Alain Prost
Prost discovered karting at the age of 14 during a family holiday. He won the French and European F3 championships before joining McLaren in 1980 at the age of 25. He finished in the points on his Formula One debut and took his first of 51 race victories at his home Grand Prix in France a year later, while he was driving for the Renault Factory team. Prost employed a smooth, relaxed style behind the wheel, deliberately modelling himself on personal heroes like Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark. He was very skilled at, and focused on, setting up his car for race conditions. He would often start races conservatively, managing the wear on his brakes and tyres, leaving himself in a position to challenge at the end of the race. As a result of this approach he was nicknamed 'The Professor'. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Prost formed a fierce rivalry with Ayrton Senna, who joined him at McLaren in 1988. The two had a series of controversial races, including a collision at the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix that gave Prost his third Drivers' Championship. A year later at the same venue they collided again and Senna won the title. After a dismal 1991 with Ferrari and a sabbatical in 1992, Prost joined Williams, where he dominated the season before finally retiring at the end of the season. In 1997 Prost took over the French Ligier team, running it as Prost Grand Prix until it went bankrupt in 2001. In 2006, Prost started his fourth year in the Andros Trophy, which is an Ice Racing competition. Denis Jenkinson, a well respected journalist, describes Prost as "a very warm and uncomplicated man who doesn't rely on passion or inspiration. Nor does he indulge in showmanship or bullshit. He is capable of a level of mental discipline beyond the comprehension of most people."
[edit] Personal and early lifeAlain Prost was born in Saint-Chamond, near Loire in France on February 24, 1955 to André and Marie-Rose Prost, who was of Armenian descent. Prost had one younger brother called Daniel, who died of cancer in September 1986. Although short, Prost was an active, athletic child, who enthusiatically took part in diverse sports, including wrestling, roller skating and football. In doing so he broke his nose several times. He considered careers as a gym instructor or a professional footballer before, at the age of 14 he discovered kart racing while on a family holiday. This new sport quickly became his career of choice. Prost is married to Anne-Marie (born 14 February 1955) and has two sons, Nicolas (born 18 October 1981) and Sacha Prost (born [[30 May 1990), and a daughter, Victoria. As of 2006, Nicolas races in the Spanish Formula Three championship for the Racing Engineering team. During the early 1980s, Prost lived with his wife in his hometown, St. Chamond until he and his Renault team fell out. In April 1983 they moved to La Muraz, Switzerland and lived there until November 1999, when they moved to Nyon, Switzerland. [edit] Driving career[edit] Pre-Formula OneProst won several karting championships in his teens. In 1974 he left school to become a full-time racer, supporting himself by tuning engines and a becoming a kart distributor. His prize for winning the 1975 French senior karting championship was a season in French Formula Renault, a category in which he went on to winning all races but one and the title in 1976. Prost went on winning the 1977 Formula Renault European Championship before moving to Formula Three. In 1978 and 1979 he won both the French and European F3 championships, by which time he was on the shopping lists of several Formula One teams. After carefully considering his options he chose to sign with McLaren for 1980, although he surprised them by declining their offer of a race drive in a third car at the final race of the 1979 season - reasoning that the token effort would benefit neither him or the team. [edit] Formula One[edit] 1980: McLarenAlain Prost began his career with McLaren in 1980 alongside Ulsterman John Watson. On his debut in Argentina he finished in sixth place, earning one point on his F1 debut, an achievement only a handful of drivers had achieved. Prost managed to add four more points to his tally during the rest of the season, scoring points in Brazil; Britain and the Netherlands. Prost finished the year 15th in the driver's championship, equalling points with former world champion Emerson Fittipaldi. Despite the encouraging debut season, Prost had several accidents, breaking his wrist in one of them and suffering a concussion in another. It appeared that mechanical failures were to blame for certain crashes and Prost also wasn't comfortable with the way the McLaren team was handling the drivers and the cars, so despite having a two-year contract he left McLaren and signed with Renault. [edit] 1981-1983: Renault[edit] 1981Prost was partnered with fellow Frenchman Rene Arnoux for 1981. Prost didn't finish the first two Grand Prix, due to collisions with Andrea de Cesaris in Long Beach and Siegfried Stohr in Rio, but scored his first podium finish in Argentina. He retired in the next four races before winning his first Grand Prix, finishing two seconds ahead of his old teammate John Watson at his home Grand Prix in France. For Prost, his debut on the top step of the podium was memorable mostly for the change it made in his mindset. "Before, you thought you could do it," he said. "Now you know you can." Prost enjoyed two more victories during the season, as well as his first pole position in the Netherlands and finished fifth in the drivers' championship, seven points behind champion, Nelson Piquet. [edit] 19821982 was another reasonably successful season for Prost, winning the first two Grand Prix in South Africa and Brazil, but those would be the only two victories for Prost during the season. He retired seven times and, excluding his two wins, finished in the points on four other occasions. Prost improved on his drivers' championship position, finishing in fourth, but scoring nine points less than the previous year. [edit] 1983Rene Arnoux left Renault in 1983 and Prost was partnered with American Eddie Cheever. Prost earned a further four victories for Renault during the season and finished second in the drivers' championship, two points behind Nelson Piquet. Prost and Renault were overhauled by Piquet and the Brabham team in the last few races of the season. Prost found himself increasingly at odds with Renault's management, who made him the scapegoat for failing to win a championship. In addition to that, the French fans who recalled the bitter fight that had caused their favourite, Arnoux, to leave the team. This climaxed in Prost moving with his wife Anne-Marie and their son Nicolas to Switzerland in order to rejoin the McLaren team in 1984. [edit] 1984-1989: McLaren[edit] 1984The Frenchman joined Austrian Niki Lauda at McLaren in 1984, driving the McLaren MP4/2. He 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 due to heavy rain, meaning the top six drivers would only receive half scores. Prost won, but took only 4.5 points. [edit] 1985In 1985, using TAG-Porsche engines, he became the first French Formula One World Champion. Prost won five of the sixteen Grand Prix during the season. He also won on the road at the San Marino Grand Prix, but was disqualified after his car was found to be underweight in post-race scrutineering. Prost finished 23 points ahead of his closest rival, Michele Alboreto. Prost's performance in 1985 earned him the Legion d'Honneur award in France. [edit] 1986Niki Lauda retired in 1986, and was replaced by 1982 Champion, Keke Rosberg. Prost successfully defended his '85 title, despite his car struggling against the Honda-powered Williams of Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell. 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 Mansell and Piquet. However, Mansell dramatically blew a tyre at high speed, while leading, and the Williams team called Piquet in for a pit stop to change tyres as a safety precaution, thus handing the race victory - and Championship - to Prost, who had pitted earlier. Another memorable race that year for Prost was at the German Grand Prix, when, while running in 4th position, his car ran out of fuel on the finishing straight of the last lap. Instead of retiring, Prost got out of his car and tried to push it to the finish, to great applause from the crowd. The finish line was too far, though, and he never reached it. He was classified 6th in the race, as the 7th-placed car was a lap behind. [edit] 1987With Rosberg going into temporary retirement for '87, Stefan Johansson filled the seat thanks to his Marlboro connections. Even though Prost was driving an obsolete McLaren 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 considers the Brazilian Grand Prix as his best and most rewarding race ever. The Williams-Hondas had been dominant during qualifying and Prost started fifth on the grid. He had worked on his race set-up and with everyone else going for a high-downforce set-up the Frenchman went the other way. The set-up meant less tyre wear, thanks to slower speeds in the corners while going fast down the straights. Only one stop was necessary and Prost won the race by 40 seconds. He later said: "When you win a race like this the feeling is very, very good. There have been times when I have been flat-out to finish sixth, but you can't see that from the outside. In 1980 I finished three or four times in seventh place. I pushed like mad, yet everyone was gathered around the winner and they were thinking that I was just trundling around. But that's motor racing. So in fact the only thing you can judge in this sport is the longterm. You can judge a career or a season, but not one race." Prost finished the '87 season in fouth; 30 points behind champion, Nelson Piquet. [edit] 1988Despite Nelson Piquet winning the Drivers' Championship and Williams winning the Constructors' Championship, Honda decided not to supply Williams with their engines and insteead supplied the McLaren team for 1988. McLaren-Honda dominated the season winning 15 out of 16 races. Prost won seven and outscored his new teammate Ayrton Senna by 11 points, despite Senna winning one more race than Prost. However only the 11 best results from the season counted toward the championship total, and this gave Senna the title by 3 points. This began the sensational rivalry that conspired to push two of the sport's greatest drivers to unprecedented heights of success and controversy. [edit] 1989McLaren's domination continued throughout 1989 and the Prost-Senna struggle for supremacy put them on a collision course. Mutual admiration turned to all-out hatred, with the Frenchman accusing his Brazilian team mate of "dangerous driving" and of receiving more than a fair share of attention from both McLaren and Honda. Their embittered season ended in what a lot of pundits feared might happened during the race. At the end of lap 46 Senna made his move at the chicane. Prost turned into his teammate's path. The two interlocked McLarens slid up the chicane escape road. Prost, thinking the World Championship was over, climbed out of his car. To separate the cars the marshals pushed Senna's McLaren backwards on to the track. They put the car into a dangerous position and so had to push it forwards again. As they did so Senna bump-started the engine. He drove through the chicane and rejoined. The nose of his car was damaged and he had to pit but he rejoined only five seconds behind Alessandro Nannini. Senna's chase was furious and merciless. On lap 50 Ayrton sliced past Nannini at the chicane to take the lead and won the race. But it was Nannini who appeared on the podium. Senna had been excluded for missing the chicane. McLaren appealed the decision but the FIA Court of Appeal not only upheld the decision but fined Senna $100,000 and gave him a suspended six month ban. So Prost had clinched his third driving title in controversial circumstances, the Frenchman quickly moved from McLaren to join his new employers: Ferrari. [edit] 1990-1991: Ferrari[edit] 1990The Frenchman replaced Gerhard Berger at Ferrari and was partnered with Britain's Nigel Mansell for 1990. Prost won five races for Ferrari that year, in Brazil, Mexico, France, Britain and Spain. Notable among these was the Mexican Grand Prix, where he won after starting in 13th position. In both the Mexican and Spanish races he led Mansell to Ferrari 1-2 finishes. The championship once again came to the penultimate round of the season in Japan with Prost trailing his McLaren adversary, Ayrton Senna, by nine points. Like the year before, the race was settled in a controversial collision between the two. At the first corner Senna intentionally drove his race car into Prost's, taking them both out of the race and sealing the title for Senna. "What he did was disgusting," Prost said. "He is a man without value." Prost finished the season seven points behind Senna, and his Ferrari team were also runners-up to McLaren. [edit] 1991In 1991, Mansell left the Scuderia, due to his unstable relasionship with Prost, to join his previous employers, Williams. Mansell's replacement was Frenchman Jean Alesi, who had been impressive during the previous two years at Tyrrell. Ferrari couldn't cope with the other teams and that season, Prost wasn't able to win a race, only getting onto the podium five times. He took it out on the Italian team blaming them for his failures; went public with his criticism and was fired prior to the end of the season, right before the Australian Grand Prix. Prost was replaced by Italian Gianni Morbidelli. [edit] 1993: WilliamsProst went onto a sabbatical year in 1992, which was dominated by Nigel Mansell in a Williams-Renault. But after hearing that Prost would, once again, be his teammate, Mansell left Williams to race in the IndyCar series. The Frenchman was part of a new-look driver line-up at Williams, with rookie Damon Hill coming in to replace Riccardo Patrese, who had left to join Benetton. Prost clinched his fourth, and final, title, but in a year where he was regularly challenged by Ayrton Senna in an inferior car. 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. On the podium in Adelaide in 1993, Prost's last race, he and Ayrton Senna embraced, and it was as if, now that Prost was no longer a rival, Ayrton saw no reason for any more hostility. Prost was surprised by the gesture. Prost's performances earned him an OBE. Prost's record for most Grand Prix wins, 51, was broken during the 2001 season by German Michael Schumacher. However, two of his records still stand, which are the most Grand Prix starts using turbo powered cars, which is 126 and most wins at home Grand Prix, in Prost's case it is the French Grand Prix, which he won six times. [edit] Rivalry with Ayrton SennaAlain Prost is noted for his battles with Ayrton Senna. The rivalry originated in 1988, when Senna joined Prost at the McLaren team. The most notable event during the season between the two occurred during the Portuguese Grand Prix, where Senna tried to block Prost from taking the lead by forcing the Frenchman to run close to the pitwall; Prost managed to edge Senna outwards, taking the lead as they went into the first corner. Prost was not happy with Senna's manoeuver. The rivalry intensified after the 1989 San Marino Grand Prix, where the two drivers had an agreement that neither would get in each other's way to the first corner. At the start Senna got away in the lead and Prost followed him through the first corner without getting in Senna's way. The race was stopped on lap four due to a crash by Gerhard Berger. At the restart, it was Prost this time that got away the better of the two but Senna forced his way past Prost in the first corner, breaking the pair's agreement at the start of the race, leaving the Frenchman furious with Senna. The rivalry then reached its peak at the end of 1989, when the title was to be decided between Senna and Prost at Suzuka. The two McLarens collided at a chicane when Prost blocked an attempted pass by Senna. Prost walked away and Senna returned to the track by illegally cutting the chicane -- a maneuver that resulted in a disqualification after the race had finished. Prost admitted years later that he had knowingly not let Senna through despite Senna having the inside line at the chicane. 1990, saw the two drivers collide again. Senna led Prost, now in a Ferrari, in the world drivers' championship. Prost had qualified second for the final race of the season in Japan and Senna was on pole. Prior to the race Senna had complained that his side of the grid was dirty, meaning he would get less grip and therefore a slower start compared to Prost who was on the clean side of the grid. The Brazilian's appeal was rejected. At the start of the race, Prost got the better start of the two, but whilst braking for the first corner, Senna and Prost collided forcing them both to retire and leaving Senna as champion. A year later, Senna admitted that the move was premeditated, in retalitation for Prost taking the two out of the race at the chicane on the same course the previous year when in a similar postion. After Prost returned for the 1993 season, he and Senna continued their rivalry. Prost was escorted by Police to the Interlagos circuit for the 1993 Brazilian Grand Prix due to the hostilility of Brazilians towards him. The two continued their on-track battles at Silverstone where Senna aggressively defended his position against the Williams of Prost. On May 1, 1994, Ayrton Senna died at the San Marino Grand Prix. Prost was a pallbearer at the Brazilian's funeral. Speaking four years after the Brazilian's death, Prost told Nigel Roebuck that he had "always refused to speak about him." But when Senna died, Prost stated that "a part of himself had died also", because their careers had been so bound together. Senna had also felt the same when Prost had retired at the end of 1993, when he admitted to a close friend that he had realised how much of his motivation had come from fighting with Alain Prost. Only a couple of days before his death, when filming an in-car lap of Imola for French television channel TF1, he greeted Prost, by then a pundit on the channel: "I'd like to welcome back my friend Alain - we all miss you...' Prost said that he was touched by that. [edit] HelmetAlain Prost uses a helmet design based on the three colours of the French Flag, those being blue, red and white, along with his name along the side. During his early career however, Prost used a basic design of white all over with some blue detail around the visor. During Prost's time at Renault, he used more blue details, most notably around the rear of his helmet. Prost kept the similar design for his second spell at McLaren the only variant being the change in sponsor logos. Prost's helmet changed when he moved to Ferrari, as his helmet now had the blue detail around the front; surrounding the visor. The helmet design didn't change when Prost moved to Williams, like his move from Renault to McLaren in 1984, the only change to his helmet was the change in sponsor logos. The sponsors on Alain's helmet have been Boss, Canon, Elf, Ferrari, Honda, KicKers, Marlboro, Michelin, Moët, Sega, Segafredo Zanetti and Renault. [edit] Later lifeDuring 1994 and 1995, Prost worked as TV pundit for the French TV channel, TF1. He also worked for Renault as a PR man. Prost went back to his old team McLaren, working as a Technical Advisor; he also compteted in the L'Etape du Tour, which is a bicycle race held in France. More than 5000 other riders took part, Prost himself finished 12th in his category; 42nd overall. [edit] Prost Grand PrixDuring 1989, Prost had an idea to start his own team, as his relationship with his McLaren teammate, Ayrton Senna, had turned sour. Prost and his race engineer, John Barnard, came close to founding a team in 1990 but a lack of sponsorship meant that this was not possible, so Prost moved to Ferrari. After falling out with the Italian team at the end of 1991, Prost found himself without a drive for 1992; after extensive negotiations with Guy Ligier, head of the Ligier team, had failed Prost decided to join Williams. It wasn't until 1995, when Prost was working for Renault, that people began to assume that a Prost-Renault team would be formed in the near future. Renault refused to Prost's request to supply engines for his team and ending speculation that a Prost-Renault team would be formed. On February 13, 1997, Alain Prost bought the Ligier team from Flavio Briatore and renamed it "Prost Grand Prix". The day after he bought the team, Prost signed a three-year deal with French car manufacturer, Peugeot, who would supply the team for the 1998 season through to the 2000 season. For the team's first season, Prost kept one of Ligier's 1996 drivers, Olivier Panis, who had won the Monaco Grand Prix the previous year; Japanese driver Shinji Nakano, was signed to partner Panis. The team raced with the Mugen-Honda engines used by the Ligier team the previous season. Things looked promising at the start of the season, as the team had picked up two points on its Grand Prix debut in Australia, Olivier Panis scoring the points after he finished fifth. The team scored a further 13 points until Panis had a collision during the Canadian Grand Prix, Panis was replaced by Minardi's Jarno Trulli. From there, things started to go downhill slightly, the team scored five points during Panis' recovery. The Frechman came back at the end of the season to race the final three Grand Prix. Prost GP finished sixth in the Contructors' championship in its first season, scoring 21 points. Prost became the president of Prost Grand Prix at the start of 1998. With Peugeot supplying the engines for Prost GP, Mugen-Honda decided to supply the Jordan team. Prost GP scored a single point during the season, Jarno Trulli scoring the only point after he finished sixth in Belgium. 1999 was a crucial year for Prost GP, Prost hired John Barnard as a technical consultant. Barnard's B3 Technologies helping Loic Bigois and the design of the AP02. Panis and Trulli agreed to stay on with the team for the season; the car itself didn't prove to be the team's major concern, it was the Peugeot engine that proved to be unreliable and too heavy. Peugeot's final year of Prost's engine supplier in 2000 would see some optimism, Prost hiring his 1991 Ferrari team mate Jean Alesi to drive the lead car and he hired German Nick Heidfeld, who had won the Formula 3000 championship the previous year. The season proved to be yet another disastrous one, with newly hired technical director, Alan Jenkins, fired midway through the season. Prost restructured the team, hiring Joan Villadelprat as the managing director and replacing Jenkins with Henri Durand as the team's new technical director. 2001 saw some much needed optimism for the team as Ferrari agreed to be the team's engine supplier for the season, the team now moving in the right direction. But the money ran out at the start of the 2002 season and Prost was out of business, leaving debts of around $30 million. [edit] After Prost Grand PrixDuring 2002, Prost spent time with his family and competed in eight bicycle races, finishing third in the Granite - Mont Lozère. The Frenchman raced in the Andros ice race series in 2003, finishing second in the championship behind Yvan Muller; he also became an Ambassador for Uniroyal, a position he would keep until May 2006. Prost continued to compete in the Andros Trophy until the 2005/2006 season, finishing second or third in the series each year. In 2006 he also took part in the Grand Prix Masters series although he didn't race at the first round in Silverstone. [edit] Opinions[edit] Recent Alain Prost ArmchairGM Stories
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