A Lesson In Success With The F1 Professor

Prost or Senna? It’s one of the age-old arguments between racing fans, the polarising argument where there’s usually little common ground. Spectacle over smoothness, emotion over calculation? On the surface they seemed such different drivers. At least, that’s how they portrayed themselves, but they were both equally ruthless in their own ways, and both capable of making huge errors of judgment in pursuit of victory. Nothing else would do for either driver: Prost was as much the fighter as Senna. This year’s Goodwood Festival Of Speed contained a number of Senna’s old cars, but also reserved a special treat for Prost fans.

‘The Professor’ would be visiting Goodwood for the first time, adding his name to the long list of famous drivers who put in an appearance at the Festival – something that usually leads to repeat visits, such is the popularity of the laid-back event. Over 13 seasons in Formula 1 the legendary Frenchman achieved success for all four teams he drove for: McLaren, Renault, Ferrari and Williams. He scored 51 victories from 199 starts and was World Champion four times during a period in which the opposition included drivers of the calibre of Senna, Mansell and Piquet.

Prost would be driving both his 1.5-litre turbo RE40 from 1983 and the modern Renault Alpine A110-50 concept car. At the wheel of the RE40 he’d missed out on a maiden World Championship by just two points – he’d have to wait another two years to be crowned as France’s first World Champion.

Goodwood House’s stable yard was also given over to a display of some of the most famous of Prost’s mounts and a photographic exhibition covering Prost’s career.

After winning both the French and European F3 Championships, Prost made his Formula 1 debut in 1980 for the McLaren team. Teamed up with veteran John Watson in the M29B, he made an immediate impact, finishing in the points in his first two races.

Unfortunately those opening races were the highlight: the car was plagued with problems and Alain had also suffered several serious accidents during the season – he signed to Renault for the following year.

Alain joined fellow Frenchman René Arnoux at Renault in 1981, driving the 1.5-litre V6 turbocharged Renault RE20 and subsequent chassis developments. After an unsure start to the year, he scored his first podium in Argentina and his breakthrough win at the French Grand Prix, round eight.

From then on, if the car completed the distance he would be on the podium: two more wins and two second places came as the RE20 was replaced mid-season by the RE30. Two more wins in 1982 and four in 1983 were tempered by his fractious relationship with his team-mate and the team…

Alain moved back to McLaren for the 1984 season, joining double World Champion Niki Lauda at the team that was now entering a new era under the control of Ron Dennis. He lost the ’84 title by just half a point to Lauda, despite taking more wins (seven); in 1985 he took the MP4/2B to five wins and another five podiums to become France’s first World Champion.

For 1986 he drove this McLaren TAG-Porsche MP4/2C to defend his title, narrowly beating Mansell’s Williams and winning another four races in the process.

Alain stayed with McLaren until the end of the 1989 season. He was instrumental in the signing of Senna to the team in ’88, which also helped bring Honda power to the team, inadvertently setting up one of the greatest rivalries in F1 history.

This is 1989’s V10 McLaren MP4/5. The team might have lost turbo power, but McLaren hadn’t given up their idea of dominating the sport: between them the two drivers won 10 out of 16 races, with the bitter battle with Senna ending in controversial circumstances at the penultimate Japanese Grand Prix. Disqualification for Senna after the two had collided gave Prost his third world title. In six seasons at McLaren he would finish runner-up twice and be World Champion three times – not a bad strike rate!

Having had enough of battling someone supposed to be his team-mate, Prost moved to Ferrari for the 1990 season, taking up the Ferrari 641 alongside Mansell. This became another chapter in his fiery relationship with Senna: he won five times for Ferrari in ’90, but the world title went to Senna after that crash, once again at the penultimate round at Suzuka, where Senna late admitted he had deliberately driven Prost of the road at the first corner. The 1991 season was anything but successful: Prost won no races, and a final change of team beckoned.

After a year’s sabbatical in ’92, Alain returned with Williams for 1993, driving the Williams FW15C with Damon Hill as his team-mate after blocking Senna’s move to the team. The FW15C featured advanced active suspension, traction control and ABS, and is still considered one of the most technologically advanced F1 cars of all time. Prost won first time out in South Africa and took six more wins on his way to his fourth and final F1 title, beating Senna into second place.

Retirement beckoned with a significant number of statistics notched up: he’d won the most number of Grand Prix (a figure only beaten by Schumacher eight years later), the most number of wins in a turbo-charged car and the most number of home Grand Prix wins (six French GP victories).

Post his F1 career, Alain ran the Prost GP team and dominated the French Andros Trophy ice-racing series for a number of years. The Festival Of Speed is always an incredible place to see your heroes: I’m sure this isn’t the last time we’ll see Alain there. I know who I rooted for between Prost and Senna… Who were you for?

Jonathan Moore

Speedhunters at the 2012 Goodwood Festival Of Speed

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1

Senna all the way..

2

Senna all the way..

3

Senna all the way..

4

Thanks for this coverage, what a skilled driver. I'm sad that I'm too young to have witnessed Prost, Senna, and their contemporaries in their prime!

5

Thanks for this coverage, what a skilled driver. I'm sad that I'm too young to have witnessed Prost, Senna, and their contemporaries in their prime!

6

Thanks for this coverage, what a skilled driver. I'm sad that I'm too young to have witnessed Prost, Senna, and their contemporaries in their prime!

7
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8
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10

Senna was divine.

11

Senna was divine.

12

Senna was divine.

13

It's sad that every time Prost's name drops Senna is not far off. This does not always go the other way around. Senna sure is a legend and all, I have nothing but respect for that man, but Alain Prost deserves more than being in his shadow. Both men were very different type of race drivers and very successful in their own way. I wonder if Alain cursed the day Ayrton passed away, for more reasons than just being human.

14

It's sad that every time Prost's name drops Senna is not far off. This does not always go the other way around. Senna sure is a legend and all, I have nothing but respect for that man, but Alain Prost deserves more than being in his shadow. Both men were very different type of race drivers and very successful in their own way. I wonder if Alain cursed the day Ayrton passed away, for more reasons than just being human.

15

It's sad that every time Prost's name drops Senna is not far off. This does not always go the other way around. Senna sure is a legend and all, I have nothing but respect for that man, but Alain Prost deserves more than being in his shadow. Both men were very different type of race drivers and very successful in their own way. I wonder if Alain cursed the day Ayrton passed away, for more reasons than just being human.

16

Prost is such a sucker. What he did to Senna's life & career was horrible.

17

Prost is such a sucker. What he did to Senna's life & career was horrible.

18

Prost is such a sucker. What he did to Senna's life & career was horrible.

19

Prost is a great driver.  I love the silky smooth driving style.  Too bad Senna died so early because I think a real friendship would have eventually formed after Prost's retirement from F1.
 

20

They never made a movie about Prost!
 
Nuff said.

21

The numbers speak for themselves. They were both phenomenal drivers.  
No one gets "lucky" and wins as many gp's as either of them have. 
Alot of respect for both, I prefer Senna's insane, beyond the limit, driving style though. 
And Prost is French =]

22

I've followed F1 since the mid '70s, and have seen a lot of very talented drivers in those years.  I loathed Senna during the years he raced.  I respected the talent but just couldn't stomach the man.  Alain Prost was THE racer for me, hell... I even named my son after him...lol!  After watching the movie 'Senna', I had a tad more sympathy for Ayrton; Prost was a master of the political game that is a huge part of F1 racing (sadly), something Senna just couldn't comprehend.  When Schumacher came along and was regularly outperforming Senna, it got into Senna's head I am afraid, and he became careless and reckless.  In the end, Senna killed himself and Prost survives to this day.  Some would say that alone decides the balance in Prost's favor.  For me, it is Alain all the way.

23

I've followed F1 since the mid '70s, and have seen a lot of very talented drivers in those years.  I loathed Senna during the years he raced.  I respected the talent but just couldn't stomach the man.  Alain Prost was THE racer for me, hell... I even named my son after him...lol!  After watching the movie 'Senna', I had a tad more sympathy for Ayrton; Prost was a master of the political game that is a huge part of F1 racing (sadly), something Senna just couldn't comprehend.  When Schumacher came along and was regularly outperforming Senna, it got into Senna's head I am afraid, and he became careless and reckless.  In the end, Senna killed himself and Prost survives to this day.  Some would say that alone decides the balance in Prost's favor.  For me, it is Alain all the way.

24

I prefer youre mother.
 

25

I prefer youre mother.
 

26

Great write up. Great to know that there were F1 races held in countries I never thought about like Argentina and South Africa back then. Btw, I dont mean Senna and Prost are not legendary but I prefer Kimi Raikkonen. Hehe..

27

No Prost = no Senna. You need to understand that.

28

 @bajaman Not sure it's fair to say Senna "killed himself" but he did push the limits of his car and his talent, which is probably why people view him as such a phenom.

29

I can't even imagine how they did back than without the ABS. I never watched either Senna or Prost in a race. :( *born in 93.

30

I root for Prost. Sadly the "Senna" movie is very biased and doesn't show the complete profile of Ayrton. The guy (Senna) didn't have any respect for other drivers' lives. On his pre-F1 days he destroyed a marshall's post (fortunately no one was inside), and almost beheads Martin Brundle when he caused an accident while attempting to perform one of his over-oportunistic overtakes. If he would have killed Brundle, he wouldn't even have had a Formula 1 career. Additionally, he was one of the first bullies of the modern F1 era, usually intimidating other drivers using the "if you don't let me pass, we both crash" formula. Older drivers like Alain Prost, Niki Lauda, Keke Rosberg, and Nelson Piquet didn't race in this way; they raced cleanly. Look for the famous Gilles Villeneuve vs Rene Arnoux video and you will see two racers that drive cleanly and fairly.
 
When alive, Senna had a lot of vocal detractors (Keke Rosberg, Mansell, and Jackie Stewart for example)  and was very criticized because of his bad sportsmanship. Ayrton squeezed Prost into a wall at full speed when teammates. Prost could have died and if that happened, we would remember Senna in a very different light.
Even more, on his later years he had the disgrace of punching Eddie Irvine on the face just because he didn't let Senna pass, when Irvine didn't have to let him pass. This is not my invention; there is a video of this incident on the 'net. That is bad sportsmanship. Ayrton was lucky, very lucky, because in his years he could have killed more than one driver. Brundle and Prost for example.He had also some prima-donna traits and did a lot of political manipulation. For example in 1989 he requested the pole position place to be switched from one side to the other. The pole position place was the same in 1988, 1987, 1986, etc... He already knew where was the P1 grid place located before qualifying. Why he would deserve some special treatment to be allowed to change such a rule? His request was denied by the FIA, and Ayrton used this to push his agenda: Oh, it's all a conspiracy, they want to support the French driver, etc. Bollocks.
 
Contrary to this, Prost was generally a very fair racer that was involved in very little incidents with other racers, and he was generally very fair on track. One unfair incident was when he pushed Piquet off-course in the early 80s. He immediately went afterwards to apologyize. Nelson Piquet always has a high opinion of Prost. Jackie Stewart, 3X WDC, a guy who held the records of most wins, named Prost in his "5 best drivers ever" list when asked, and didn't mention Senna. Jackie Stewart actually saw fellow racers DIE on races; he knows the importance of fair play and good sportsmanship.
 
What about performance? Senna never had a really skillful teammate besides Prost, and even against Prost, he never got more points than him. Prost had to face the following teammates, besides Senna:
 
- Rene Arnoux, a blazingly fast qualifyer, race winner. Look at the "Villeneuve vs Arnoux" video.
- Keke Rosberg, world champion 1982 -a season in which all cars had similar performance- who once declared: "I thought i was the fastest driver in the world until i went to McLaren"
- Niki Lauda, triple world champion and one of the best drivers ever
- Nigel Mansell, world champíon 1992 and one of the fastest, best drivers ever
- Jean Alesi, another well liked, F1 great with tremendous skill
- Damon Hill, world champion  1996 and title contender for the 1993-1996 period.
 
He outperformed all teammates above. He also won two world titles without having the most dominant car: 1985 and 1986. He lost the 1988 championship by a technicality, because he had significantly more points than his teammate.  He was able to win with normally aspirated and turbo cars; active and passive-suspension cars, with Renault, Ferrari, TAG-Porsche, Honda, and Ford engines. He held the record for most race wins and for most fastest laps until Schumacher overhauled them. He wasn't a slow qualifyer: Senna has 88 front-row starts, but Prost has 87...
 
 

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