Alain Prost

Alain Marie Pascal Prost OBE, Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur, is always mentioned whenever a list of the greatest F1 drivers is written. 4 times a World Champion, 51 Grand Prix wins, Alain pitted himself against some of the best drivers ever to race in F1, often in the same team - Senna, Lauda, Mansell, Rosberg, van de Poele, Schumacher.

Known as the "Professor" Prost started his F1 career at McLaren in 1980, moving on to the French national team, Renault, in 1981 Prost came close to winning the title but had to return to McLaren to fulfil his ambition to be World Champion, taking his first title in 1985.

Prost's career is often defined by his rivalry with Ayrton Senna but Prost the driver and Prost the man was far more than just Senna's great rival. At a time of Super Heavyweights in F1, despite being the size of a jockey Prost threw a driving punch to rival Mike Tyson in his prime. He drove for F1's greatest teams and won titles for all of them.

Alain Prost, The Professor, the best of them all?

 

[Brogan]

Don't we have a Senna versus Prost thread?

Yes, here: http://cliptheapex.com/threads/jenson-button-vs-lewis-hamilton.4734/

 

[FB]

Not quite the same league though is it? It's like comparing Ali vs Frazier with Haye vs Chisora.

 

[Bill Boddy]

I never thought that Faiser was in the same class, or even the same fight.

 

[FB]

Bollocks Edited!

 

[Bill Boddy]

Don't remember Fraizer either, but nice try.

 

[FB]

Better?

 

[Fenderman]

 

[Slyboogy]

At the time Prost retired he was ranked either 1st or 2nd in every major statistic:
Number of Wins - 1st
Number of WDC's - 2nd
Number of Poles - 2nd
Number of Fastest Laps - 1st
Number of Podiums - 1st
Number of Points - 1st

And he did all this racing against the strongest teammate line-up anyone had to face. Pretty impressive.

 

[FB]

Read an interesting quote from Prost recently. After his decision to retire in 1993 he approached Ayrton Senna about showing how they had put the past behind them and if they both finished on the podium in Japan it might be nice to shake hands or embrace or something. Ayrton refused but then in Australia decided to show how Alain was now his BFF and have a hug on the podium. Prost's take on this was that it was now Ayrton's idea and so wasn't a problem.

What a strange and complex man Ayrton Senna was.

 

[Il_leone]

Slyboogy 4 world titles won against 3 world champions ( 2 of them reigning ) and 1 against a future world champion teammates... I'd very much doubt anyone will be able to surpass those stats

 

[Il_leone]

Prost was supposed to be the master politician but he always left teams under a cloud

 

[RasputinLives]

Lets not count Damon Hill as a world champion he beat. Damon was not allowed to beat him.

3 is pretty impressive though.

 

[Mephistopheles]

I didn't really take to Prost I think it may have been the perm, mind you I didn't take to Senna either..

 

[siffert_fan]

Lets not count Damon Hill as a world champion he beat. Damon was not allowed to beat him.

3 is pretty impressive though.

Damon was only second to Prost on two occasions, and beat him at Monaco and Belgium (how does that square with your claim that he wasn't allowed to beat him?), yet was still something like 30 points behind! Prost beat him fair and square.

Plus he was second in the WDC four time, as I recall, once because Senna rammed him to put him out of the season finale! (Ah yes. That Senna. What a saint!).

 

[cider_and_toast]

Let's not go there siffert_fan. We know Ayrton was all kinds of wrong for doing that but hey when his team mate got away with doing the exact same thing the season before he knew he could get away with it.

There, now see what you've done. Hello old wounds opened up again.

 

[siffert_fan]

C_A_T

But I don't recall Prost being given Sainthood like Senna seems to have been.

 

[cider_and_toast]

That's cause he's still alive. Death does funny things to peoples memories.

I was looking for quotes to use for a laugh with FB in the fantasy league thread from Senna on Prost. You won't find many. Even if you google Senna talks about Prost you will get more if not all of the front few pages with the reverse. It seems since Senna died all Prost has done is talk about him. Obviously the reverse doesn't exist.

Senna meant a great deal to the people of Brazil in a way perhaps our countries (Australia, the UK etc) which have a host of sporting stars don't quite understand.

I agree, some of the things said about Senna are over the top. Let's not forget though Prost was no saint.

 

[Mephistopheles]

My feelings about Senna, he was dangerous, he was a bully on the track and a bully off of it, my feelings about Prost just shut the fuck up and drive Frenchie all mouth and no trousers just like the rest them...

 

[siffert_fan]

I remember when the late great Rob Walker was writing for Road and Track magazine, he stated that, even though Prost and Senna weren't exactly best friends, Senna would always ask Prost how to fix the handling problems on his car and Prost would tell him.

Can you imagine that even among today's drivers? But it also means that, to some degree, Senna's titles, while teamed with Prost, were, to some degree, due to Prost.

 

[RasputinLives]

Damon was only second to Prost on two occasions, and beat him at Monaco and Belgium (how does that square with your claim that he wasn't allowed to beat him?), yet was still something like 30 points behind! Prost beat him fair and square.

I'm not saying Prost wasn't a great but he wasn't by 93. The format of 93 GP's was Hill would lead for half the distance. Prost would suddenly catch him and pass and go off into distance.

Renault wanted a French world champion and he was chosen. Hill was bought in as the new boy nursemaid who would do as he was told.