Alain Prost
Alain Prost
Alain Marie Pascal Prost, OBE, Chevalier de la Légion d'honneuris a French former racing driver. A four-time Formula One Drivers' Champion, only Sebastian Vettel, Juan Manuel Fangio, and Michael Schumacherhave equalled or surpassed his number of titles. From 1987 until 2001 Prost held the record for most Grand Prix victories. Schumacher surpassed Prost's total of 51 victories at the 2001 Belgian Grand Prix. In 1999, Prost received the World Sports Awards of the Century in the motor sport category...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionRace Car Driver
Date of Birth24 February 1955
CityLorette, France
CountryFrance
You can't always have the best team. It's always a compromise.
Without going to what I think is my limit. I always say that my ideal is to get pole with the minimum effort, and to win the race at the slowest speed possible.
Sometimes I think I could have got some better results if I had a different mentality; if I could have pushed hard and attacked. But then I would have had a good chance of making a mistake.
Does it scare me, driving into nothing at 300kph? - Of course it does - I'm not an idiot...
When I look fast, I'm not smooth and I am going slowly. And when I look slow, I am smooth and going fast.
You can't think you are going to win all the races by being quicker, because it's not possible. So you need to find another way.
I remember in the first part of the race I was sixth and I could have gone quicker, but I had to go slow. It was one of the most difficult things I have ever done.
Three times before 1985, I just missed the title, so winning was a relief.
I always work the same way, starting from the beginning of the weekend, so I know at the beginning of the race, from all that I have analysed during the practice, whether I will win the race or not.
The people who criticise you will not be the ones taking care of your legs when you are in your wheelchair. People who never drove a car in these conditions, they just don't know.
I have no problem with the people who work hard to get success. But I think people are very jealous about success. I work very hard and they don't appreciate that.
When I test I never go right to the limit. Only because when you are below the limit you can go at the same speed all day, and that's the only way you can be absolutely sure about what you are testing.
You want to have fun but you also want to work well. Sometimes I was quite happy at Ferrari, because we would have fun, but then they could not stop having fun and go back to the real work.
I think maybe the English don't want to try something and look stupid, because they are a bit reserved.