Alain Prost
Alain Prost | |
---|---|
Born | Alain Marie Pascal Prost 24 February 1955 Lorette, Loire, France |
Formula One World Championship career | |
Nationality | French |
Active years | 1980–1991, 1993 |
Teams | McLaren, Renault, Ferrari, Williams |
Engines | Ford, Renault, TAG, Honda, Ferrari |
Entries | 202 (199 starts) |
Championships | 4 (1985, 1986, 1989, 1993) |
Wins | 51 |
Podiums | 106 |
Career points | 768.5 (798.5)[a] |
Pole positions | 33 |
Fastest laps | 41 |
First entry | 1980 Argentine Grand Prix |
First win | 1981 French Grand Prix |
Last win | 1993 German Grand Prix |
Last entry | 1993 Australian Grand Prix |
Signature | |
Alain Marie Pascal Prost (French: [alɛ̃ pʁɔst]; born 24 February 1955) is a French retired racing driver and Formula One team owner. A four-time Formula One World Drivers' Champion, from 1987 until 2001 he held the record for most Grand Prix victories until Michael Schumacher surpassed Prost's total of 51 victories at the 2001 Belgian Grand Prix.
Prost discovered
During the 1980s and early 1990s Prost formed a
In 1997, Prost took over the French
Early life
Alain Prost was born in the commune of Lorette near the town of
Prost won several karting championships in his teens. In 1974, he left school to become a full-time racer, supporting himself by tuning engines and becoming a kart distributor. His prize for winning the 1975 French senior karting championship was a season in French[6] Formula Renault,[7][3] a category in which he won the title and all but one race in 1976.[8]
Prost went on to win the 1977 Formula Renault European championship before moving up to Formula Three (F3) in 1978. In 1979, he won both the French and European F3 championships, by which time he was on the shopping lists of several Formula One teams.[7] After carefully considering his options, he chose to sign with McLaren for 1980.[3] He surprised the British team by declining their offer of a race drive in a third car at the final race of the 1979 season at Watkins Glen — reasoning that the token effort would benefit neither him nor the team.[9] Prost felt that it would be a mistake to race in Formula One without being fully prepared: "..in the end I said, 'No' to Marlboro. I asked 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 I thought it would be a better idea to organise a test."[10]
Formula One
McLaren (1980)
Prost began his career with
Renault (1981–83)
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.[12] 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.[13][14]
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."[3] Prost led from the start the next 5 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.[15]
Prost won the first two Grands Prix of the
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.[20]
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"[21] 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.[12]
McLaren (1984–1989)
1984–1986
Prost joined double world champion
In
Niki Lauda retired for good at the end of 1985, and was replaced at McLaren by
Another memorable race that year for Prost was at the San Marino Grand Prix. He was cruising to victory when his car began to run out of fuel three corners from the chequered flag. Frantically weaving the car back and forth to slosh the last drops of fuel into the pickup, he managed to keep it running just long enough to creep over the line and win the race.[29] Prost commented after the race that when his car started running dry he immediately thought to himself "shit, I am going to lose this race again", referring to his 1985 disqualification at Imola.[25] It happened again at the German Grand Prix: while running in fourth position, Prost's car ran out of fuel on the finishing straight of the last lap. Instead of retiring at a time in the season when points were critical, Prost got out of his car and tried to push it to the finish, to great applause from the crowd.[30] The finish line was too far, though, and he never reached it. He was eventually classified sixth in the race, as the seventh-placed car (the Brabham-BMW of Derek Warwick) was a lap behind.[31] Prost also finished sixth at 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 bent, which badly affected its handling. It would behave one way in left hand corners and a completely different way in right hand corners. McLaren Technical Director John Barnard said afterwards that the car was "bent like a banana" upon the teams' post-race inspection of the car.[32]
1987
With Rosberg retiring from Formula One at the end of 1986 season, underrated Swede Stefan Johansson filled the McLaren seat alongside Prost for the 1987 season. Even though McLaren had introduced the new Steve Nichols designed MP4/3 after three seasons with the MP4/2 model (Barnard had departed for Ferrari), the TAG engines were not the force they had been previously, lagging behind in power and with unreliability previously unseen. He never gave up though and challenged Piquet and Mansell almost until the end, winning three races and breaking Jackie Stewart's record for race victories by winning for the 28th time at the Portuguese Grand Prix. "People might not believe me," said Stewart at the time. "But I'm glad to see Alain take my record. I am glad that he has done it because he's the one that deserves it. There is no doubt in my mind that he is the best race driver of his generation."[33][18] Prost considers his win in the opening round in Brazil as his best and most rewarding race ever. The Williams-Hondas had been dominant during qualifying, and Prost started fifth on the grid with a time three seconds slower than Mansell's pole time. Knowing he didn't have the qualifying speed, he instead worked on his race set-up, and with everyone else going for a high-downforce set-up, he went the other way. The set-up meant less tyre wear, thanks to slower speeds in the corners while going fast down the straights. With his car having less tyre wear than his rivals, Prost was able to get through the 61 laps of the abrasive Jacarepaguá Circuit with only two stops compared to the three or more by his rivals (Piquet pitted for tyres 3 times within the first 40 laps). Prost finished 40 seconds in front of Piquet, with Johansson a further 16 seconds back in third.
When you win a race like this the feeling is very, very good. There have been times when I have been flat-out to finish sixth, but you can't see that from the outside. In 1980 I finished three or four times in seventh place. I pushed like mad, yet everyone was gathered around the winner and they were thinking that I was just trundling around. But that's motor racing. So in fact the only thing you can judge in this sport is the long term. You can judge a career or a season, but not one race.[34]
Prost finished the 1987 season in fourth place in the championship behind Piquet, Mansell and Lotus driver Ayrton Senna. Prost finished 30 points behind champion Nelson Piquet.[35] Other than his debut season in 1980 and 1991, it was the furthest away he would finish a season from the championship lead.[3]
Despite a slightly disappointing 1987 season, nevertheless by the end of that year Prost had the honour of notching up his 4th consecutive No.1 driver of the year by the editor of the Autocourse annual, matching Niki Lauda's run of No.1's from 1975 to 1978 in the same annual. Writing in 1987, the Autocourse editor mentioned that despite driving a down on power engine (compared to the Honda's) "Prost should have won at least 6 races in 1987 – but he won't moan about it. Despite being out of championship contention, 1987 was a memorable year for Prost. His win at Estoril was exceptional."[36] In 1985, the Autocourse editor wrote of Prost: "In the long run, Ayrton Senna may be the better driver, but in 1985 for speed and consistency Prost had no equal",[37] while in 1986, the Autocourse editor commented on Prost's season "Alain had an almost faultless year. 1986 was a year of Prost's outstanding all round ability."[38]
1988
Despite Nelson Piquet winning the 1987 Drivers' Championship and Williams winning the Constructors' Championship, Honda decided not to supply the team with their engines, reportedly due to Williams's refusal to dump Nigel Mansell and hire Japanese driver and Honda test driver Satoru Nakajima (who debuted with Lotus in 1987), and instead supplied the McLaren team for 1988.[39] Prost had convinced Ron Dennis to sign Ayrton Senna to a three-year contract,[40] which played a role in luring Honda (Senna's ability had been highly regarded by the Japanese giant when using their engines with Lotus in 1987 and both were keen to continue their association).[41] However, this began the rivalry that pushed two of the sport's greatest drivers to unprecedented heights of success and controversy. McLaren-Honda dominated the season, winning 15 out of 16 races. Prost finished first or second in every race other than his two retirements at Silverstone and Monza. He won seven races and in total outscored his new teammate Senna by 11 points, despite Senna winning one more race than him. However, only the 11 best results from the season counted toward the championship total, and this gave Senna the title by three points.[18] Prost went on to be a proponent of essentially the 1990s scoring system: all points counting toward the final results, with a race winner scoring 10 (rather than 9).[42]
In November of that year, Prost had a meeting with the head of Honda's R&D department and F1 racing program, Nobuhiko Kawamoto in Geneva. He expressed his feelings that Honda was giving Senna preferential treatment, and Kawamoto then confirmed Prost's fears, explaining that the Honda engineers were of a new generation, and that they liked Senna's panache and "samurai"-like driving. Senna had already developed a close relationship with the Honda engineers during the 1987 season when he was at Lotus. Kawamoto was able to convince Prost that he would work something out on the Honda end of the McLaren-Honda partnership for the 1989 season, but this was not to be.[43][40]
1989
McLaren's domination continued throughout
Prost had the firm belief that Honda and
As 1989 wore on, Prost continually claimed his Honda V10s were not producing the same amount of power as those in Senna's car. It actually got to the point where Honda F1 boss Osamu Goto felt compelled to speak to the specialist British media on the matter. He claimed that Senna's foot-tapping style with the accelerator helped keep the RA109-E's revs up in the engine's mid-range where most of the power was, while Prost's smoother style dropped the engines into low revs where they had a pick-up problem. Apparently the talk was convincing until most of those present noticed Goto continually called them Ayrton and Prost respectively (per Japanese customs, addressing a person by their first name rather than the surname shows a much higher degree of familiarity and confidentiality).[48] Evidence to support Prost's claims was seen during the Mexican Grand Prix. His car was running less wing than Senna's which theoretically would give him greater top speed, Prost's McLaren was not able to pass Senna's on the long front straight even though he came off the final Peraltada Curve clearly faster than Senna and also had the benefit of a tow. In stark contrast, late in the race when Senna was lapping Prost (who was on fresh tyres), Senna was easily able to power past Prost on the straight.[49]
Their embittered season ended as many pundits had feared. In the
Ferrari (1990–1991)
Prost signed to join Ferrari in 1990, becoming the first driver signed to the team after the death of team founder Enzo Ferrari in 1988. He replaced Gerhard Berger at Ferrari and was partnered with Britain's Nigel Mansell for 1990 (Berger took Prost's seat at McLaren). As reigning world champion, Prost took over as the team's lead driver and was said to have played on this status. Mansell recalls one incident where at the 1990 British Grand Prix, the car he drove didn't handle the same as in the previous race where he had taken pole position, and later found out from team mechanics that Prost saw Mansell as having a superior car and had them swapped without Mansell knowing.[52][53] Prost won five races for Ferrari that year, in Brazil, Mexico, France, Britain and Spain. Notable among these was the Mexican Grand Prix, where he won after starting in 13th position.[54] In both the Mexican and Spanish races, he led Mansell to Ferrari 1–2 finishes. The championship once again came to the penultimate round of the season in Japan with Prost trailing his McLaren adversary, Ayrton Senna, by nine points. As in 1989, a controversial collision between the two settled the race.[18] At the first corner Senna, as admitted a year later, intentionally drove his race car into Prost's, taking them both out of the race and sealing the title in his favour.[44] "What he did was disgusting," Prost said. "He is a man without value."[3] Prost finished the season seven points behind Senna, and his Ferrari team were runners-up to McLaren.[55]
Mansell left the Scuderia due to his unstable relationship with Prost,
Williams (1993)
Prost went on a
Prost won his fourth and final title in a year when he was regularly challenged by teammate Hill and by Ayrton Senna. Shortly before the Portuguese Grand Prix in October 1993, Prost announced he would not defend his world title, because the clause in his contract did not extend to 1994 and Senna would be able to join Williams for the upcoming season,[60] and instead opted to retire.[1] At the season's end Prost held the record for most Grand Prix victories,[63][3] a record that stood for almost a decade.[64] On the podium in Adelaide in 1993, Prost's last race, he and Senna embraced. Prost was surprised by the gesture, as Senna had declined a handshake at the previous race.[40] Prost's performances earned him an OBE.[65][66]
German Michael Schumacher broke Prost's record of 51 Grand Prix wins during the 2001 season.[64] He also shares the record for starting every race of a season from the front row (16, in 1993), with Ayrton Senna (1989) and Damon Hill (1996).[67] As of January 2023[update], he is the last Frenchman to have won his home Grand Prix.[68]
Helmet
Prost used a helmet design based on the three colours of the French flag, blue, white and red, with his name along the side. During his early career Prost used a basic design of white all over with some blue detail around the visor (blue helmet with a white 180° flipped Y and red lines in the lower branch of the flipped Y and in the upper branch, surrounding the top).[69] During Prost's time at Renault, he used more blue details, most notably around the rear of his helmet. Prost's helmet changed in 1985, as his helmet now had the blue detail around the front, surrounding the visor (with also a blue stripe on the side region, making the white area become a P) and a white ring with red lines surrounding the top (forming a white circle with a blue half in the rear of the top).[70] Prost kept a similar design for his entry at Ferrari and Williams. Sometimes Prost used variants of his helmet design. In 2007 he used his original design, but with the circle top all red and a red line in the lower chin area. In 2010, he used a pearl white helmet with silver flames and a blue-white-red-white-blue stripe on the visor, designed by Kaos Design.[71]
Career legacy
Prost is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever Formula One drivers, and is considered by some to be the greatest Formula One driver of all time.[72] In 2009, an Autosport survey taken by 217 Formula One drivers saw Prost voted as the fourth greatest Formula One driver of all time.[73] In October 2020, The Economist ranked champion drivers by the relative importance of car quality to driver skill. According to this ranking, Prost is Formula One's third best driver of all time.[74] In November 2020, Carteret Analytics used quantitative analysis methods to rank Formula One drivers. According to this ranking, Prost is Formula One's eighth best driver of all time.[75] A 2022 mathematical analysis of all F1 drivers by f1-analysis.com put Prost as the 4th greatest driver of all time, and the second greatest once differences between different eras had been corrected for.[76] In November 2023, Autosport ranked Prost as the statistical fifth best driver of all time.[77]
Rivalry with Ayrton Senna
Prost's battles with
The rivalry intensified after the 1989 San Marino Grand Prix, where the two drivers had an agreement that neither would get in each other's way to the first corner (cf. 1982 San Marino Grand Prix). At the start, Senna got away in the lead and Prost followed him through the first corner without getting in his way. Gerhard Berger's crash on lap four stopped the race. At the restart, Prost got away the better of the two but Senna forced his way past him at the first corner, breaking the pair's agreement at the start of the race, leaving Prost furious.[45] Senna argued that it was the restart.[79] Prost himself was angered by McLaren apparently favouring Senna because of Senna's better relationship with engine supplier Honda,[40] so he announced in mid-season that he had signed to race for Ferrari the following season. Prost mentioned many times during 1989 that he believed his car was not as competitive as Senna's, and even that this was confirmed to him by the CEO of Honda when Prost traveled to Japan. The information was actually confirmed during the French GP press conference when Ron Dennis said that Prost's car was consistently using more fuel, but not getting more power, than Senna's engine.[80]
The rivalry reached its peak at the end of 1989, when the title was to be decided between Senna and Prost at Suzuka. The two McLarens collided at the Casio Triangle chicane when Prost blocked an attempted pass by Senna. Prost walked away while Senna returned to the track. Senna went on to win the race, but was later disqualified in a highly controversial ruling over his path back to the track, as his car was pushed through the road around the chicane. After an unsuccessful appeal by McLaren, Senna received a further US$100,000 fine and a six-month suspension, leading him to accuse FIA president Jean-Marie Balestre of favouring his compatriot Prost.[81]
The
There was another controversial incident in 1991. Prost's inferior Ferrari was unable to put up a challenge regularly to Senna's front running McLaren. At the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, Prost battled Senna for 4th place, but he felt Senna defended too aggressively and at the first chicane forced Prost to take avoiding action by using the escape road. Prost stalled his car rejoining the race. Coincidentally, Senna ran out of fuel on the last lap at the very same point.[84] At the following race, in Hungary, the FISA ordered a sit-down meeting between the two men, not wanting any repeats of the incidents from the previous two years.[85]
Prost took a sabbatical in
I think if Prost wants to be called the sole champion, three-times world champion, come back in a sportive way, maybe win another championship, he should be sportive. The way he's doing, he's behaving like a coward. And if he wants to be sportive, he must be prepared to race anybody, at any condition, at equal terms.[87]
During the
On 1 May 1994, Ayrton Senna was killed during the San Marino Grand Prix. Prost was a pallbearer at his funeral.[91] Speaking four years after Senna's death, Prost told Nigel Roebuck that he had "always refused to speak about him". Prost stated that when Senna died "a part of himself had died also", because their careers had been so bound together.[40] Senna had also felt the same when Prost had retired at the end of 1993, when he admitted to a close friend that he had realised how much of his motivation had come from fighting with Prost. Only a couple of days before his death, when filming an in-car lap of Imola for French television channel TF1, he greeted Prost, by then a pundit on the channel: "A special hello to my...to our dear friend, Alain. We all miss you Alain." Prost said that he was amazed and very touched by the comment.[92][40]
Later life
During 1994 and 1995, Prost worked as a specialist commentator (
Prost Grand Prix
During 1989 Prost began to contemplate starting his own team, as his relationship with his McLaren teammate, Ayrton Senna, had turned sour. Prost and
On 13 February 1997, Prost bought the Ligier team from
Prost became the president of Prost Grand Prix at the start of 1998. With Peugeot supplying the engines for Prost GP, Mugen-Honda decided to supply the Jordan team. Prost GP scored a single point during the season when Jarno Trulli finished sixth in Belgium.[99]
1999 was a crucial year for Prost GP.[100] Prost hired John Barnard as a technical consultant,[97] Barnard's B3 Technologies company helping Loic Bigois with the design of the Prost AP02. Panis and Trulli agreed to stay on with the team for the season. The car was not a major concern but the Peugeot V10 engine proved to be heavy and unreliable.[99]
Peugeot's final year as Prost's engine supplier in 2000 saw some optimism. Prost hired his 1991 Ferrari teammate
In 2001 Ferrari agreed to supply engines for the season.[97] The money ran out at the start of the 2002 season and Prost was out of business, leaving debts of around $30 million.[97]
Other roles
During 2002, Prost spent time with his family and competed in eight bicycle races, finishing third in the Granite – Mont Lozère.
For the
In October 2013, it was announced that Prost would join forces with Jean-Paul Driot's
Personal life
Prost was married to Anne-Marie (born 14 February 1955), but they divorced sometime later. They have two sons,
In 1986, Prost was awarded the
Besides his native French language, Prost also speaks fluent English and Italian.[139]
Karting record
Karting career summary
Season | Series | Team | Position |
---|---|---|---|
1973 | French Championship — Junior | 1st | |
French Championship — Elite | 2nd | ||
FIA Karting World Championship — Junior | 1st | ||
1974 | French Championship — Elite | 1st | |
FIA Karting World Championship — Senior | 23rd | ||
Sources:[140] |
Racing record
Career summary
Complete European Formula 3 results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | DC | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1978 | Ecurie Elf | Martini Mk 21B
|
Renault | ZAN | NÜR | ÖST | ZOL 10 |
IMO | NÜR DNS |
DIJ 10 |
MNZ 15 |
PER | MAG Ret |
KNU | KAR | DON 6 |
KAS | JAR 1 |
VAL Ret |
9th | 10 |
1979 | Ecurie Elf | Martini Mk 27
|
Renault | VAL 2 |
ÖST 1 |
ZOL 1 |
MAG 1 |
DON 3 |
ZAN 1 |
PER | MNZ DNQ |
KNU 1 |
KIN Ret |
JAR 1 |
KAS | 1st | 67 | ||||
Source:[18]
|
Complete Formula One World Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)
† Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.
‡ Race was stopped with less than 75% of laps completed, half points awarded.
Formula One non-championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 |
---|---|---|---|---|
1980 | Marlboro Team McLaren
|
McLaren M29 | Ford Cosworth DFV | ESP Ret |
Source:[145]
|
See also
Explanatory notes
- ^ a b Up until 1990, not all points scored by a driver contributed to their final World Championship tally (see list of points scoring systems for more information). Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.[142]
References
- ^ a b "Prost, 38, Announces Retirement" Archived 8 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Los Angeles Times, 25 September 1993
- ISBN 0-85059-792-7
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Donaldson, Gerald (30 January 2015). "Alain Prost | Formula 1®". Formula 1® – The Official F1® Website. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
- ^ a b c d ""I Don't Speak Armenian, but I'm Armenian": Alain Prost – Living Legend of Formula One". armedia.am. 31 January 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
- ^ Motor Cycling and Motoring, Volume 171. Temple Press Limited. 1986. p. 14.
- ^ There were several national Formula Renault championships in Europe.
- ^ a b c Alain Prost Archived 30 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine, GrandPrix.com. Retrieved October 2006.
- ^ a b c d McBride, Stewart (8 November 1987). "Racing's Record Breaker". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 14 May 2013. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
- ^ ISBN 0-85059-792-7
- ^ "McLaren Racing – Alain Prost Biography | Extract 1". www.mclaren.com. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
- ^ Melsher, David (7 July 2014). "Alain Prost – McLaren (1980)". Motor Sport Magazine. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
- ^ ISBN 0-85059-792-7
- ^ Callcott, John A. (5 July 1981). "Alain Prost of France won the French Formula 1". United Press International. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
- ^ James, Neil (24 February 2015). "5 Great Moments from Alain Prost's Formula 1 Career". Bleacher Report. Archived from the original on 27 February 2015. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
- ^ "Prost wins as Piquet erases gap". ESPN UK. 30 August 1981. Archived from the original on 26 May 2019. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
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- ^ "Grand Prix Results: German GP, 1986". GrandPrix.com. Archived from the original on 9 November 2006. Retrieved 7 November 2006.
- ^ Keilloh, Graham (24 July 2011). "In defence of Alain Prost". Retrieved 10 February 2021.
- ^ "McLaren Racing – Alain's record breaking year". www.mclaren.com. 23 September 2017. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
- ^ transcript of recording from Forix.com, paragraphs 19 & 20 Archived 4 January 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ "Auto Racing Results;NEWLN:Portuguese Formula One Grand Prix At Estoril, Portugal, Sept.20". United Press International. 20 September 1987. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
- ISBN 0-905138-47-3.
- ISBN 0-905138-38-4.
- ISBN 0-905138-44-9.
- ^ "Williams FW12". Williams Racing Fans | F1 News & chat | Cars, races & drivers. 14 June 2018. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Roebuck, Nigel (October 1998). "Ayrton Senna by Alain Prost". Motor Sport Magazine. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
- ^ Hamilton, Maurice (1 September 2017). "30 years later: Honda's awkward Italian Grand Prix". ESPN.com. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
- ^ Collantine, Keith (22 December 2009). "From 8 points for a win to 25: Every F1 scoring system". RaceFans. Archived from the original on 22 June 2021. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
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- ^ a b c SAWARD, Joe (1 October 1991). "Ayrton Senna attacks Jean-Marie Balestre". www.grandprix.com. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
- ^ a b "McLaren Racing – A 1–2 at San Marino". www.mclaren.com. 23 April 2018. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
- ^ Kumar, Tanya (4 July 2018). "F1: Top 5 Unusual F1 Podium Ceremonies, bet you never knew!". sportskeeda. Archived from the original on 1 December 2020. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
- ^ "Six of the best – Unusual podium ceremonies". formula1.com. Archived from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
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Further reading
- Henry, Alan (1986). Alain Prost (Champion Series). Kimberley's. ISBN 0-946132-30-5.
- Ménard, Pierre; Vassal, Jacques (2003). Alain Prost: The Science of Racing (Formula 1 Legends S.). Chronosports Editeur. ISBN 2-84707-062-1.
External links
- Grand Prix History – Hall of Fame Archived 12 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- Alain Prost statistics
- Alain Prost Biography Archived 1 February 2019 at the Wayback Machine – McLaren
- Alain Prost – Fan page: interviews, photos, statistics, regularly updated