Driver Focus - Alain Prost

There is no denying that Alain Prost is one of Formula One’s all time great drivers. It is a shame that a spectacular career was overshadowed by controversy. His bitter feud with Ayrton Senna and a falling out with Ferrari saw a clumsy end to what was undoubtedly one of the most impressive Formula One careers in history.

Prost was born in the Loire region of France in 1955 and spent his childhood wrestling, skating, and playing just about any other sport that could cause him to break his nose so often that it would continue to be prominent in his adult life.

Compared to many of the great drivers, he began racing at a relatively ripe age. At the age of 14, he discovered karting while on a family holiday in the South of France.

Karting quickly became an obsession and he won several championships throughout his teenage years. By 1974, at the age of 19, he left school to focus on racing as a career. A year later he was the French senior champion and had won himself a season in the feeder series Formula Renault. From then on, Prost couldn’t stop winning - he won two driver’s titles in the French and European series before moving to Formula Three in 1978. He won both the French and European F3 championships for two years running and began to attract the attention of Formula One teams.

​In 1980 he joined the McLaren team for the first time, but the relationship would be short-lived. In his first season, Prost managed to finish in the points on several occasions but he was unhappy with the McLaren car. He had several large accidents and endured a number of injuries including breaking his wrist in one accident and suffering a concussion in another. He broke his two year contract and moved to the French Renault team - however, he would return to McLaren later in his career.

Prost's first victory could not have been more perfect for him - a French driver, in a French car at the French Grand Prix. However, his countrymen did not warm to him as much as they did his (also French) teammate René Arnoux. Arnoux was already established within the team and Prost was often used as a scapegoat for its occasional failings. Despite winning nine Grands Prix in his three years with Renault, Prost became increasingly frustrated with the team management. A series of retirements at the end of the 1983 season cost him his first World Championship but Renault offered him little condolence. In 1984 he left France with his wife and son to live in Switzerland - he rejoined McLaren and became their number one driver alongside the great Niki Lauda.

Prost and McLaren were seemingly unstoppable. He was instantly quick, finishing just half a point behind his teammate and champion Lauda in the first season. The Frenchman dominated the next two seasons, taking both titles comfortably. He began breaking record after record; he was the first French Drivers’ Champion (and still is the only French F1 Champion). In 1987, his twenty-eighth win eclipsed Jackie Stewart’s 14 year-old record. And only one driver before him had won back-to-back titles.

However, 1988 was the year that would ultimately begin what was to become the defining years of Prost’s career. His new teammate was a young impressive driver by the name of Ayrton Senna. McLaren dominated the 1988 season with 15 victories out of 16 races. Prost contributed seven of these but Senna’s eight wins helped him on his way to his first title. Prost was bitter because he had been beaten at his own game.​

Throughout his career he had been given the nickname 'The Professor' for his uncanny ability tobe able to work out just how many points he needed to take a Championship and would defend his position - preserving brakes and tyres throughout the race to be quick towards the end.​

However, in 1988, the Championship was decided on a driver’s 11 best results. Despite Prost scoring more points overall than Senna, his results (though impressive and consistent) were not enough to secure a third consecutive title.

It was not only the fact that Senna had beaten Prost that angered him. Senna’s tendency to drive flat out in all conditions (including rain, which Prost hated) meant that the public warmed more to the young Brazilian.

McLaren’s dominance continued in 1989 but the Senna-Prost controversy was becoming more intense. In Japan it was to reach boiling point. As the two drivers were neck-and-neck for the title and the Japanese Grand Prix would define which driver would be leading the team in the final race of the season.

​Senna qualified on pole with Prost second - the Frenchman got a much better start and led the race. He managed to build up a huge lead but with fresher rubber Senna was able to close the gap to only a second. The two drivers had very different set-ups on the car - Prost had much lower downforce which gave him better speed on the straight but Senna was noticeably quicker through the corners. At the slow chicane, Senna dived down the inside but Prost moved his car to block. Neither driver was willing to yield to their teammate and they clashed, their wheels locked and the engines stalled. Prost thought that the Championship was over so unbuckled himself and got out of the car but Senna ushered the marshals to push-start his car and began his run to the chequered flag.

Panicked, Prost ran to race control to sort out the matter. After the race, Senna was disqualified and Prost was declared the 1989 champion but he was visibly emotionally wounded by the culmination of the feud between the two men. Many sided with Senna, not least because of the general hatred of French FIA President Jean-Marie Balestre, who vilified Senna following the incident.

Prost wanted to escape the controversy and joined Ferrari in 1990 - however this didn’t work. In his first year, he won 5 races and the championship battle came down to the Japanese Grand Prix with Ayrton Senna the only driver that could deny him his fourth title. Senna would be champion if Prost failed to finish, so in the first corner he made sure Prost failed to finish. Prost got off the grid well, but so did Senna and the Brazillian dived down the inside at the first corner - the gap was always going to disappear and both cars ended up in the gravel. Both drivers walked away from their wrecked cars without acknowledging each other but after the race Senna had a wry smile as he was able to get revenge while Prost said: “What he did was disgusting. He is a man without value”.

​The 1991 season was a disaster for Prost with him failing to win a single race. He criticised the car and the team and Ferrari swiftly reacted by firing him. He took a year out to re-evaluate his career and did some television work commentating on races. Senna won the 1991 Championship but struggled with the car in 1992 and was contemplating a move to Williams for the next season. Prost was ready to return and joined the Williams team with the only request in his contract being that he wasn’t partnered with Senna.

​In 1993, he won seven races and his fourth championship. Senna was adamant that he wanted to join Williams for the 1994 season and Prost retired.

​Only after Prost retired did Senna realise that most of his motivation came from the desire to beatthe Frenchman. At Adelaide in 1993, when the two finished first and second, he turned to Prost (who had already announced his retirement) and said to him: "What are you going to do now? You're going to get fat." The two shook hands in a public reconciliation as their battle came to an end. When Senna died, Prost spoke about how he would miss his rival: "I said that I felt a part of me died also because our careers had been so bound together. And I meant it but I know some people thought it was not sincere."

Following Senna’s death in the 1994 season, Prost attended his funeral in São Paolo to show his final respect for his bitter rival. At first he was unsure whether to attend as he thought that he would be unwelcome among the Brazilian people. Following a conversation with a Brazilian friend he agreed to go and was a pallbearer for Senna's coffin.

Despite the reconciliation in Adelaide, the two drivers knew that for as long as there was a will to be the best, they could not be friends. In an interview after Prost's retirement Senna said: "I think it's not impossible that in time we might have become friends. There were those times we did have fun together, you know. Not very often, but there were times."

Prost’s retirement from racing was not the end of his Formula One career. He returned in 1997 as the team principal of Prost Grand Prix but after five seasons without a victory the team eventually went bankrupt.

With 51 wins, 106 podiums and four World Championships, Prost is one of the greatest drivers the sport has seen. It is a shame that the majority of his career was spent fruitlessly chasing teammates that were able to win the public’s heart more than he could.