113 Facts About Alain Prost

Alain Prost won his first title at the Formula Renault National Championship that year, prior to winning the Challenge de Formule Renault Europe in 1977.

Alain Prost signed for McLaren in 1980, making his Formula One debut at the Argentine Grand Prix, where he finished sixth.

Alain Prost moved to Renault in 1981, taking his maiden victory at his home Grand Prix in France, with further wins in the Netherlands and Italy.

Alain Prost was sacked by Renault two days later for his post-season comments and moved back to McLaren for 1984, where he finished runner-up to teammate Niki Lauda by a record half-point.

In 1985, Alain Prost won his maiden title with McLaren, becoming the first World Drivers' Champion from France.

Alain Prost successfully defended his title the following season, amidst a close title battle with Piquet and Nigel Mansell.

Alain Prost returned to Formula One as the owner of Prost Grand Prix from 1997 to 2001, having purchased Ligier.

In ice racing, Alain Prost is a three-time champion of the Andros Trophy, competing from 2003 to 2012.

Alain Prost was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1999.

Alain Prost was born in the commune of Lorette near the town of Saint-Chamond, in the departement of Loire close to Saint-Etienne, France to Andre Prost and Marie-Rose Karatchian, born in France of Armenian descent.

Alain Prost had one older brother called Daniel, who died of cancer in September 1986.

Alain Prost was an active and athletic child, who enthusiastically took part in diverse sports, including wrestling, roller skating and football.

Alain Prost 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.

Alain Prost won the French senior karting championship in 1975.

Alain Prost made the transition to open-wheel racing in 1976 and rapidly progressed through the junior categories.

Alain Prost made three guest appearances in European Formula Two in 1977 and 1978.

However, Alain Prost finished 15th in the Drivers' Championship with five points, scoring at Buenos Aires, Interlagos, Brands Hatch and Zandvoort.

Alain Prost had several accidents, breaking his wrist during practice at Kyalami and suffering a concussion during practice at Watkins Glen.

Alain Prost retired from the previous round in Montreal a week earlier because of rear suspension failure.

Alain Prost later explained that he left because the car frequently broke down and because he felt the team blamed him for several accidents.

Alain Prost was partnered with fellow Frenchman Rene Arnoux for 1981.

Alain Prost 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.

Alain Prost won again in Holland and Italy, and finished fifth in the Drivers' Championship, seven points behind champion Nelson Piquet.

Alain Prost won the first two Grands Prix of the 1982 season in South Africa, where Alain Prost recovered from losing a wheel, and Brazil, where he finished 3rd but was awarded the win after Piquet and Keke Rosberg were disqualified.

Alain Prost finished in the points on four other occasions, but did not win again.

Alain Prost believes that Arnoux, who won the race, went back on a pre-race agreement to support Alain Prost during the race.

Alain Prost then led every lap to win what would be the first of 3 Australian Grand Prix wins.

Alain Prost finished 15.32 seconds clear of Laffite, with 1981 Australian Grand Prix winner, young Brazilian driver Roberto Moreno finishing third.

Alain Prost earned a further four victories for Renault during the season and finished second in the Drivers' Championship, two points behind Nelson Piquet.

Alain 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.

Alain 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 Alain Prost only two days after the South African race.

Alain Prost 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.

Alain Prost 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 Alain Prost had been leading, albeit with Ayrton Senna and Stefan Bellof 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, Alain Prost received only half of the nine points normally awarded for a victory.

In 1985 Alain Prost became the first French Formula One World Champion.

Alain Prost won five of the sixteen Grands Prix during the season.

Alain Prost finished 20 points ahead of his closest rival, Michele Alboreto.

Alain 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, Alain Prost appeared set to finish second in the Championship, behind Mansell.

Alain 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.

The Williams team then pitted Piquet to change tyres as a safety precaution, while Alain Prost had already pitted earlier due to a puncture and did not need to change his tyres again.

Alain Prost then held the lead ahead of a charging Piquet to the chequered flag and the championship.

Alain Prost became the first driver to retain the title since Jack Brabham in 1960.

Alain Prost was cruising to victory when his car began to run out of fuel three corners from the chequered flag.

Alain 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.

Alain Prost was eventually classified sixth in the race, as the seventh-placed car was a lap behind.

Alain Prost finished sixth at the Belgian Grand Prix, where he collided with Gerhard Berger in the Benetton.

Alain Prost 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.

The Williams-Hondas had been dominant during qualifying, and Alain Prost started fifth on the grid with a time three seconds slower than Mansell's pole time.

Alain Prost finished 40 seconds in front of Piquet, with Johansson a further 16 seconds back in third.

Alain Prost finished the 1987 season in fourth place in the championship behind Piquet, Mansell and Lotus driver Ayrton Senna.

Alain Prost finished first or second in every race other than his two retirements at Silverstone and Monza.

Alain Prost won seven races and outscored his new teammate Senna by 11 points, despite Senna winning one more race than him.

Alain Prost met with Honda F1 boss Nobuhiko Kawamoto at the end of the season to express these concerns.

Kawamoto acknowledged that Honda's engineers were probably more excited to work with Senna than Alain Prost, but said that he intended to deliver Alain Prost equal machinery on race day.

Matters came to a head at the Italian Grand Prix, where Alain Prost burned his bridges with both McLaren and Honda.

Ultimately, Alain Prost won at Monza while Senna retired with an engine issue, giving Alain Prost a commanding 20-point lead in the Drivers' Championship.

Alain Prost threw salt in the wound by dropping his winner's trophy into the crowd of cheering Ferrari fans, a major taboo at McLaren.

Alain Prost clinched his third Drivers' Championship at the Japanese Grand Prix, the penultimate race of the season.

Alain Prost was 16 points ahead of Senna at the time, meaning that Senna needed to win the last two races.

In 1990, Alain Prost became the first Ferrari driver to sign for the Scuderia after the death of team founder Enzo Ferrari in 1988.

Alain Prost won five races for Ferrari that year, in Brazil, Mexico, France, Britain and Spain.

The championship came to the penultimate round of the season in Japan, but this time the roles were reversed, with Alain Prost trailing McLaren-Honda's Senna by nine points.

At the first corner of the first lap, Senna intentionally drove his car into Alain Prost's, taking them both out of the race and sealing the title in his favour.

Alain Prost finished the season seven points behind Senna, and his Ferrari team were runners-up to McLaren in the Constructors' Championship.

Alain 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.

Alain Prost was replaced by Italian driver Gianni Morbidelli for the 1991 Australian Grand Prix and by another Italian, Ivan Capelli, for the following season.

Alain Prost quickly recognized the potential of the Williams car and began negotiating with Frank Williams for a 1993 ride no later than the second race of the 1992 season.

Alain Prost ultimately signed a two-year contract for 1993 and 1994.

Alain Prost had expected to race alongside Mansell, but Mansell's contract negotiations fell through over financial terms.

Alain Prost led the way, winning seven of the first ten races and taking pole in thirteen out of sixteen races.

Shortly before securing the title, Alain Prost announced he would retire at the end of the season.

However, in an interview for Asif Kapadia's 2010 documentary Senna, Alain Prost revealed that the Senna clause did in fact extend to 1994, but Renault pressured Frank Williams to ask Alain Prost to waive the clause.

Alain Prost finished on the podium in his final race.

Alain Prost used a helmet design based on the three colours of the French flag, blue, white and red, with his name along the side.

Alain Prost's helmet changed in 1985, as his helmet now had the blue detail around the front, surrounding the visor and a white ring with red lines surrounding the top.

Alain Prost kept a similar design for his entry at Ferrari and Williams.

Alain Prost is widely regarded as one of Formula One's greatest-ever drivers.

Alain Prost has the fourth-most Drivers' Championships of all time, behind only Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, and Juan Manuel Fangio.

At his retirement, Alain Prost held the record for most career Grand Prix victories, which stood for fourteen years.

In contrast to Senna, who had a "tendency to go flat out all the time," Alain Prost employed a smooth, relaxed style behind the wheel, deliberately modelling himself on personal heroes like Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark.

Alain Prost internalized those lessons and used them against Senna in 1988 and 1989.

In 2009, an Autosport survey taken by 217 Formula One drivers saw Alain Prost voted as the fourth greatest Formula One driver of all time, behind Senna, Schumacher, and Fangio.

Alain Prost comfortably won the 1993 title and retired at season's end, allowing Senna to take the lead at Williams in 1994.

Alain Prost was a pallbearer at Senna's funeral, and commented that when Senna died "a part of himself had died ", because their careers had been so closely bound together.

Senna felt similarly, admitting to a close friend that after Alain Prost retired, he realised how much of his motivation had come from fighting with Alain Prost.

Alain Prost worked for Renault doing public relations and promotions.

Alain Prost went back to his old team McLaren, working as a technical adviser; he completed L'Etape du Tour, an annual mass-participation bike ride that takes place on a stage of the Tour de France.

On 13 February 1997, Alain Prost bought the Ligier team from Flavio Briatore and renamed it "Alain Prost Grand Prix".

The day after he bought the team, Alain Prost signed a three-year deal with French car manufacturer Peugeot, who would supply the team with engines from 1998 until 2000.

Alain Prost came back at the end of the season to race in the last three Grands Prix.

Alain Prost GP finished sixth in the Constructors' Championship in its first season, with 21 points.

Alain Prost became the president of Alain Prost Grand Prix at the start of 1998.

Alain Prost GP scored a single point during the season when Jarno Trulli finished sixth in Belgium.

Alain Prost hired John Barnard as a technical consultant, Barnard's B3 Technologies company helping Loic Bigois with the design of the Alain Prost AP02.

Alain 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.

Alain Prost restructured the team, hiring Joan Villadelprat as the managing director and replacing Jenkins with Henri Durand as the team's new technical director.

The money ran out at the start of the 2002 season and Alain Prost was out of business, leaving debts of around $30 million.

In 2003 and 2004, Alain Prost took part in the Etape du Tour.

Alain Prost became an Ambassador for Uniroyal, a position he would keep until May 2006.

Alain Prost was the first such driver to take on this role, at the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix.

Alain Prost 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, Alain Prost was named as Renault's new international ambassador, representing the company in sports demonstrations and at events organized or attended by Renault.

Alain Prost 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.

Alain Prost was a pundit with Channel 4 F1 for the 2016 season.

Alain 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.

Alain Prost has a daughter, Victoria, born in 1996 from his relationship with Bernadette Cottin.

Alain Prost lived in his hometown, Saint-Chamond, until he and his Renault team fell out in the early 1980s.

In 1986, Alain Prost was awarded the Legion d'honneur by the French President, Francois Mitterrand; he was promoted from Chevalier to Officier rank in 1993.

Alain Prost was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame and the FIA Hall of Fame in 1999 and 2017 respectively.

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

Alain Prost voiced an animated depiction of himself in McLaren's Tooned cartoon series to commemorate McLaren's 50th anniversary.