Alain Prost: 'I was a better F1 racer than Senna'

F1

In this month's magazine, Alain Prost gives a rare and exclusive interview to look back on a brilliant career – and talk about that rivalry with Ayrton Senna

Alain Prost McLaren 1988 French GP

Prost says he had the edge in race conditions

Grand Prix Photo

Few come close to matching Alain Prost’s astonishing F1 record. His four drivers’ titles have only been bettered by three drivers and he’s still fifth in the all-time Grand Prix wins list with 51 victories.

With such success, why is the Frenchman so often overlooked in favour of the likes of Hamilton, Senna and Clark?

In this month’s issue the F1 legend gives his thoughts on the debate, telling Motor Sport in a rare and fascinating interview: “I’m completely underrated.”

1986 championship-winning MP4/2C

Prost gives his view on the rivalry in an exclusive interview

Jayson Fong

For better or, in Prost’s view worse, for many his career is defined by the titanic ‘fire and ice’ battles which played out between himself and arch-rival Senna, first beginning as team-mates at McLaren – both behind the wheel of the formidable MP4/4.

While Senna was all passion on the ragged edge, Prost was ‘The Professor’, calculating each move to the last degree. It was an irresistible match-up for fans.

Previously enjoying a harmonious relationship with former Woking stablemates Niki Lauda, Keke Rosberg and Stefan Johansson, Prost got a slightly rude awakening when Senna installed himself at McLaren, but the Frenchman already knew his charismatic new colleague had form – as shown in a 1984 Mercedes saloon exhibition race they took part in together at the Nürburgring.

From the archive

“I got the pole position and he jumped the start!” remembers Prost. “I didn’t know how good he was, but we knew… I understood. It was only in 1988 when I saw him in the same car that I knew how good he was. Then at our first test together in Imola I saw it was going to be difficult.”

Prost explains that both the competitive intensity and toxic atmosphere which soon developed at McLaren were not to his taste.

“I cannot say I enjoyed it the same, I cannot lie. Before I enjoyed racing, enjoyed fighting. Remember with Nelson [Piquet], we were going on holidays together the same year we were fighting for the championship in 1983.

“Keke was unbelievable, one of my best team-mates. Everybody said at the beginning of the year it would be a disaster. Then when Ayrton came we reached a level of performance and obviously you enjoy it a little bit less. I really suffered a lot, so you cannot enjoy it the same way.”

Senna wrapped his campaigns in a compelling narrative, implying that it was his divine right to win – something difficult for fans not to get caught up in. Prost analyses the difference in their ‘fire and ice’ approaches.

2 Alain Prost McLaren 1988 French GP

According to Frenchman, atmosphere soured after Senna’s arrival

Getty Images

“Ayrton represented more panache. I was the ‘Professor’, clinical. He was ‘mystic’ and people liked that.

“When he impressed me I must say it was in qualifying sometimes, I don’t remember when exactly. Never in race conditions. Never. In race conditions, in the warm-up, most of the time I was quicker.

“I do ask myself sometimes how I am going to be remembered. It sounds like a joke but I’m completely underrated! I know that. I can see. I don’t know why, but it’s my brand in a way.”

Despite strongly disagreeing with the perception of himself being an inferior racer to Senna, Prost accepts it may well be set in stone.

“It looks like it stays that way for ever, it is part of the history,” he says. “Look at my other team-mates: Watson, Arnoux, [Eddie] Cheever, Niki, Keke, Stefan [Johansson], Nigel, Jean [Alesi] and Damon [Hill]. Nobody talks about them. I had five world champions as team-mates, so it is a bit of a shame.

“But it is the way it is. Today you have social media and everybody is coming back to videos of our fights. Sometimes I don’t understand. My career was not only two or three years.”

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