Alain Prost

Name: Alain Prost

Nationality: France

Date of birth: February 24, 1955 - Lorette, Saint-Chamond, France

It is ironic that the latter part of Alain Prost's career was sullied by his ongoing psychological battle with Ayrton Senna, for Prost's achievements of 51 Grands Prix victories and four World Championships deserved better than to be overshadowed by politics and acrimony.

It is easy to see the little Frenchman with the shaggy hair and the boxer's nose as the man whom Senna deposed as king, and much of the comment that subsequently questioned his motivation was not only unjustified, but overlooked what he had achieved in his early years.

One of them had been at his peak for much longer than is usual, and the other was just approaching his. The key is that they were not at comparable stages of their careers. Look back a few years to 1984 and 1985, and you can see Prost playing Senna to Niki Lauda, himself once the pacemaker who played the role Prost would come to adopt, the role that Senna did not live long enough to have to consider in the fight with Michael Schumacher. To all things there is a season.

Prost shone in karts, then moved swiftly up Elf's motor racing ladder. From the Winfield School he emerged with a Formula Renault prize drive, to win 12 of the season's 13 races. Similar success in Super Renault thrust him into F3. After difficulty with a Martini in 1978, he bounced back to win the French and European F3 titles in 1979. This time the reward was a drive with McLaren in 1980.

In his first year in F1, Prost was outstanding despite poor machinery. With Renault between 1981 and 1983 he won nine races and established himself as a star. He lost the 1983 title through mechanical unreliability and Renault's own arrogance, and the 1984 Championship by a mere half point to the canny Lauda. In the ensuing years some of his early pace gave way to canniness of his own, and nobody could judge a race so beautifully as the Professor. He started the 1990 Mexican GP only 13th on the grid, paced himself cleverly in the early running, and won. It typified his ability to read a race. In the fuel economy era of the mid-Eighties, he was simply peerless, driving with speed, style, smoothness and restraint.

In truth, Prost and Senna were too alike for their own good. They were both very quick, they both wanted their own way. The only difference was that one was prepared to go further than the other, as Suzuka 1990 demonstrated. But none of that was surprising. They were the giants of their day. Take one of them away, and the other would have set records that might never have been challenged.

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