Background and career
Alain Marie Pascal Prost (French pronunciation: [alɛ̃ pʁɔst]; born 24 February 1955) is a French former racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from 1980 to 1993. Nicknamed "the Professor", Prost won four Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles and—at the time of his retirement—held the records for most wins (51), fastest laps (41), and podium finishes (106). Born in Lorette, Loire, Prost began karting aged 14, winning the junior World Cup four years later, and progressing to junior formulae in 1976. Prost won his first title at the Formula Renault National Championship that year, prior to winning the Challenge de Formule Renault Europe in 1977. Replaced by the French Formula Three Championship the following season, he successfully defended his titles in 1978 and 1979. His junior career culminated in his victory at the 1979 FIA European Formula 3 Championship with Oreca. Prost signed for McLaren in 1980, making his Formula One debut at the Argentine Grand Prix, where he finished sixth. He moved to Renault in 1981, taking his maiden victory at his home Grand Prix in France, with further wins in the Netherlands and Italy. Following multiple race wins in his 1982 campaign with Renault, Prost finished runner-up to Nelson Piquet in the 1983 World Drivers' Championship after retiring with a turbo failure in the title-decider. Prost was sacked by Renault two days later for his post-season comments and moved back to McLaren for 1984, where he finished runner-up to teammate Niki Lauda by a record half-point. In 1985, Prost won his maiden title with McLaren, becoming the first World Drivers' Champion from France. He successfully defended his title the following season, amidst a close title battle with Piquet and Nigel Mansell. After winning several races in his 1987 campaign, Prost was partnered by Ayrton Senna. Together, they won all Grands Prix bar one in 1988—driving the Honda-powered MP4/4—with Senna taking the title by three points. Their fierce rivalry culminated in title-deciding collisions at Suzuka in 1989 and 1990, despite Prost's move to Ferrari in the latter, with Prost winning the former championship and Senna taking the following. Amidst a winless 1991 campaign, he was sacked by Ferrari over comments made about the 643. After a year hiatus, Prost returned with Williams in 1993, breaking several records on the way to his fourth championship and retiring at the end of the season. He returned to Formula One as the owner of Prost Grand Prix from 1997 to 2001, having purchased Ligier. Prost held an advisory role at Renault—later re-branded as Alpine—from 2017 to 2021. After retiring from Formula One, Prost was a race-winner in the 2005 FFSA GT Championship, and entered the Race of Champions in 2010, representing France alongside Sébastien Loeb. In ice racing, Prost is a three-time champion of the Andros Trophy, competing from 2003 to 2012. He was the co-owner of Renault e.dams in Formula E until 2018, winning three consecutive Teams' Championships from 2014–15 to 2016–17. Prost was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1999.
Alain Prost was born in the commune of Lorette near the town of Saint-Chamond, in the département of Loire close to Saint-Étienne, France to André Prost and Marie-Rose Karatchian, born in France of Armenian descent. His father ran a furniture store. Prost had one older brother called Daniel, who died of cancer in September 1986. Prost was an active and athletic child, who enthusiastically 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 he discovered kart racing at the age of 14 while on a family holiday. This new sport quickly became his career of choice. At age 16, he bought his first kart with money he saved working for his father's shop. Prost won several karting championships in his teens. In 1974, he became a full-time racer. He won the French senior karting championship in 1975. Prost made the transition to open-wheel racing in 1976 and rapidly progressed through the junior categories. That year, he dominated French Formula Renault, winning the title and all but one race. In 1977, he won the Formula Renault European championship. In 1978, he won the French Formula Three championship while simultaneously competing in the European Formula Three category. Finally, in 1979, he won both the European and French Formula Three titles. He also made three guest appearances in European Formula Two in 1977 and 1978. Prost's Formula Three wins drew interest from Formula One teams and sponsors. Before the final race of the 1979 season, Paddy McNally and John Hogan of Marlboro (McLaren's lead sponsor) offered to cover the costs of a third McLaren car so that Prost could make an early Formula One debut, but Prost declined the cameo appearance, reasoning that it would be a mistake to debut in Formula One without being fully prepared: "I didn't know Watkins Glen and I didn't know the car. I said I thought it would be a better idea to organise a test."
After winning the European Formula Three title, Prost was courted by Formula One teams McLaren, Brabham, and Ligier. After impressing McLaren team boss Teddy Mayer at a test drive, McLaren signed him for the 1980 season. He was paired with Ulsterman John Watson. Prost's career started promisingly. On his debut in Buenos Aires, he accomplished the rare achievement of scoring in his first race, earning one point for finishing sixth. From 1973 to 1993, only two other drivers earned points in their maiden race (Johnny Herbert and Jean Alesi). However, Prost finished 15th in the Drivers' Championship with five points (one point behind the veteran Watson), scoring at Buenos Aires, Interlagos, Brands Hatch and Zandvoort. He had several accidents, breaking his wrist during practice at Kyalami and suffering a concussion during practice at Watkins Glen. He also retired from the previous round in Montreal a week earlier because of rear suspension failure. At the end of the season, despite having two years remaining on his contract, Prost left McLaren and signed with Renault. Prost later explained that he left because the car frequently broke down and because he felt the team blamed him for several accidents. According to Watson, Mayer had initially wanted to sign Kevin Cogan but Marlboro insisted on Prost. Prost would not return to McLaren until 1984, after Ron Dennis assumed full control of the team.
Prost was partnered with fellow Frenchman René Arnoux for 1981. Motor sports author Nigel Roebuck reports that there were problems between Prost and Arnoux from the start of the season, Prost being immediately quicker than his more experienced teammate He did not finish the first two Grands Prix, due to collisions with Andrea de Cesaris in Long Beach and Didier Pironi at Jacarepaguá, but scored his first podium finish at Buenos Aires. He also did not finish in the next four races, and then won his first Formula One race at his home Grand Prix in France at the fast Dijon circuit, finishing two seconds ahead of his old teammate John Watson. For Prost, his debut victory 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 led from the start the next five races, and won two more races during the season, took his first pole position in Germany and finished on the podium every time he completed a race distance. He won again in Holland and Italy, and finished 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 finished third but was awarded the win after Piquet (first) and Keke Rosberg (second) were disqualified. He finished in the points on four other occasions, but did not win again. Despite retiring from seven races, Prost improved on his Drivers' Championship position, finishing in fourth, but with nine fewer points than the previous year. His relationship with Arnoux deteriorated further after the French Grand Prix. Prost believes that Arnoux, who won the race, went back on a pre-race agreement to support Prost during the race. His relationship with the French media was also poor. He has since commented that "When I went to Renault the journalists wrote good things about me, but by 1982 I had become the bad guy. I think, to be honest, I had made the mistake of winning! The French don't really like winners." He added that "It's hard to explain, but the French prefer martyrs who lose gloriously." In November 1982, three years before it became a round of the F1 World Championship, Prost, along with fellow F1 drivers Jacques Laffite and Nelson Piquet, made the trip to Melbourne, Australia to drive in the non-championship 1982 Australian Grand Prix at the short (1.609 km (1.000 mi)) Calder Park Raceway. Driving a Formula Pacific spec Ralt RT4 powered by a 1.6 litre Ford engine, Prost sat on pole for the race with a time of 39.18. He then led every lap to win what would be the first of 3 Australian Grand Prix wins. He finished 15.32 seconds clear of Laffite, with 1981 Australian Grand Prix winner, young Brazilian driver Roberto Moreno finishing third.
Arnoux left Renault in 1983 and American Eddie Cheever replaced him as Prost's partner, allegedly because of 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 earned a further four victories for Renault during the season and finished second in the Drivers' Championship, two points behind Nelson Piquet. Piquet and the Brabham team overhauled Prost and Renault in the last few races of the season. Prost, who felt the team had been too conservative in developing the car, 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 recalled the bitter fight that had caused their favourite, Arnoux, to leave the team. Prost said in an interview with ESPN during the final race that his car was "not competitive" and that he "didn't lose by my own fault" Renault fired Prost only two days after the South African race. He re-signed for McLaren for the 1984 season within days and moved his family home to Switzerland after Renault factory workers burned the second of 2 of Prost's cars, one of them being a Mercedes-Benz.
Prost joined double world champion Niki Lauda at McLaren in 1984, driving the John Barnard designed McLaren MP4/2 which used a 1.5 litre TAG-Porsche V6 engine. He lost the world championship to Lauda in the final race of the season in Portugal by half a point, despite winning seven races to Lauda's five, including winning in Portugal. The half point came from the Monaco Grand Prix, where Prost had been leading, albeit 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 due to heavy rain, which was controversial, for Ickx displayed the red flag without consulting the race officials. Under Formula One regulations, Prost received only half of the nine points normally awarded for a victory. Prost's seven wins in 1984 equalled the record set by Jim Clark in 1963. Lauda's 0.5-point margin of victory is the closest title race in Formula One history.
