Alain Prost

"Prost" redirects here. For other uses, see Prost (disambiguation).

Alain Prost
Prost in 2008
Born	Alain Marie Pascal Prost (1955-02-24) 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)
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, he held the record for most Grand Prix victories (51) from 1987 until 2001, when Michael Schumacher won the 2001 Belgian Grand Prix.

Prost discovered karting at the age of 14 during a family holiday. He progressed 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 the San Martín Autodrome in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he took his first podium a year later – and took his first race victory a year later at his home Grand Prix in France, driving for the factory Renault team.

During the 1980s and early 1990s Prost formed a series of fierce sporting rivalries, most notably with Ayrton Senna (rivalry) but also with Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell. In 1986, he beat Mansell and Piquet to the title in the last race of the season. From 1988 to 1989, Prost and Senna raced together at McLaren, winning one championship each. Their rivalry escalated into a series of controversial clashes at Suzuka in 1989 and 1990 (the latter after Prost joined Ferrari), where in both cases, the driver leading the points table ahead of the race clinched the title by crashing into his closest competitor. Prost won the title in 1989 and Senna in 1990. After spending 1991 in an uncompetitive car and 1992 on sabbatical, Prost joined reigning Constructors' Champion Williams for the 1993 season and promply won the 1993 title, at which point he retired from Formula One driving. He returned to Formula One as a team owner (Prost Grand Prix) from 1997 to 2002 and competed in France's ice racing championship from 2003 to 2012, winning three titles.

Prost won four F1 titles and scored four second-place finishes, missing out on an eight-title career by just 12.5 points. His 1984 title race with Niki Lauda – Lauda won by just 0.5 points – is the closest Formula One title race of all time. Prost employed a smooth, relaxed style behind the wheel, deliberately modelling himself on personal heroes like Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark. He was nicknamed "The Professor" for his intellectual approach to competition. Though it was not a name he particularly cared for, he later admitted that the term appropriately characterized his driving style. Skilled at setting up his car for race conditions, Prost would often conserve his brakes and tyres early in a race, leaving them fresher for a challenge at the end.

Early life

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."

Formula One

McLaren (1980)

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, he 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.

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. 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 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.

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 3rd but was awarded the win after Piquet (1st) and Keke Rosberg (2nd) 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.

Prost's 1983 Renault RE40, in which he came close to winning his first championship

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.

McLaren (1984–1989)

Prost in 1984

1984–1986

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.

Prost driving the McLaren MP4/2B at the 1985 German Grand Prix

Cockpit of Prost's F1 McLaren TAG-Porsche turbo, from his first Championship year

In 1985 Prost became the first French Formula One World Champion. He won five of the sixteen Grands Prix during the season. He had also won the San Marino Grand Prix, but was disqualified after his car was found to be 2 kg underweight in post-race scrutineering. Prost finished 20 points ahead of his closest rival, Michele Alboreto. Prost's performance in 1985 earned him the Légion d'honneur distinction in France.

Niki Lauda retired at the end of 1985, and was replaced at McLaren by 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg for 1986. Prost successfully defended his title, despite his car struggling against the Honda-powered Williams cars driven by Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell. Until the latter stages of the final race of the 1986 season, the Australian Grand Prix, Prost appeared set to finish second in the Championship, behind Mansell. Prost had the same number of wins as Piquet, but he had four second places to Piquet's three, thus placing him second before the final race. While running third behind Piquet, and directly behind Prost on the road (3rd was all he needed to win the title), Mansell suffered a rear tyre failure at 180 mph (290 km/h) and crashed out. The Williams team then pitted Piquet to change tyres as a safety precaution, while Prost had already pitted earlier due to a puncture and did not need to change his tyres again. He then held the lead ahead of a charging Piquet to the chequered flag and the Championship. Prost became the first driver to retain the title since Jack Brabham in 1960.

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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

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." 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.

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. Other than his debut season in 1980 and 1991, it was the furthest away he would finish a season from the championship lead.

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." 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", 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."

1988

Prost driving for McLaren at the 1988 Canadian Grand Prix

The 1988 season proved to be a watershed moment for Formula One, as Honda ended its relationship with defending champion Williams and brought their all-conquering RA16 engines to Prost's McLaren. Honda's decision to leave Williams was largely due to differences in driver philosophy, as Honda preferred a clear hierarchy of drivers that would not compete too aggressively with each other on track. In addition, Honda cultivated relationships with Japanese and Brazilian drivers – the former as Honda was a Japanese company, the latter because Honda valued the South American car market. These differences would set the tone for McLaren's chaotic successes of 1988 and 1989.

The Williams-Honda relationship began deteriorating in 1986 when the Williams team – in the absence of founder Frank Williams, who was recovering from a near-fatal car accident – refused to impose team orders on British driver Nigel Mansell to benefit Honda's preferred driver, the Brazilian Nelson Piquet. When Piquet signed with Williams in 1986, Honda had extracted a contractual guarantee from Frank Williams that Piquet would receive number one driver treatment. According to Piquet, Honda (and others) believed that Williams' failure to rein in Mansell had allowed Prost to beat Piquet to the 1986 Drivers' Championship. Ahead of the 1987 season, Honda asked Williams to restore Piquet's number one status by replacing Mansell with Honda's Japanese test driver, Satoru Nakajima. Again, Williams refused. In response, Honda placed Nakajima with its other engine customer, Lotus, whose number one driver was Brazil's newest racing star (and Honda favorite) Ayrton Senna. Although Piquet won the Drivers' Championship in 1987, his Williams contract expired that year, and Honda indicated that it would consider other options in 1988. It was understood that any team that wanted Honda engines in 1988 would have to sign either Piquet or Senna. Honda offered to re-sign with Williams if Piquet received a contract extension, but Williams declined the offer, sensing that Senna was already Honda's top priority – not Piquet.

Senna, sensing an opportunity, reached out to McLaren and told Ron Dennis that if McLaren signed him for 1988, he would use his influence with Honda to sway Honda towards McLaren. Prost, who preferred the youthful Senna to his experienced rival Piquet, consented to the move, although he came to regret it. In a concession to Prost, a two-time world champion, Honda allowed McLaren to announce that Prost and Senna would compete on equal terms. According to Dennis, "Alain was fine with the competition, but deeply suspicious."

The McLaren-Honda partnership delivered Prost a legendarily fast car and two golden opportunities for a third Drivers' Championship, but it also kicked off one of Formula One's most famous rivalries, as Prost and Senna pushed themselves to unprecedented heights of success and controversy. McLaren-Honda dominated the season, winning 15 out of 16 races – a record that stood until the 2023 season, when Red Bull-Honda won 21 out of 22 races. McLaren scored three times as many points as second-placed Ferrari. Reflecting the dominance of Honda power, Williams finished a distant seventh in the Constructors' Championship just one year after winning the title by 61 points. Prost finished first or second in every race other than his two retirements at Silverstone and Monza. He won seven races and outscored his new teammate Senna by 11 points, despite Senna winning one more race than him. Although Prost would have been champion under the 1991 scoring system, Senna took the title by three points under the rules of the day – only the 11 best results from the season counted toward a driver's championship total, a rule that in practice valued Senna's wins over Prost's consistent podiums.

Over the course of the 1988 season, Prost began to suspect that Honda was trying to make Senna McLaren's number one driver, in violation of McLaren's promise to treat the two drivers equally. In November of that year, Prost met in Geneva with Nobuhiko Kawamoto, the head of Honda's R&D department and F1 racing program. He expressed his feelings that Honda was giving Senna preferential treatment. In Prost's view, Kawamoto 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. Kawamoto convinced Prost that he would work something out on the Honda end of the McLaren-Honda partnership for the 1989 season, but following the 1988 season, Kawamoto was promoted to a position at Honda headquarters, and Osamu Goto succeeded Kawamoto as the head of Honda F1.

1989

McLaren's domination continued throughout 1989, and the struggle between Prost and Senna for supremacy put them on a collision course. Mutual admiration turned to all-out hatred, with Prost accusing Senna of "dangerous driving" and enjoying unwarranted favoritism from McLaren-Honda. Prost's suspicions were inflamed when Honda sent McLaren an engine crate marked "Special - For Ayrton." Nigel Mansell (who believed that Honda had given Piquet better engines during their time at Williams) and Keke Rosberg agreed that Prost was not getting equal treatment from McLaren-Honda, and encouraged him to share his suspicions with the media, which he eventually did. After the Mexican Grand Prix, Prost publicly criticized the team, as his car was noticeably less powerful on the straights than Senna's even though Prost had set up his car for more top speed than Senna. (On two occasions, Senna out-powered Prost on the straights when Prost had a tow and when Prost was on fresh tyres.) After Prost threatened to join a rival team at the end of the season, Ron Dennis publicly backed Prost against Honda, "declar[ing] that the team had found consistent differences" between the engines that Honda assigned to Senna and Prost. To accommodate Prost's concerns, Dennis attempted to allocate engines on a random basis, such as a coin flip or drawing numbers from a hat. (For his own part, Senna accused Prost, a Frenchman, of getting favorable treatment from his countryman Jean-Marie Balestre, the president of the FIA. Prost had previously persuaded Balestre to write to Honda insisting that Prost receive equal treatment.)

Prost and Dennis' public criticisms forced Honda's Osamu Goto to give an interview before the race at Hockenheim, where he claimed that Senna's driving style was better suited to Honda's machinery. According to Goto, 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. However, Motor Sport magazine noted that while Goto called Prost by his last name, he called Senna by his first name. (Per Japanese customs, addressing a person by their first name rather than the surname shows a much higher degree of familiarity and confidentiality.)

Prost also accused Senna of reneging on an agreement they had made in advance of the San Marino Grand Prix. The drivers agreed that whoever won the start would not be challenged by the other going into the first turn. Prost kept to the agreement after Senna won the first start, but the race was red-flagged after Gerhard Berger's Ferrari crashed. Prost won the restart, but Senna promptly passed him, believing that the agreement did not apply to the restart. Prost disclosed the agreement to a French journalist, who published the story (purportedly against Prost's wishes). Senna publicly denied that the agreement even existed, but John Hogan, who had witnessed the agreement, backed up Prost. Although Ron Dennis forced Senna to apologise to Prost, Senna's displeasure was clear.

By mid-season Prost's relationship with McLaren was in tatters. His contract was set to expire in 1989, and in advance of the Italian Grand Prix, he announced that he would drive for Ferrari in 1990. Following his announcement, McLaren provided full support to Senna's title chase: at Monza, Prost had one car with maybe four or five mechanics, while his teammate had two cars and 20 people around him. After Senna easily outqualified him, Prost stubbornly repeated to the press that Honda was giving Senna favorable treatment, directly contradicting Goto's public assurances of equal treatment. Enraged, Honda threatened to withdraw its engines from Prost's car unless Prost apologized, which he did. Ultimately, Prost won at Monza while Senna retired with an engine issue, giving Prost a commanding 20-point lead in the Drivers' Championship. Nonetheless, the damage was done, and to the delight of the tifosi, Prost burned his remaining bridges with McLaren by dropping his winner's trophy into the crowd, one of Ron Dennis' great taboos (the policy at McLaren is that driver trophies must be handed over to the team in exchange for replicas). Although Senna opportunistically encouraged McLaren to fire Prost immediately, and Ferrari offered to accommodate the move by swapping Prost for Gerhard Berger (who eventually did replace Prost at McLaren) in mid-season, cooler heads prevailed. McLaren allowed Prost to finish the season with the team in exchange for a public, written apology. This concession eliminated the possibility that Prost would clinch the 1989 title in a Ferrari car.

Despite Honda's suspected support for Senna, the Brazilian's season was hamstrung by reliability issues, suffering mechanical issues at Phoenix, Paul Ricard, and Silverstone in addition to Monza. By contrast, Prost racked up four wins and seven podiums and looked set to cruise to the title. He went into the Japanese Grand Prix (the second-to-last race of the season) with a comfortable 16-point lead over Senna. Since a win was worth 9 points at the time, a race-ending crash with two races left in the season would automatically deliver Prost the title, which was precisely what happened. On lap 46, Prost was in the lead and was just seven laps away from clinching the title in the normal fashion. Prost and Senna entered the Casio chicane side-by side, with Senna on the inside line. Instead of leaving room for Senna to overtake, Prost squeezed him on the inside, daring Senna to either brake or crash. As Prost well knew, Senna would not sacrifice the opportunity to take the lead, as his usual practice was to line up his car for a crash and dare the other driver to back off instead. The two McLarens collided and went off track into the escape road. Prost admitted that "I know everybody thinks I did it on purpose," but rationalized that "Senna came behind me, I didn't see him come and I couldn't do anything to avoid him. I am very sorry to have to finish the championship on such an incident." He later said that he knew Senna would attempt to pass him at the chicane, and while "I did not [crash] on purpose, I did not open the door."

The crash ultimately ended Senna's title fight, but not before extended wrangling over the result, as despite the collision, Senna had miraculously managed not only to restart the race, but also to win it on track. After the crash, the marshals tried to push Senna's car from the escape road to a safer position away from the chicane. However, Senna bump-started the engine while the marshals were pushing him, rejoined the race, and won, theoretically setting up one last chance at the title at Adelaide. After the race, Balestre's FIA disqualified Senna for missing the chicane, fined him US$100,000 for "dangerous driving," and handed him a suspended six-month ban. Thus, Prost clinched his third driver's title in controversial circumstances. McLaren, now fully behind Senna, unsuccessfully appealed the disqualification, which Sports Illustrated characterized as "Dennis[] objecting to his [own] driver's winning the world title."

Ferrari (1990–1991)

Prost practising for his first event for Ferrari, the 1990 United States Grand Prix

In 1990, Prost became the first Ferrari driver to sign for the Scuderia after the death of team founder Enzo Ferrari in 1988. Ferrari had lured away several McLaren chassis designers over the years, including John Barnard and Steve Nichols. The 1990 Ferrari 641 was the first car to seriously threaten Honda's stranglehold on the Constructors' Championship, as Ferrari came within 11 points of the title. Prost won five races for Ferrari that year, in Brazil, Mexico, France, Britain and Spain. At Mexico, he accomplished one of his finest drives, winning the race after starting in 13th position. 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, but this time the roles were reversed, with Prost trailing McLaren-Honda's Senna by nine points. As in 1989, a controversial collision between the two settled the race. At the first corner of the first lap, Senna intentionally drove his car into Prost's, taking them both out of the race and sealing the title in his favour. Dennis immediately knew that Senna had purposefully crashed Prost out of the race, but Senna would not admit this for another year. "What he did was disgusting," Prost said. "He is a man without value." Prost finished the season seven points behind Senna, and his Ferrari team were runners-up to McLaren in the Constructors' Championship.

At the end of the season, Mansell left the Scuderia to rejoin a resurgent Williams team, citing his unstable relationship with Prost. Although Mansell had supported Prost during the 1989 Prost-Honda controversy, as reigning world champion, Prost had joined Ferrari as the team's lead driver and was said to have played on this status. (According to Mansell, Ferrari contractually guaranteed him number one driver status, but once Prost became available, Ferrari paid Mansell to let Prost be the number one driver.) Mansell said that after watching him take pole in France with a purportedly superior chassis, Prost secretly demanded that Ferrari give him Mansell's car for the next race in Britain. Mansell was replaced by Frenchman Jean Alesi.

Prost at the 1991 United States Grand Prix

The 1991 season was not as kind to Ferrari, as the Ferrari 642 was not as reliable as the McLaren and Williams cars. Prost never finished a race lower than fifth, but won no races, scored only five podiums, and finished only eight races; similarly, Alesi finished only seven races. Reportedly, Ferrari's famous V12 engine was no longer competitive against the smaller, lighter and more fuel efficient V10s of its competitors, and the Ferrari chassis was likewise uncompetitive. (Barnard had left Ferrari in 1990, early enough to have input on the 1990 car but too late to help with the 1991 cars.) Although Ferrari upgraded the car to the Ferrari 643 in time for Prost's home race at Magny-Cours, in which Prost and Alesi finished second and fourth, the car was still unable to compete for the title over the course of the season. Adding insult to injury, Mansell's Williams-Renault clearly supplanted Ferrari as McLaren-Honda's main competition in 1991, and Mansell finished second in the Drivers' Championship that year.

Prost took out his frustrations on the team, publicly likening the car to a "truck." Ferrari retaliated by firing him with one race left to go in the 1991 season. He was replaced by Italian driver Gianni Morbidelli for the 1991 Australian Grand Prix and by another Italian, Ivan Capelli, for the following season.

Williams (1993)

Prost spent the 1992 season on sabbatical. Ligier offered him a seat, and he eventually performed pre-season testing for the team in early 1992, but Ferrari paid him a significant amount of money to take the year off. During this season, Nigel Mansell put up record numbers in the Williams-Renault and won the title with five races remaining. The McLaren-Honda combination was waning: due to economic difficulties in Japan, Honda was not in position to outspend Renault on engine development. Honda opted to leave Formula One at season's end rather than carry on with a second-tier product. With no meaningful competition, a Williams driver was expected to cruise to the title again in 1993.

Going into 1993, Williams had two open seats and no shortage of suitors, although it was expected that Mansell would return to defend his title. Although Ayrton Senna (no longer bound to Honda) reportedly offered to drive for Williams for free, Frank Williams signed Prost to a two-year contract for 1993 and 1994. Prost replaced Riccardo Patrese, who had preemptively agreed to leave Williams for Benetton out of concern that he would be replaced by Prost or Senna at season's end. This time, Prost did not demand number one driver status over Mansell, who was now a world champion. Still smarting from their tumultuous year at Ferrari, Mansell initially opposed the move, but he reluctantly agreed to race alongside Prost on equal terms.

However, following a convoluted series of events, Williams paired Prost with the rookie (albeit a future world champion) Damon Hill in 1993. Mansell left Formula One for CART after his contract negotiations collapsed over financial terms. Prost had expected to race alongside Mansell, but as insurance, he had negotiated a clause in his contract which prevented Senna from joining the team. After learning of the clause, Senna publicly accused Prost of cowardice. Williams belatedly offered to re-sign Patrese, but he opted to honor his contract with Benetton.

Prost driving his 1993 Williams-Renault FW15C at Silverstone (left) and Adelaide (right)

Prost won his fourth and final title in 1993. That year, Williams-Renault fielded another dominant car and handily defended the Constructors' Championship, finishing with twice as many points as second-placed McLaren. Prost led the way, winning seven of the first ten races and taking pole in thirteen out of sixteen races. Although he was regularly challenged on track by teammate Hill and rival Senna, he finished 26 points ahead of the second-placed Senna and clinched the title in Portugal with two races to go. At season's end, the British government awarded Prost an OBE for his performances; he had won all four of his titles with British teams.

Shortly before securing the title, Prost announced he would retire at the end of the season. At the time, he stated that under the terms of his Williams contract, while he could block Senna from joining Williams in 1993, he could not do so for 1994. However, in an interview for Asif Kapadia's 2010 documentary Senna, Prost revealed that the Senna clause did in fact extend to 1994, but Renault (Williams' engine supplier) pressured Frank Williams to ask Prost to waive the clause. As a compromise, the 38-year-old Prost agreed to retire after the 1993 season, provided that Williams paid him his agreed-upon salary for the 1994 season. This cleared the way for Senna to join Williams in 1994.

Prost finished on the podium in his final race (Adelaide 1993). Following the race, Senna embraced him, which Prost found surprising, as Senna had declined a handshake at the previous race. McLaren tempted Prost to unretire by offering him Senna's old seat for the 1994 season, but while Senna encouraged Prost to take the offer, Prost was unimpressed by a test-drive of the 1994 car and retired for good.

Helmet

Prost's helmet for the 1988 Formula One season

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). 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). 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.

Career legacy

Prost is widely regarded as one of Formula One's greatest-ever drivers. He has the fourth-most Drivers' Championships of all time, behind only Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, and Juan Manuel Fangio. At his retirement, Prost held the record for most career Grand Prix victories (51), which stood for fourteen years. (Michael Schumacher broke Prost's record during the 2001 season. For his own part, Prost believed that had Ayrton Senna not died in 1994, he would have broken Prost's wins record first.) In addition, while Senna held the record for most career pole positions at Prost's retirement, Prost was superb on race day and held the record for most career fastest laps (41) until 2001, when Schumacher broke that record as well.

Prost currently shares the record for the highest percentage of races started from the front row in a single season (16 for 16 in 1993) with Ayrton Senna (1989) and Damon Hill (1996). As of January 2023, he is the last Frenchman to have won his home Grand Prix.

Appraisals by contemporaries

In 2009, an Autosport survey taken by 217 Formula One drivers saw Prost voted as the fourth greatest Formula One driver of all time, behind Senna, Schumacher, and Fangio. Formula One CEO Bernie Ecclestone traditionally said that Prost was the greatest driver of all time, as Prost, unlike Senna or Schumacher, rarely enjoyed number one driver treatment. (In 2024, Ecclestone said that Max Verstappen had surpassed Prost.) Jordan team boss Eddie Jordan shared Ecclestone's opinion, appreciating that Prost "never minded who his teammate was." Formula One medical chief Sid Watkins said that Prost and Niki Lauda were the most intelligent drivers he had worked with, noting that he could recall only one dangerous auto accident involving Prost in his career.

Quantitative ratings

Various outlets have attempted to develop models that objectively measure driver skill relative to car quality. Prost generally places highly in these comparisons.

• University of Sheffield (2016): Second all-time
• The Economist (2020): Third all-time
• Carteret Analytics (2020): Eighth all-time
• F1-Analysis.com (2022): Fourth all-time; second all-time after correcting for era differences
• Autosport (2023): Fifth all-time

Rivalry with Ayrton Senna

Main article: Prost–Senna rivalry

Prost's battles with Ayrton Senna were widely covered. The rivalry originated in 1988, when Senna joined Prost at the McLaren team. At the Portuguese Grand Prix, Senna tried to block Prost from taking the lead by forcing him to run close to the pit wall at around 280 km/h (174 mph). Prost managed to edge Senna outwards, taking the lead as they went into the first corner, but remained angered by Senna's manoeuvre.

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. At the start, Senna took the lead and Prost followed him through the first corner. 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. Senna argued that the agreement did not include any restart. Prost himself was angered by McLaren apparently favouring Senna because of Senna's better relationship with engine supplier Honda, 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.

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 because 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.

The following season saw the two drivers collide again. With Senna leading Prost, now in a Ferrari, in the world Drivers' Championship, Prost qualified second for the penultimate race of the season in Suzuka with Senna on pole. Senna was apparently told by a Steward that the pole position would be on one side of the track but discovered before the race that it would be actually be on the other side. Senna complained that no longer being on the racing line, his side of the grid was dirty, meaning he would get less grip (and therefore a slower start) than Prost who had been moved to the clean side of the grid. Senna's appeal was rejected. At the start of the race, Prost got the better start of the two, but while braking for the first corner Senna did not brake and collided with Prost at 160 mph (260 km/h), clinching the title for himself. Prost almost retired from the sport, saying "What he did was disgusting. He is a man without value." A year later, Senna admitted that the move was premeditated, in retaliation for the collision at the chicane on the same course the previous year.

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. 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.

Prost took a sabbatical in 1992 after being fired from Ferrari for publicly criticizing the car and the team, and Senna struggled, because McLaren was no longer competitive with Williams. Prost announced his signing with Williams for the upcoming 1993 season. Senna too had wanted to join Williams, as they were the most competitive, but Prost had a clause in his contract excluding Senna as a teammate. An infuriated Senna called the Frenchman a "coward" during a press conference at Estoril, and decried his unwillingness to compete for the Drivers' Championship on equal sporting terms:

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.

During the 1993 season, Prost and Senna continued their on-track rivalry. Prost was escorted by police to the Interlagos circuit for the 1993 Brazilian Grand Prix due to the hostility of Brazilians towards him. The two continued their on-track battles at Silverstone where Senna aggressively defended his position against Prost. At Prost's last Grand Prix, the 1993 Australian Grand Prix, he was pulled up by Senna onto the top step of the podium for an embrace.

On 1 May 1994, Senna was killed during the San Marino Grand Prix. Prost was a pallbearer at his funeral. 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. 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.

Later life

During 1994 and 1995, Prost worked as a pundit for the French TV channel TF1. He also worked for Renault doing public relations and promotions. Prost went back to his old team McLaren, working as a technical adviser; he also completed L'Étape du Tour, an annual mass-participation bike ride that takes place on a stage of the Tour de France.

Prost Grand Prix

Main article: 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 John Barnard, formerly chief designer at McLaren, came close to founding a team in 1990; but a lack of sponsorship meant that this was not possible, so Prost moved to Ferrari and Barnard left Ferrari to join Benetton. After falling out with the Italian team at the end of 1991, Prost found himself without a drive for 1992; after the failure of extensive negotiations with Guy Ligier about buying his Ligier team, Prost decided to join Williams for 1993. By 1995, when Prost was working for Renault, people had assumed that a Prost-Renault team would be formed. Renault refused Prost's request to supply engines for his team, ending the speculation.

Olivier Panis driving for the Prost Grand Prix team at the 1998 Canadian Grand Prix

On 13 February 1997, Prost bought the Ligier team from Flavio Briatore and renamed it "Prost Grand Prix". The day after he bought the team, Prost signed a three-year deal with French car manufacturer Peugeot, who would supply the team with engines from 1998 until 2000. For the team's first season, Prost kept one of Ligier's 1996 drivers, Olivier Panis, who had won the Monaco Grand Prix the previous year; Japanese driver Shinji Nakano was signed to partner Panis. The team raced with the Mugen-Honda engines used by Ligier the previous season, while the car was actually the originally intended Ligier JS45, but was renamed the Prost JS45. Things looked promising at the start of the season, as the team picked up two points on its Grand Prix debut in Australia when Olivier Panis finished fifth. The team scored a further 13 points before Panis broke his leg in an accident during the Canadian Grand Prix. He was replaced by Minardi's Jarno Trulli. From there, things started to go downhill slightly, the team scored only five points during Panis's recovery. He came back at the end of the season to race in the last three Grands Prix. Prost GP finished sixth in the Constructors' Championship in its first season, with 21 points.

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.

1999 was a crucial year for Prost GP. Prost hired John Barnard as a technical consultant, 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.

Peugeot's final year as Prost's engine supplier in 2000 saw some optimism. Prost hired his 1991 Ferrari teammate Jean Alesi to drive the lead car and German Nick Heidfeld, who had won the 1999 Formula 3000 championship, to partner him. The season proved to be yet another disastrous one: the AP03 proved to be unreliable and ill handling. Things weren't helped when the drivers collided with each other in the Austrian Grand Prix. Newly hired technical director Alan Jenkins was fired midway through the year. Prost restructured the team, hiring Joan Villadelprat as the managing director and replacing Jenkins with Henri Durand as the team's new technical director.

In 2001 Ferrari agreed to supply engines for the season. The money ran out at the start of the 2002 season and Prost was out of business, leaving debts of around $30 million.

Other roles

During 2002, Prost spent time with his family and competed in eight bicycle races, finishing third in the Granite – Mont Lozère. The Frenchman raced in the Andros ice race series in 2003, finishing second in the championship behind Yvan Muller. In 2003 and 2004, Prost took part in the Étape du Tour. Prost also became an Ambassador for Uniroyal, a position he would keep until May 2006. Prost continued to compete in the Andros Trophy, winning the title with Toyota in 2006/07, 2007/08 and with Dacia in 2011/2012.

For the 2010 Formula One season, the Sporting Regulations were changed so that a former driver sits on the stewards' panel. Prost was the first such driver to take on this role, at the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix. Prost also took part in the Race of Champions in 2010, a race organised for legends of motor sport to compete in equal machinery. In February 2012, Prost was named as Renault's new international ambassador, representing the company in sports demonstrations and at events organized or attended by Renault. Prost has finished the Absa Cape Epic, an eight-day 700 km mountain bike race in South Africa, twice. He first completed the race in 2012 with partner Sebastien di Pasqua and then again in 2013, and started but did not finish the race in 2014.

In October 2013, it was announced that Prost would join forces with Jean-Paul Driot's DAMS racing team to form e.dams, a team which would compete in the FIA Formula E Championship for electric racing cars from its commencement in September 2014. In June 2014, the team announced that its initial driver line-up would consist of Nicolas Prost and Sébastien Buemi. The team went on to win the inaugural Formula E teams championship. In 2017, he was employed as a special adviser for the Renault Formula One Team. Since July 2019, he took up a non-executive director role with Renault Sport. During the 1000th Formula One race, the 2019 Chinese Grand Prix, Prost had the honor of waving the chequered flag as Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton crossed the line to take his 75th career victory. Prost continued in his role within Renault Formula One Team, renamed "Alpine F1 Team" in 2021, until January 2022, when his departure from the team was announced.

Personal life

Prost was married to Anne-Marie (born 14 February 1955), but they divorced sometime later. They have two sons, Nicolas (born 18 August 1981) and Sacha Prost (born 30 May 1990). Prost also has a daughter, Victoria, born in 1996 from his relationship with Bernadette Cottin. From 2014 to 2018, Nicolas raced in Formula E for e.dams Renault, a team partially run by his father. Prost lived in his hometown, Saint-Chamond, until he and his Renault team fell out in the early 1980s. In April 1983 the Prost family moved to Sainte-Croix, Switzerland, and shortly after to Yens, Switzerland. They moved to Switzerland after Renault workers went to Prost's house in France and burned his Mercedes-Benz and another one of his road cars. They lived there until November 1999, when they moved to Nyon in the same country. Through Nicolas, Prost has two grandsons named Kimi (born November 2015) and Mika (born December 2020). Through Sacha, he has another grandson named Liam (born June 2018).

In 1986, Prost was awarded the Légion d'honneur by the French President, François Mitterrand; he was promoted from Chevalier to Officier rank in 1993. In addition, he was awarded an honorary British OBE in 1994, and the Brazilian Order of the Southern Cross in 1999. He was also inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame and the FIA Hall of Fame in 1999 and 2017 respectively.

Besides his native French language, Prost also speaks fluent English and Italian.

Karting record

Karting career summary

Season	Series	Team	Position
1973	French Championship — Junior		1st
	French Championship — Senior		2nd
	European Championship — Junior		1st
	FIA Karting World Championship — Junior		1st
	FIA Karting World Championship — Senior		14th
1974	French Championship — Senior		1st
	FIA Karting World Championship — Senior		23rd
1975	French Championship — Senior		1st (DSQ)
	FIA Karting World Championship — Senior		9th
Sources:

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
1976	Formule Renault Nationale	Ecurie Elf	13	12	10	11	12	112	1st
	Challenge de Formule Renault Europe	Equipe Danielson	2	0	1	0	0	1	28th
1977	Challenge de Formule Renault Europe		16	6	4	7	10	157	1st
	European Formula Two	Willi Kauhsen Racing Team	2	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1978	French Formula Three	Ecurie Elf	?	?	?	?	?	?	1st
	European Formula Three		8	1	1	1	1	10	9th
	Super Visco British Formula Three		2	0	0	0	1	7	13th
	Vandervell British Formula Three		1	0	0	0	1	18	9th
	European Formula Two	Fred Opert Racing	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1979	French Formula Three	Ecurie Elf	5	5	4	5	5	75	1st
	FIA European Formula 3 Championship		10	6	5	6	8	67	1st
	British Formula Three		1	0	0	0	0	4	12th
1980	Formula One	Marlboro Team McLaren	13	0	0	0	0	5	16th
	BMW M1 Procar Championship	BMW Motorsport	1	0	0	0	0	6	21st
1981	Formula One	Equipe Renault Elf	15	3	2	1	6	43	5th
1982	Formula One	Equipe Renault Elf	16	2	5	4	4	34	4th
1983	Formula One	Equipe Renault Elf	15	4	3	3	7	57	2nd
1984	Formula One	Marlboro McLaren International	16	7	3	3	9	71.5	2nd
1985	Formula One	Marlboro McLaren International	16	5	2	5	11	73	1st
1986	Formula One	Marlboro McLaren International	16	4	1	2	11	72	1st
1987	Formula One	Marlboro McLaren International	16	3	0	2	7	46	4th
1988	Formula One	Honda Marlboro McLaren	16	7	2	7	14	87	2nd
1989	Formula One	Honda Marlboro McLaren	16	4	2	5	11	76	1st
1990	Formula One	Scuderia Ferrari	16	5	0	2	9	71	2nd
1991	Formula One	Scuderia Ferrari	15	0	0	1	5	34	5th
1993	Formula One	Canon Williams Renault	16	7	13	6	12	99	1st
2005	FFSA GT Championship	Exagon Engineering	11	1	2	0	3	104	11th
Source:

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:

Complete Formula One World Championship 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	WDC	Points
1980	Marlboro Team McLaren	McLaren M29B	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	ARG 6	BRA 5	RSA DNS	USW													16th	5
		McLaren M29C						BEL Ret	MON Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 6	GER 11	AUT 7
		McLaren M30												NED 6	ITA 7	CAN Ret	USA DNS
1981	Equipe Renault Elf	Renault RE20B	Renault EF1 1.5 V6 t	USW Ret	BRA Ret	ARG 3	SMR Ret	BEL Ret												5th	43
		Renault RE30							MON Ret	ESP Ret	FRA 1	GBR Ret	GER 2	AUT Ret	NED 1	ITA 1	CAN Ret	CPL 2
1982	Equipe Renault Elf	Renault RE30B	Renault EF1 1.5 V6 t	RSA 1	BRA 1	USW Ret	SMR Ret	BEL Ret	MON 7†	DET NC	CAN Ret	NED Ret	GBR 6	FRA 2	GER Ret	AUT 8†	SUI 2	ITA Ret	CPL 4	4th	34
1983	Equipe Renault Elf	Renault RE30C	Renault EF1 1.5 V6 t	BRA 7																2nd	57
		Renault RE40			USW 11	FRA 1	SMR 2	MON 3	BEL 1	DET 8	CAN 5	GBR 1	GER 4	AUT 1	NED Ret	ITA Ret	EUR 2	RSA Ret
1984	Marlboro McLaren International	McLaren MP4/2	TAG TTE PO1 1.5 V6 t	BRA 1	RSA 2	BEL Ret	SMR 1	FRA 7	MON 1‡	CAN 3	DET 4	DAL Ret	GBR Ret	GER 1	AUT Ret	NED 1	ITA Ret	EUR 1	POR 1	2nd	71.5
1985	Marlboro McLaren International	McLaren MP4/2B	TAG TTE PO1 1.5 V6 t	BRA 1	POR Ret	SMR DSQ	MON 1	CAN 3	DET Ret	FRA 3	GBR 1	GER 2	AUT 1	NED 2	ITA 1	BEL 3	EUR 4	RSA 3	AUS Ret	1st	73 (76)
1986	Marlboro McLaren International	McLaren MP4/2C	TAG TTE PO1 1.5 V6 t	BRA Ret	ESP 3	SMR 1	MON 1	BEL 6	CAN 2	DET 3	FRA 2	GBR 3	GER 6†	HUN Ret	AUT 1	ITA DSQ	POR 2	MEX 2	AUS 1	1st	72 (74)
1987	Marlboro McLaren International	McLaren MP4/3	TAG TTE PO1 1.5 V6 t	BRA 1	SMR Ret	BEL 1	MON 9†	DET 3	FRA 3	GBR Ret	GER 7†	HUN 3	AUT 6	ITA 15	POR 1	ESP 2	MEX Ret	JPN 7	AUS Ret	4th	46
1988	Honda Marlboro McLaren	McLaren MP4/4	Honda RA168E 1.5 V6 t	BRA 1	SMR 2	MON 1	MEX 1	CAN 2	DET 2	FRA 1	GBR Ret	GER 2	HUN 2	BEL 2	ITA Ret	POR 1	ESP 1	JPN 2	AUS 1	2nd	87 (105)
1989	Honda Marlboro McLaren	McLaren MP4/5	Honda RA109E 3.5 V10	BRA 2	SMR 2	MON 2	MEX 5	USA 1	CAN Ret	FRA 1	GBR 1	GER 2	HUN 4	BEL 2	ITA 1	POR 2	ESP 3	JPN Ret	AUS Ret	1st	76 (81)
1990	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 641	Ferrari 036 3.5 V12 Ferrari 037 3.5 V12	USA Ret	BRA 1	SMR 4	MON Ret													2nd	71 (73)
		Ferrari 641/2						CAN 5	MEX 1	FRA 1	GBR 1	GER 4	HUN Ret	BEL 2	ITA 2	POR 3	ESP 1	JPN Ret	AUS 3
1991	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 642	Ferrari 037 3.5 V12	USA 2	BRA 4	SMR DNS	MON 5	CAN Ret	MEX Ret											5th	34
		Ferrari 643								FRA 2	GBR 3	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA 3	POR Ret	ESP 2	JPN 4	AUS
1993	Canon Williams Renault	Williams FW15C	Renault RS5 3.5 V10	RSA 1	BRA Ret	EUR 3	SMR 1	ESP 1	MON 4	CAN 1	FRA 1	GBR 1	GER 1	HUN 12	BEL 3	ITA 12†	POR 2	JPN 2	AUS 2	1st	99
Source:

^† 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:

Further reading

• Hamilton, Maurice (2015). Alain Prost. Blink Publishing. ISBN 978-1905825981.
• 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 Series). 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