Alain Prost

At 69 years old, Alain Prost has this physical status:

Alain Marie Prost OBE (born 24 February 1955) is a retired French racing racer and a four-time Formula One Drivers' Champion.

Prost held the most Grand Prix victories from 1987 to 2001 and is regarded as one of the best F1 drivers ever.

At the 2001 Belgian Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher defeated Prost's total number of 51 victories.

Prost received the World Sports Awards of the Century in 1999 in the motor sport category.

He advanced through motor sport's junior ranks, winning the French and European Formula Three championships before joining the McLaren Formula One team in 1980 at the age of 24.

He finished in the points on his Formula One debut at San Martin Autodrome in Buenos Aires, Argentina (where he took his first podium a year later) and claimed his first race victory at the factory Renault team in France a year later. Prost formed a tense rivalry in the 1980s and early 1990s, but also Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell.

He defeated Mansell and Piquet of Williams in 1986, the championship's final race of the season, although Piquet was forced to resign early in the season, and Piquet was suspended after a late precautionary pit stop.

Senna joined Prost in 1988, and the two teams had a string of unpredictable clashes, including one in 1989 that gave Prost his third Drivers' Championship to Prost.

Prost, a year ago, collided again at the same place a year ago, but it was this time Prost, a Ferrari driver, was disqualified.

Ferrari fired Prost before the 1991 season for his public condemnation of the team.

Prost joined the Williams team in 1992 after a sabbatical, prompting the reigning Drivers' Champion Mansell to leave CART.

Prost won the 1993 championship and then resigned from Formula One racing at the end of the year, winning the French Ligier team, running it as Prost Grand Prix until it went bankrupt in 2002.

He competed in the Andros Trophy, which is an ice racing championship, winning 38 race titles and three times, consciously based himself on personal heroes like Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark from 2003 to 2012.

For his competitive mindset, he was dubbed "The Professor."

Though it wasn't a name he particularly cared for, he'd later admit that it was a good summation of his racing strategy.

Prost would often save his brakes and tyres early in a run, leaving them fresher for a challenge at the end.

Personal and early life

Alain Prost was born in Lorette, France, near Saint-Chamond, just south of Saint-Chamond, France's département of Loire, near Saint-Étienne, France. André Prost and Marie-Rose Karatchian were born in France of Armenian descent. Daniel, the Prost's younger brother who died of cancer in September 1986, had one younger brother, Daniel. Prost was a young and athletic child who enjoyed playing sports, including wrestling, roller skating, and football, despite being short. He cracked his nose several times while doing so. Before he discovered kart racing while on a family holiday, he considered either a gym instructor or a professional footballer. This emerging sport soon became his career of choice.

Prost was married to Anne-Marie (born 14 February 1955), but they divorced later. They have two sons, Nicolas (born 18 August 1981) and Sacha Prost (born 30 May 1990). Victoria, Prost's daughter, was born from his friendship with Bernadette Cottin. Nicolas competed in Formula E from 2014 to 2018, a team partially funded by his father. Prost lived in Saint-Chamond until he and his Renault crew lost in the early 1980s. The Prost family moved from Sainte-Croix, Switzerland, to Yens, Switzerland, shortly after. After Renault workers went to Prost's home in France and set fire to his Mercedes-Benz and another one of his road cars, they moved to Switzerland. They lived in Nyon, the United States, until 1999, when they migrated to Nyon in the same region. Prost has two grandsons named Kimi (born November 2015) and Mika (born December 2020) through Nicolas. Liam, his second grandson, was born in June 2018 in Sacha.

François Mitterrand, the French President, awarded the Légion d'honneur in 1986.

Later life

Prost appeared on French television channels TF1 in 1994 and 1995. He has also worked for Renault as a public relations manager. Prost returned to his old squad McLaren, as a technical advisor; he also completed L'Étape du Tour, an annual mass participation bicycle ride held on a stage of the Tour de France. Although not a sanctioned event, riders continue to fight for positions; Prost placed 12th in his class, 42nd overall out of over 5000 riders.

Prost began considering starting his own team in 1989 as his friendship with his McLaren teammate, Ayrton Senna, had gone sour. Prost and John Barnard, the former chief designer of McLaren, came close to starting a team in 1990, but a lack of funding prevented it from happening, so Prost and Barnard left Ferrari and Barnard to join Benetton. Prost found himself without a drive for 1992 after falling out with the Italian team at the end of 1991; after the failure of lengthy talks with Guy Ligier about buying his Ligier team, Prost decided to join Williams for 1993. People had guessed that a Prost-Renault team would be formed by 1995, when Prost was working for Renault. Prost refused Prost's offer to supply engines for his crew, putting an end to the rumors.

Prost bought the Ligier team from Flavio Briatore on February 13th and renamed it "Prost Grand Prix." Prost signed a three-year contract with French automaker Peugeot, which would supply the team with engines from 1998 to 2000, the day after he bought the team. Prost retained Olivier Panis, one of Ligier's 1996 winners, for the team's first season; Japanese driver Shinji Nakano was signed to partner Panis. The team raced with the Mugen-Honda engines used by Ligier in the previous season, but the Prost JS45 was later renamed. When Olivier Panis finished fifth in Australia, things looked promising at the start of the season, when the team gained two points on its Grand Prix debut. Panis broke his leg in a crash during the Canadian Grand Prix, and the team gained a further 13 points before the team had to go home. Jarno Trulli of Minardi had him replaced. Things got downhill a bit during Panis' recovery, and the team scored just five points. He returned from the holiday season to compete in the last three Grands Prix. Prost GP placed sixth in the Constructors' Championship in its first season, earning 21 points.

At the start of 1998, Prost Grand Prix president Prost became Prost Grand Prix president. Mugen-Honda decided to supply the Jordan team after Peugeot supplied the engines for the Prost GP. When Jarno Trulli finished sixth in Belgium, Prost GP gained just one point during the season.

Prost GP's 1999 was a pivotal year for the brand. Prost recruited John Barnard as a technical advisor, Barnard's B3 Technologies firm aiding Loic Bigois with the Prost AP02's configuration. Panis and Trulli have decided to stick with the team for the season. The car was not a major concern, but the Peugeot V10 engine proved to be heavy and unreliable.

Peugeot's last year as Prost's engine manufacturer in 2000 generated a lot of optimism. Prost recruited Jean Alesi, a 1991 Ferrari teammate, to pilot the lead car and German Nick Heidfeld, who had competed in the 1999 Formula 3000 championship, to accompany him. The AP03 proved to be unreliable and unresponsive, resulting in yet another disaster. In the Austrian Grand Prix, the drivers collided with each other, and that didn't help. Alan Jenkins, the year's youngest apprentice, was fired midway through the year. Prost restructured the team, installing Joan Villadelprat as the team's managing director and replacing Jenkins with Henri Durand as the team's new technical director.

In 2001, Ferrari decided to build engines for the season. At the start of the 2002 season, the funds were exhausted, and Prost was out of business, leaving Prost with debts of about $30 million.

Prost spent time with his family and participated in eight bicycle races, finishing third in the Granite – Mont Lozère. In 2003, the Frenchman competed in the Andros ice race series, finishing second in the championship behind Yvan Muller. Prost appeared in the Étape du Tour in 2003 and 2004.

Prost has also been appointed Ambassador for Uniroyal, a post he will hold until May 2006.

Prost continued to participate in the Andros Trophy, winning the competition with Toyota in 2006/07, 2007/08, and with Dacia in 2011/2012.

The Sporting Rules were updated for the 2010 Formula One season, ensuring that a former driver is included on the stewards' panel. At the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix, Prost was the first male to play this role. In 2010, Prost was also a participant in the Race of Champions, a competition that has been established for motor sport legends who wish to compete in equal machinery.

Prost was named as Renault's new international ambassador in February 2012, and the company was present at sporting protests and at events coordinated or attended by Renault.

Prost has won the Absa Cape Epic, an eight-day mountain bike race in South Africa, twice. He started the run in 2012 with partner Sebastien di Pasqua and then again in 2013, but did not finish the season in 2014.

Prost announced in October 2013 that it would partner with Jean-Paul Driot's DAMS racing team to form e.dams, a team that will compete in the FIA Formula E Championship for electric racing cars from its inception in September 2014. Nicolas Prost and Sébastien Buemi were the team's first driver line-up in June 2014. The team went on to win the inaugural Formula E teams championship. He was hired as a special advisor for the Renault Formula One Team in 2017. He took up a non-executive director role with Renault Sport in July 2019. Prost had the privilege of waving the chequered flag as Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton crossed the line to win his 75th race in his career. Prost continued working with Renault in his role as a member of the "Alpine F1 Team" from 2021, until January 2022, when his departure from the team was announced.

Source

Driving career

In his youth, Prost won several karting titles. He left school in 1974 to become a full-time racer, designing engines and becoming a kart distributor. He received his award for winning the 1975 French senior karting championship, a feat in which he won the title and just one race in 1976.

Prost won the 1977 Formula Renault European championship before moving to Formula Three (F3) in 1978. He won both the French and European F3 championships in 1979, by the time he was on several Formula One teams' shopping lists. After carefully considering his choices, he decided to sign with McLaren for 1980. At the final race of the 1979 season at Watkins Glen, he shocked the British team by refusing to race in a third vehicle, arguing that neither him nor the team would profit from the token effort. Prost believed that it would be a mistake to race in Formula One without being fully prepared: "I said, "No" to Marlboro at the end. I begged them to understand that I didn't want to make a mistake; I didn't know Watkins Glen and I didn't know the car. I said it would be a good idea to organise a test."

Prost began his career with McLaren (being operated by Teddy Mayer) in 1980 alongside Ulsterman John Watson. He finished sixth in eighth place on his debut in Buenos Aires, Argentina, earning just one point, something only a handful of drivers can do. Prost's tally during the season was up four points, Brands Hatch, and Zandvoort. In the Drivers' Championship, Prost finished 15th, putting him equal with former world champion Emerson Fittipaldi. Despite a promising debut season, Prost had several accidents, breaking his wrist during practice at Kyalami, and suffering a concussion during practice at Watkins Glen. He was also expelled from the previous round in Montreal a week earlier due to rear suspension problems. Despite having two years on his deal, he left McLaren and signed with Renault at the end of the season. Prost has reported that he left because of the car's sheer number of breakdowns and because the team chastised him for certain of the accidents.

Prost was partnered with René Arnoux, a fellow Frenchman, in 1981. Nigel Roebuck, a motor sports writer, says there were issues between Prost and Arnoux from the start of the season, with Prost being quicker than his more experienced teammate. He did not finish the first two Grands Prix due to injuries with Andrea de Cesaris in Long Beach and Didier Pironi at Jacarepagua, but he did not finish at Buenos Aires, but he did not finish in Buenos Aires. He did not finish in the next four races, but he did finish first Formula One race in France, finishing two seconds ahead of his old teammate John Watson.

Prost's debut victory was mainly for the change in his mindset. "You thought you could do it before," he said. "Now you know you can." Prost got off to a promising start in Germany and finished on the podium every time he ran a race distance. He won in Holland and Italy and placed fifth in the Drivers' Championship, seven points behind champion Nelson Piquet.

Prost won the first two Grands Prix of the 1982 season in South Africa, where Prost recovered from losing a wheel, and Brazil, where he placed third but was awarded the honor after Piquet (1st) and Ke Rosberg (2nd) were disqualified. On four other occasions, he placed in the points, but did not win again. Despite retiring from seven races, Prost boosted his Drivers' Championship finish, finishing fourth, but with fewer points than the previous year. After the French Grand Prix, his ties with Arnoux deteriorated even more. Arnoux, who won the race, is accused of back-to-back-race promises to assist Prost during the campaign, according to Prost. His French media ties were also bad. "I went to Renault, the journalists wrote good things about me, but by 1982, he had become the bad guy." I think I'd make the mistake of winning, to be honest. The French people don't particularly like winners.

Prost, along with fellow F1 drivers Jacques Laffite and Nelson Piquet, made the trip to Melbourne, Australia, in November 1982, three years before it became a round of the F1 World Championship, where they rode in the non-championship 1982 Australian Grand Prix. (1.609 km (1.000 mi) Calder Park Raceway. Prost sat on pole for the race with a 1.6 litre Ford engine. He led every lap to victory in what would be the first of three Australian Grand Prix victories. With 1981 Australian Grand Prix champion and young Brazilian driver Roberto Moreno finishing third, he came 15.32 seconds ahead of Laffite.

Arnoux left Renault in 1983 and American Eddie Cheever took over as Prost's manager in North America, allegedly due to Renault's desire to sell more road cars in North America (three of the season's 15 races were on the North American continent). Prost won four more times for Renault over the season and finished second in the Drivers' Championship, two points behind Nelson Piquet. In the last few races of the season, Piquet and the Brabham team resurrested Prost and Renault. Prost, who felt that the team had been too conservative in designing the car, was increasingly frustrated with Renault's leadership, who made him the scapegoat for failure to win a championship. In addition to that, the French fans recalled the bitter fight that had caused their favorite, Arnoux, to leave the team. In an interview with ESPN during the final race, Prost said that his vehicle was "not competitive" and that he "didn't lose by my own fault" and that he "didn't lose by my own error" "only two days after the South African race was over. After Renault factory workers destroyed the second of Prost's cars, one of which was a Mercedes-Benz, he resigned for McLaren for the 1984 season within days and moved his family and family to Switzerland.

In 1984, Prost joined double world champion Niki Lauda at McLaren (now operated by Ron Dennis), driving the John Barnard-designed McLaren MP4/2, which used a 1.5 litre TAG-Porsche V6 engine. Despite winning seven races to Lauda's five, including winning in Portugal, he lost the world championship by a half-point. Prost had been leading, but with Ayrton Senna (Toleman) and Stefan Bellof (Tyrrell) closing on him rapidly, when Clerk of the Course Jacky Ickx stopped the race at half distance without consulting the race officials, the race was suspended at halftime. Prost received only half of the nine points normally awarded for a win under Formula One rules.

In 1984, Prost's seven victories tied Jim Clark's record of 1963 equalled it.

Prost was the first French Formula One World Champion in 1985. During the season, he won five of the sixteen Grand Prix titles. He had previously won the San Marino Grand Prix but was disqualified after his car was discovered to be 2 kilograms underweight in post-race scrutineering. Prost came in 20 points ahead of his closest rival, Michele Alboreto. Prost's 1985 debut earned him the Légion d'honneur award in France.

At the end of 1985, Niki Lauda retired for good, but by 1982 World Champion Ke Rosberg, 1986, she was promoted to McLaren. Despite his car's struggles against the Honda-powered Williams cars driven by Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell, Prost defended his title. The Australian Grand Prix, Prost, up to second place in the Championship, behind Mansell, in the latter stages of the 1986 season. Prost had the same number of victories as Piquet as Piquet, but he had four second positions to Piquet's three, effectively placing him second in second position going into the final round. Mansell, who was third overall behind Piquet and right behind Prost on the road, suffered a rear tyre breakdown at 180 kilometers per hour (290 km/h) and fell out. Piquet was pitted by the Williams team to change tyres as a safety precaution, but Prost was already pitted earlier due to a puncture and did not have to change his tyres again. He took the lead ahead of a charging Piquet to the chequered flag and the Championship. Prost was the first driver to hold the position after Jack Brabham in 1960.

The San Marino Grand Prix was another memorable run for Prost this year. He was on cruise to win when his car started out of gas three corners from the chequered flag. He managed to keep the car running just long enough to get over the line and win the race by frantically weaving the car back and forth to slosh the last drops of fuel into the pickup. After the race, Prost said he immediately thought, "I am going to lose this race again" referring to his 1985 disqualification at Imola. It happened again at the German Grand Prix: Prost's car ran out of fuel on the finishing straight of the lap, despite being in fourth place. Prost got out of his car and pushed it to the finish rather than resigning at a time in the season when points were critical, earning a lot of cheers from the crowd. Despite this, the finish line was too far, and he never reached it. He was eventually ranked sixth in the championship, as the seventh-placed vehicle (the Brabham-BMW of Derek Warwick) was a lap behind. Prost also placed sixth in the Belgian Grand Prix, where he collided with Gerhard Berger in the Benetton. As a result, the car's front suspension and engine mountings were adjusted, which greatly reduced its handling. It will behave in left hand corners in one way and in a completely different way in right hand corner right hand corners. Following the teams' post-race inspection of the vehicle, McLaren Technical Director John Barnard said the car was "bent like a banana."

Swede Stefan Johansson, the underrated in Formula One at the end of 1986, was filling Prost's seat alongside Prost for the 1987 season. Despite that McLaren acquired the latest Steve Nichols-designed MP4/3 after three seasons with the MP4/2 model (Barnard left for Ferrari), the TAG engines were not the force they had been before, falling behind in power and with unreliability previously unseen. He never gave up and battled Piquet and Mansell almost to the end, winning three races and smashing Jackie Stewart's record for race victories at the Portuguese Grand Prix for the 28th time. Stewart said at the time, "People may not believe me." "I'm glad to see Alain take my time," Alain says. I'm happy that he did it because he's the one that owes it. Prost believes that he is the best racer of his generation, and that his victory in the first round in Brazil is the best and most rewarding sport ever. Prost was dominant in qualifying, and Prost took fifth on the grid in a time three seconds less than Mansell's pole time. Knowing he didn't have the qualifying speed, he instead concentrated on his race set-up, and with everyone else aiming for a high-downforce setup, he went the other way. Because of slower speeds in the corners and going faster down the straights, the set-up meant less tyre wear, thanks to reduced traffic speeds. Prost was able to complete the 61 laps of the abrasive Jacarepaguá Circuit with less tyre wear than his opponents (Piquet pitted for tyres three times during the first 40 laps). Prost took the lead in Piquet for 40 seconds, with Johansson a further 16 seconds behind in third.

Prost finished in fourth place in the championship in 1987, behind Piquet, Mansell, and Lotus driver Ayrton Senna. Prost finished 30 points behind champion Nelson Piquet. It was the furthest away he would finish a season from the championship lead in 1980 and 1991 other than his debut season in 1980 and 1991.

Despite a modest 1987 season, Prost earned his fourth consecutive No. 1 driver of the year by the year's editor, Niki Lauda's tenure from 1975 to 1978 in the same annual. Despite having a downturn on the power engine (compared to Honda's), the Autocourse editor said in 1987 that "Prost should have won at least 6 races in 1987, but not moan about it." Despite being out of championship contention, 1987 was a memorable year for Prost. His triumph over Estoril was "extraordinary." "In the long run, Ayrton Senna may be the best rider, but Prost had no equal" in 1985, while Prost wrote about Prost's year "Alain had an almost faultless year." Prost's outstanding all-round success continued in 1986.

Despite Nelson Piquet's victory in the 1987 Drivers' Championship and Williams' victory in the Constructors' Championship, Honda decided not to build the team with their engines, citing Williams' refusal to fire Nigel Mansell and hire Honda test driver Satoru Nakajima (who debuted with Lotus in 1987) and instead provided the McLaren team for 1988. Prost had persuaded Ron Dennis to join Ayrton Senna for three years, which was instrumental in the success of the Japanese automaker in 1987 (Senna's ability was high when the Japanese giant used their engines with Lotus, and both were keen to keep their links). However, this is the rivalry that brought two of the sport's top players to new heights of fame and controversies. McLaren-Honda dominated the season, winning 15 out of 16 races. In every sport other than his two retirements at Silverstone and Monza, Prost placed first or second. Despite Senna winning one more races than him, he won seven races and outscored his new teammate Senna by 11 points. However, only the 11 best performances from the season were counted toward the championship total, and Senna took the lead by three points. Prost continued to be a promoter of essentially the 1990s scoring scheme: all points counted toward the final results, with a race winner scoring 10 (rather than 9).

Prost had a meeting in Geneva with Nobuhiko Kawamoto, the head of Honda's R&D team and F1 racing team. He expressed his dissatisfaction with Senna's preferential treatment, and Kawamoto confirmed Prost's worries by a new generation of Honda engineers, who said that Senna's engineers were of a new generation and that they liked Senna's panache and "samurai"-like driving. Senna had already established a strong relationship with the Honda engineers during the 1987-1990s while at Lotus. For the 1989 season, Kawamoto was able to tell Prost that he'll work something out on the Honda end of the McLaren-Honda relationship, but this was not to be.

McLaren's domination lasted throughout 1989, and the contest between Prost and Senna for supremacy brought them on a collision course. Prost accusing Senna of "dangerous driving" and of receiving more attention from both McLaren and Honda than ever before. Senna accused Prost of being in the pocket of FISA's French president Jean-Marie Balestre for his part. At Round 2 in San Marino, the two drivers' animosity came to a halt. The drivers reached an understanding that whoever led the way would not be caught by the other going into the first turn (in this case, the Tosa bend on the Imola circuit). After Senna's victory in the first round, Prost stuck to the deal. Prost recovered the restoration (caused by Gerhard Berger's fiery crash in his Ferrari), but Senna had to stop Tosa, but Senna was stopped at Tosa. Prost went to a friend of his, a French journalist, and told him of the broken deal between him and Senna. The journalist went public with the news against Prost's wishes. Senna denied that any such deal existed between Prost and himself during testing in Pembrey, Wales, but Prost denied it, but Prost's argument was backed up by Marlboro's John Hogan, who was present when the deal was signed.

Many pundits had feared that their miserable season had come to an end. Senna made his move at the Casio Chicane during lap 46 of the Japanese Grand Prix. Prost, who was turning around the corner, collided with his colleague, resulting in a car accident, and the cars collided down the escape road. The Prost, who had hoped that the World Championship was over, climbed out of his stalled vehicle. Senna's McLaren backwards were pushed to the ground by the marshals to break them apart. So they pushed it forwards in a difficult situation, leaving it in a vulnerable situation. Senna started the engine as they did so. He resurfaced and resurfaced in the chicane. Senna's nose was damaged and he was forced to pit, but he was only five seconds behind Benetton Alessandro Nannini. Ayrton sliced past Nannini at the chicane on lap 50 to take the lead and win the race. But it wasn't Nannini who appeared on the podium, with race officials excluding Senna for missing the chicane. McLaren appealed the decision, but the FIA Court of Appeal ruled not only upheld the decision but fined Senna US$100,000 and suspended him to a suspended six-month suspension. Prost captured his third driver's title under tumultuous circumstances.

Prost had the firm's belief that Honda and Ron Dennis viewed Senna as the team's future. Prost recalled that by the Italian Grand Prix, he had one car with maybe four or five mechanics, while his teammate had two cars and 20 people around him. Prost, who had announced in July 1989 that he would leave McLaren, announced that he would join Ferrari. Prost was coerced to make a public apology to McLaren and Honda for his Monza remarks. However, Prost received assistance from Nigel Mansell (who will be his 1990 teammate at Ferrari) and former teammate Rosberg, who said that although they knew they would not be using the Japanese engines again next season, their Honda engines did not appear to work as well as it did when they first did. Until that point, Prost's MP4/5 had not been a match for Senna's long straights, prompting many, especially journalists, to wonder if there was really truth to Prost's assertion that his Honda engines were not as good as Senna's. After Senna's engine blew with just 9 laps remaining, Prost won the Italian Grand Prix. At the joy of the tifosi, whose team he inherited for the 1990 season, the rostrum Prost turned his driver's trophy into the crowd, sparking Dennis who's since changed McLaren's policy, which now requires all trophies won by drivers to be affiliated to the team. Dennis was in fact so pistified at Prost that he threw his builder's trophy at Prost's feet on the rostrum. Prost had a replica trophy made for Dennis, but it sat in a cupboard for more than six years.

Prost has stated consistently that his Honda V10s were not producing the same amount of horsepower as those in Senna's sedan as 1989. It came to a point where Honda F1 boss Osamu Goto felt obliged to talk to the British media on the subject. Senna's foot-tapping style with the accelerator helped keep the RA109-E's revs up in the engine's mid-range, where the majority of the engine's power was located, while Prost's smoother style brought the engines into low revs where they had a pick-up issue. The talk was convincing until Goto continued to call them Ayrton and Prost respectively (per Japanese customs, addressing a person by their first name rather than their surname shows a much greater degree of familiarity and confidence). During the Mexican Grand Prix, there was evidence to back Prost's assertions. Although Prost's McLaren was not able to pass Senna's on the long front straight, he came off the final Perpeta Curve faster than Senna and had the benefit of a tow, his car was less wing than Senna's, which would theoretically give him more speed. Senna was able to tear Prost down on the straight, even though he was late in the game (who was on new tyres).

Prost joined Ferrari in 1990, becoming the first team member to join the team after team founder Enzo Ferrari's death in 1988. He worked with Nigel Mansell of the United Kingdom in 1990 (Berger took Prost's seat at McLaren). Prost took over as the team's lead driver after he had been crowned world champion and was expected to have played on this position. Mansell recalls one incident in which he didn't do the same as in the previous race, where he had a pole position, and Prost found Mansell as having a more sophisticated car and had them swapped without Mansell knowing. Prost has won five races for Ferrari this year, including Brazil, Mexico, France, Britain, and Spain. The Mexican Grand Prix, where he won after starting in 13th position, was not one of these. He led Mansell to 1–2 finishes in both the Mexican and Spanish races. Prost was leading his McLaren rivalry, Ayrton Senna, by nine points in Japan's penultimate round of the season. The two sides met in 1989 in a tumultuous crash. Senna took his race car into Prost's, taking them both out of the competition and retaining the trophy in his honor. Prost said, "What he did was disgusting." "He is a man of value." Prost finished the season seven points behind Senna, and his Ferrari team finished runners-up to McLaren.

Mansell departed the Scuderia due to his tumultuous relationship with Prost, and he returned to Williams in 1991 Formula One. Jean Alesi, a Frenchman who had been outstanding during the previous two years at Tyrrell, was Mansell's replacement. Ferrari's legendary V12 engine had suffered, partially because of the smaller, lighter, and more fuel efficient V10s of their rivals. Despite a major update by the French Grand Prix (F-643), the Ferrari chassis was still not up to par with McLaren and the Williams models. Prost has won no races and came only five times to the podium. He took this out on the team, publicly shaming the team and the Ferrari 643, and then had his deal terminated before the season's end, immediately prior to the Australian Grand Prix. For the final race of the 1991 season, he was replaced by Italian driver Gianni Morbidelli, as well as another Italian, Ivan Capelli for the upcoming season. Despite being fired, Prost received a significant compensation from Ferrari for not driving for any other team.

In 1992, Prost went on a sabbatical year, led by Nigel Mansell in a Williams-Renault. Prost began pre-season testing for Ligier in 1992 and then turned down an invitation to drive for the team. Mansell sold Williams to race in the CART series after learning that Prost would be his teammate again in 1993. Prost was refused a clause in his deal that barred rival Ayrton Senna from joining the team this year. Prost was one of Williams' new-look driver lineup, with test driver Damon Hill arriving to replace Riccardo Patrese, who had to join Benetton.

Prost claimed his fourth and final title in a year when he was regularly challenged by teammate Hill and Ayrton Senna. Prost said he would not defend his world title until 1994 because the term in his deal did not extend to 1994. Senna did not want to join Williams for the forthcoming season, but instead decided to withdraw. Prost set the most Grand Prix victories at the end of the season, a record that stood for almost a decade. Prost's last run in Adelaide, 1993, he and Senna embraced. Senna had declined a handshake at the previous run, surprising the pro. Prost's work earned him an OBE.

During the 2001 season, German Michael Schumacher set a new record of 51 Grand Prix victories over Prost. With Ayrton Senna (1989) and Damon Hill (1996), he also holds the record for starting every race from the front row (16, 1993).

He is the last Frenchman to win his home Grand Prix as of January 2022.

Prost's battles with Ayrton Senna were particularly notable. Senna joined Prost at the McLaren team in 1988, and the rivalry began in 1988. Senna tried to prevent Prost from taking the lead by restricting him to run near the pit wall at around 280 kilometers per hour (174 mph), the most notable event of the season. Prost managed to edge Senna outwards, taking the lead as they went into the first corner, but Senna's manoeuvre angered him.

The rivalry escalated after the 1989 San Marino Grand Prix, where the two drivers had an agreement that neither driver would be able to get to the first corner of the track (cf). (2002-San Marino Grand Prix) Senna led the way at the start and Prost followed him into the first corner without getting in his way. On lap four, Gerhard Berger's crash brought the race to a halt. Prost got the better of the two men at the start of the season, but Senna compelled him to walk past him at the first corner, causing Prost to be furious. Senna said that this was the start of the campaign. Prost himself was angered by McLaren's better relationship with Senna, so he announced in mid-season that he would race for Ferrari the next season. During 1989, Prost said many times that he felt his car was not as good as Senna's, and that even when Prost went to Japan, the CEO of Honda told him that his car was not as competitive as Senna's. The information was actually confirmed during Ron Dennis' speech in France when he said that Prost's vehicle was consistently using more fuel but not getting more horsepower than Senna's engine.

Senna and Prost at Suzuka met in 1989, when the competition was expected to be decided between Senna and Prost at Suzuka. Prost blocked a failed pass by Senna as the two McLarens collided in the Casio Triangle chicane. When Senna returned to the track, the Prost walked away. Senna went on to win the race but was disqualified in a highly contested decision regarding his return to the track after his vehicle was pushed through the chicane. Senna received a new US$100,000 fine and a six-month suspension after McLaren's unsuccessful appeal, causing Senna to accuse FIA president Jean-Marie Balestre of favouring his compatriot Prost.

The two drivers clashed again in the coming season. Prost qualified second in the world Drivers' Championship, with Senna leading Prost, now in a Ferrari, and Senna on pole in Suzuka. Senna was apparently told by a Steward that the pole position would be on one side of the track, but that it would be on the other side of the track before the race. Senna screamed that because he was no longer on the track, his side of the grid was dirty, resulting in less interest (and therefore a slower start) than Prost, who had been moved to the clean side of the grid. Senna's appeal was dismissed. Prost got off to a good start at the start of the race, but Senna did not halt and collided with Prost at 160 mph (260 km/h), clinching the trophy for himself. Prost almost dropped out of the sport, saying, "what he did was disgusting." He is a man without value." Senna confessed that the change was preplanned a year later, as part of the chicane retaliation for the fatal collision on the previous year.

In 1991, there was another tense occurrence. Prost's inferior Ferrari was unable to put up a serious threat to Senna's front-running McLaren. Prost competed for 4th place at Hockenheim, Germany, but Senna responded too strongly, prompting Prost to delay action by using the escape road. Prost's car was stalled in the competition again. Senna ran out of gas on the last lap at the same time, which was coincident. The FIA ordered a sit-down meeting between the two men in Hungary after the previous two years, not wanting any repeats of the incidents from the previous two years.

After being fired from Ferrari for openly criticizing the car and the team, Prost took a sabbatical in 1992, and Senna was dissatisfied because McLaren was no longer competitive with Williams. Prost announced that he would be a member of Williams for the forthcoming 1993 season. Senna, as a teammate, wanted to join Williams because they were the most competitive, but Prost had a provision in his deal that barred Senna from being a teammate. During a press conference at Estoril, an indignation Senna called the Frenchman a "coward" and expressed his inability to participate in the Drivers' Championship on equal terms: an infuriated Senna called him a "coward" and protested his inability to compete for the Drivers' Championship on equal sporting terms: he was branded a "coward."

Prost and Senna's on-track rivalry remained during the 1993 season. Due to the hostility of Brazilians against him, Prost was led by police to the Interlagos circuit for the 1993 Brazilian Grand Prix. At Silverstone, where Senna defended his position against Prost, the two were locked in on-track combats. He was led by Senna to the top of the podium for an embrace at Prost's last Grand Prix, the 1993 Australian Grand Prix.

During the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994, Ayrton Senna was killed. At his funeral, Prost was a pallbearer. Prost told Nigel Roebuck that he had "always refused to talk about him" four years after Senna's death. Senna died "a part of himself" after his career had been so tied together, according to Prost. Senna had the same reaction when Prost retired at the end of 1993 when he told a close friend that he hadn't realized how much of his motivation had come from his fight with Prost. He greeted Prost only a few days before his death on French television channel TF1, and then a pundit: "A special thank you to our dear friend, Alain." Alain, we all miss you." Prost expressed surprise and admiration for the remark.

Prost uses a helmet style based on the three colours of the French flag, blue, white, and red, with his name printed along the side. Prost's early career used a basic black all over with some blue detailing around the visor (blue helmet with a white 180° flipped Y and red lines in the lower branch of the flipped Y and red lines surrounding the top). During Prost's time at Renault, he acquired more blue details, most notable around his helmet's back. Prost's helmet was updated in 1985, as the front, flanking the visor, now had the blue stripe, giving the white area a P) and a red stripe around the top (forming a white circle with a blue half in the rear). Prost kept a similar layout for his Ferrari and Williams debuts. Prost used several iterations of his helmet design. He used his own idea in 2007, but the circle top was red and the lower chin area was blocked, with the red line in the lower chin area. He used a pearl white helmet with silver flames and a blue-white-blue stripe on the visor, which was created by Kaos Design in 2010.

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Awards and recognition

• L'Équipe Champion of French champions: 1985, 1986, 1989, 1993
• Appointed Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur: 1986
• Presented with the Grand Prix de l'Académie des sports: 1989
• Promoted to Officier de la Légion d'honneur: 1993
• Made an honorary Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire: 1994
• Winner of the Autosport Gregor Grant Award for Lifetime Achievement: 1994
• Chosen as the greatest driver of the century, at the World Sports Awards of the Century: 1999
• Received the Ordem Nacional do Cruzeiro do Sul, the highest Brazilian award granted to foreign citizens: 1999
• Inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame: 1999
• Awarded the “Armenian Cesar”, which is considered the highest award of the Armenian community of France: 2007
• Inducted into the FIA Hall of Fame: 2017
• Honoured with the SPORTEL Lifetime Achievement Award: 2019
• Crowned the best driver in the history of Formula Renault: 2020