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
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.
I think maybe the English don't want to try something and look stupid, because they are a bit reserved.
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.
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.
I'm brave to say that I won't take this sort of risk.
That is an important part of my success. Another big part of my success is that I hated not to finish a race.
So in fact the only thing you can judge in this sport its the longterm. You can judge a career or a season, but not one race.
Some Italians are geniuses, but you have to find a balance.
A German team could be quite good. But maybe they are a little bit too convinced that they are the best.
It's not too good to have this attitude in F1. It could be a disadvantage.
I was very interested in that. It is very important to have confidence as well as to build up experience.
I was looking at the history of the sport and I couldn't understand why there have been so many good South American drivers, especially Brazilians.
I have always had this mentality because I hated to break anything on the car.