The professor (Alain Prost)

Member Name: MichaelR

Product:	Alain Prost
Date:	28/01/01 (15 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Statistically the best driver ever. Immense talent

Disadvantages: Boring

So called for his looks as well as his immense capability for tactical thought, all the time he was in the car, he was always thinking, and this gave him an edge over the opposition on many occasions.

Now, you know if Formula One was snooker (strange comparison, but it works for me!) then Alain Prost would be Steve Davis - Hugely talented but very boring.

I'm not taking anything away from Prost... who could? He is one of the greatest drivers of all time, and still to this day, he holds the record for the highest number of Grand Prix wins, (51, although this will probably be eclipsed by Michael Schumacher within the next two seasons if Schumacher's career continues) and jointly holds the record for the highest number of fastest laps with Schumacher. (41)

Prost also holds the record for the highest amount of points with 798.5 (yes, that's right, seven hundred and ninety eight and a half) although this is under threat from Michael Schumacher too. (who officially has 600, if my arithmetic is correct, after being stripped of the 78 points he scored in 1997)

Prost also has more championship wins (4) than anyone else bar Juan Manuel Fangio, who won the championship five times. His last championship win however came in 1957 for Maserati, so you could say that in the modern era, his record is second to none.

There are two reasons that I didn't really like Prost. Firstly I just found him boring as I said - both as a personality and in his style of racing. I still admired him, and still do, and still thought and do think that he is one of the greatest ever drivers to compete in F1, but I just personally prefer the more flamboyant type of driver - so naturally I was rooting for Senna for most of the time while Prost was driving.

I didn't like Prost, but I didn’t dislike him either. I wouldn't say that I've disliked many drivers, if any, in motorsport.... not as actual drivers anyway (a
s opposed to personalities).

Prost won championships in '85, '86, '89, and '93, and he came quite close on a number of other occasions.

He was involved in some dubious incidents, notably in '89 when both he and Senna were driving for McLaren, but as I have said in other opinions, I believe that almost every driver, especially amongst the greats has been.

A year later, Prost had moved to Ferrari, and again it was between him and Senna (still at McLaren) for the title at the last race at Suzuka. This time Senna deliberately took out Prost, and took the title.

You could argue that it was payback, but still.... it just goes to show that they all did it.

Of course now Prost owns his own F1 team, after taking over the Ligier concern, and he will run Alesi and Mazzacane next year, and the cars will have Ferrari engines (2000 spec)

He's not had too much success so far as a team owner, but maybe now that he's got rid of the unreliable and overweight Peugeot's, he can start to turn it around.

I hope he can.

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Alain Prost - Grand Prix Record

Grand Prix - 199
Wins - 51 (Record)
Win Ratio - 25.6%
Poles - 33
Fastest Laps - 41
Points Scored - 798.5 (Record)
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Summary: