Formula One Career
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
! Nationality
| French
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
! Active years
| 1980 - 1991, 1993
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
! Team(s)
| Renault, McLaren, Ferrari, Williams
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
! Grands Prix
| 202
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
! Championships
| 4 (1985, 1986, 1989, 1993)
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
! Wins
| 51
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
! Podium finishes
| 106
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
! Pole positions
| 33
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
! Fastest laps
| 41
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
! First Grand Prix
| 1980 Argentine Grand Prix
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
! First win
| 1981 French Grand Prix
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
! Last win
| 1993 German Grand Prix
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
! Last Grand Prix
| 1993 Australian Grand Prix
|}
Alain Marie Pascal Prost, (born February 24, 1955 in Saint-Chamond, Loire, France), simply known as Alain Prost, is a French racing driver. Amongst the Formula One World Champions he is one of the most successful with 4 World Titles, and only Michael Schumacher and Juan Manuel Fangio have won more.
Formula 1
Prost was the F1 World Champion in 1985, 1986, 1989, and 1993, and was runner-up in 1983, 1984, 1988 and 1990. He competed in 199 Grands Prix, 51 of which he won, and accumulated through his career 798.5 championship points. Prost also completed 41 fastest laps, and a record six home Grand Prix wins. He lost out on the 1984 Driver's Championship to Niki Lauda by a scant half point in 1984 and outscored his teammate Ayrton Senna 105 to 94 in 1988 but was cost the title by the "Best of Eleven" system of scoring. Only points from the driver's best 11 races counted towards the championship. Senna, who won 8 races to Prost's 7 won his first World Title as a result.
Alain Prost began his career with Team McLaren, but left for Ferrari after defeating Ayrton Senna for the drivers title in 1989. The final disintegration of this "Super Team" was punctuated at Suzuka Japan. Prost and Senna collided at the last chicane late in the race. Again, the only reason Senna was in title contention at all was due to the best of eleven scoring system. The accident clinched the title for Prost and he left McLaren for Ferrari. Senna repaid Prost with the same coin one year later when Prost's hopes of bringing a World Championsip to a resurgent Ferrari team were dashed when Senna speared Prost from behind at turn one of the first lap. Prost easily outpaced his teammate Nigel Mansell during the 1990 campaign and they came up only 11 points short of bringing the Constructor's Title to Maranello.
Ferrari proved incapable of providing a consistent contender for Prost in 1991 and he had a public falling out with management. He described Ferrari's entry as a truck and stood down for the 1992 season. In 1993 'The Professor' returned. He replaced erstwhile Ferrari teamate Nigel Mansell at the all-conquering Team Williams Renault. Prost won 7 of the first 10 races and retired as champion. Despite the dominance of the Williams package the Prost-Senna rivalry remained in the headlines. Prost allegedly blocked Williams from hiring Senna to drive alongside him and Senna. Ayrton was able to strike back on the track during the numerous wet weather races of the 1993 season.
The 1993 Formula 1 Season ended with an apparent detente between the two Formula One legends. Senna left McLaren and claimed Prost's seat at Williams for the tragic 1994 season. Prost had already accepted that his career wins total would be shattered by his nemesis, probably during the 1995 season. But tragic events superceded statistical projections. Prost's amazing mark of 51 career wins stood until late 2001 when Michael Schumacher won his 52nd career race. Although it is more than reasonable to assume that Senna would have had greater success than Damon Hill or Jacques Villeneuves, such speculation flies in the face of the horrid reality. When Schumacher eventually broke his long standing record, Prost admitted that he was not disapointed since he figured it would have fallen long ago to his long fallen rival. Prost's epic campaigns against Piquet and Lauda were thrilling, close and hard fought in the extreme but the greater part of his legacy will always be his participation in Formula One racing's greatest rivalry.
His first victory was all a French driver could dream of, as it was on his home soil in the 1981 French Grand Prix at Dijon while driving a French car. He added 8 more victories during his three full seasons at Renault and was in contention for both the 1982 and 1983 World Championships but conflicts within the team, particularly with teammate Rene Arnoux, and frustration with Renault's inability to solve various technical problems made him return to the British-based Team McLaren.
In 1984 he joined Niki Lauda at McLaren to drive the brilliant McLaren MP4/2, but lost the world championship to Lauda in the final race by half a point, despite winning seven races to Lauda's five. (The half point was scored when the Monaco Grand Prix was stopped at half distance, meaning the top six drivers would only receive half scores. Prost won and took 4.5 points.)
In 1985, using TAG-Porsche engines, he was the First French Formula One World Champion, and repeated as World Champion in 1986 despite driving a car that was underpowered compared to those of his top rivals. In fact it appeared up to the latter stages of the final race of the 1986 season, in Australia, that Prost was going to finish third in the Championship, behind Nigel Mansell and Mansell's teammate Nelson Piquet, however Mansell dramatically blew a tire at high speed, while leading, and the Williams team called Piquet in for a pit stop to change tires as a safety precaution, thus handing the race victory -- and Championship -- to Prost, who had already pitted earlier.
In 1987, in spite of driving an obsolete McLaren-TAG he managed to challenge Piquet and Mansell almost until the end, winning three races and notably breaking Jackie Stewart's record by claiming his 28th Grand Prix victory.
Prost and Senna
Despite being one of the dominant drivers of the decade and having at his disposal a top car, Prost himself recommended the signing of rival Ayrton Senna, who had previously been driving for Lotus, and who had been able to challenge the title contenders in previous years.
With Senna came the powerful Honda engines and a poisonous brew of conflicting personalities. The rivalry between Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna is widely considered the most exciting between two sportsmen, and the most bitter as well, and although luminaries such as Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet and Riccardo Patrese were part of this era in Formula 1, it was these two drivers ahead of a star studded field.
In 1988 an intense rivalry began between the two drivers for the supremacy in the only top team of the season. The warring between the drivers peaked at Estoril when Senna swerved purposely to attempt to squeeze Prost against a pit wall. The ill will between the drivers worsened after that point. Prost's 7 wins with the Honda powered McLaren MP4/4 were not enough as his brilliant teammate won eight and the World Championship, making 15 McLaren race wins out of 16 races in the 1988 season.
1989 was Prost's year. He took the new McLaren MP4/5 to four wins, while Senna seemed to take unnecessary risks on the track, sometimes in the name of religion. Prost responded with the comment "Ayrton has a small problem, he thinks he can't kill himself because he believes in God and I think that is very dangerous for other drivers". The roughness of the rivalry was shown late in the year at Suzuka. Prost was at an advantage because if neither driver finished, he would be crowned world champion. The two McLarens collided at a Suzuka chicane when Prost shut the door on a pass attempt by Senna. Prost walked away and Senna returned to the track by illegally receiving a push start from the race marshalls -- a maneuver that resulted in a disqualification after the checkered flag.
In 1990, again at Suzuka the two drivers came together yet again, as Prost (now in a Ferrari) held his line and Senna hit him. Senna admitted the move was premeditated as Senna's lead in the World Championship meant he was crowned World Champion.
The Prost-Senna rivalry produced a mixed bag of statistically interesting results. The reason that this rivalry was so fierce was because Prost and Senna were alone at the pinnacle of sports. There is no greater illustration of this fact than Prost's dominance against Ferrari teammate Nigel Mansell in 1990. Despite the fact that Mansell was already entrenched at Ferrari and an all-time great in his own right, Prost was clearly the team's top driver and spearheaded Ferrari's most successful campaign in years. Prost came agonizingly close to bringing the championship to Maranello. No Ferrari driver would not be this competitive until Schumacher 1997. Prost fell just five points short of Senna is the driver's championship and the team finished 11 points behind McLaren at the end of the 1990 season. Prost won 5 races to Mansell's 1 and nearly doubled him in points 73 to 37.
Prost won 51 races in his career to Senna's 41. Senna's career was shorter, so the percentage of wins per start are almost identical. Prost won 25.63 percent of the races he started and Senna won 25.47 percent. Senna had a huge edge in Pole Positions 65 to 33. But Alain Prost's edge in fastest laps was similarly decisive: 41 to 19. The difference in points per start between the two is statistically insignificant. Prost scored 3.99 points per start to Senna's 3.81. Alain Prost finished far more races than Senna when they were teammates. This provided him with a decisive advantage in the explosive 1989 season.
Head to head at McLaren Senna won 14 races to Prost's 10. But Prost easily outscored his rival in both seasons for a cumulative advantage in points of 186 to 154. Senna benefited from the best of eleven scoring system to win the title in 1988. Ayrton Senna dominated the qualifying sessions during these two years. During the two years they were McLaren teammates he captured 26 pole positions in 32 races. Prost picked up a total of four.
Alain Prost can certainly claim more 'coulda-shoulda' championships than Ayrton Senna. As mentioned above Prost outscored Senna by 11 points but was thwarted by the best of eleven system in 1988. He lost to Niki Lauda by 0.5 points in 1984. This scoring anamoly was brought about in the most ironic fashion- for it was here that Prost and Senna first crossed swords in a Formula 1 Race. A rookie Ayrton Senna was reeling Prost in at a drenched Monte Carlo circuit when the race was ended early. Senna was perhaps cost his first win and Prost his first title. A second place finish in a non-shortened race would have given Prost a one point edge on Lauda for the season. In 1983 Prost lost the title in a season that was nearly as tight. Prost seemed to have the title wrapped up headed into the last three races of the 1983 season. But a resurgent Nelson Piquet won the 13th race of the season at Italy. Prost retired after 5 laps with turbo gremlins. Piquet won the next race race season at Brand Hatch, finishing 6 seconds ahead of Prost. At the season finale turbo gremlins reappeared and again Prost was forced to retire after only 5 laps. Piquet's 3rd Place finish was provided him with the winning margin. Prost had finished 10 points behind Champion Keke Rosberg the year before and 7 points behind Piquet in 1981. With but 23.5 more points and no best of eleven scoring system Prost could have won 10 Driver's titles. This is completely counter-factual history but interesting to consider. A Ten Time Champion? Considering Schumacher's own near misses in 1997 and 1998 perhaps it is not inconceivable!
'''1981- Finished 7 points behind Piquet.
1982- Finished 10 points behind Rosberg.
1983- Finished 2 points behind Piquet after 2 DNFs in last 3 races.
1984- Finished 0.5 points behind Lauda. Half points rewarded for win at Monaco.
1988- Finished 11 points ahead of Senna (lost due to best of 11 scoring system)
1990- Finished 4 points behind Senna after crash at Japan.'''
Prost won five races in 1990, and by entering the title deciding race at the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka, he was set to fight for another World Championship. The Pole was won by his Brazilian rival at McLaren, Ayrton Senna, but due to the nature of the circuit, the pole position was placed at the right side of the main straight. This was and remains the dirty side. Senna asked that the position be changed to the left, as it had more grip, and because in his view, the pole position was supposed to favor the fastest driver, and not the second placed. Track officials refuse, and the Pole position place remained at the right of the track.
As a result, Prost's Ferrari quickly overtook Senna at the start of the race. Senna then threw his car into Prost's while entering the first and medium speed corner. Both ended on the gravel pit, and thus Senna clinched the title thanks to his pre-existent points advantage. Later Senna confirmed the action, claiming that it was not fair that the FIA did not change the Pole position, nor the way Prost won the last championship.
In 1991, Ferrari was not on pace. After vocal public criticism of the Italian F1 icon — notably, after the Japanese Grand Prix he compared his car to a truck — Prost was fired before the season ended.
In 1993, Prost clinched his fourth - and final - title, but in a year where he was regularly challenged by Ayrton Senna in an inferior car and vastly less experienced team-mate Damon Hill, many felt his heart was no longer in it.
Shortly before the Portuguese Grand Prix in October 1993 Alain Prost announced he would not defend his world title and instead opted to retire as the most successful driver in the sport's history - a record which stood for almost a decade.
A few days later it was announced that Senna would replace Prost as the lead driver in the Williams team, and despite strenuous attempts by team boss Ron Dennis to lure him back to McLaren for 1994, Prost's final race took place on November 7 1993.
Personal
Both during and after his racing career Prost received many honours, including: Legion d'Honneur (France, 1985), the Champion of Champions award (Grand Prix Former Drivers' Club, 1988), an OBE (Britain, 1993), and induction into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame (1999).
Throughout his career Prost also earned a set of nicknames; "The Professor" and "The Calculator" (owing to his smooth driving style - which strongly contrasted with more dramatic drivers such as Senna, and his carefully considered approach to race tactics), "The King of Rio" (Prost won six times in Brazil; five in Rio de Janeiro) and "Fast Son of a Bitch" (Coined by Niki Lauda).
Outside of racing cars, Prost is a road cycling enthusiast, and has helped design bicycle frames for the French framebuilder Cyfac. Prost now lives with his wife, Anne-Marie, and two sons Nicolas and Sacha in Nyon, Switzerland.
Resources
External links
