white paint were found on the black Mercedes.
Fabrice Cuvillier, of the Brigade Criminelle, tells the programme: “It’s not a hallucination. It’s not something we threw out to create a diversion. It exists. We did not find this Fiat.”