Alain Prost

Alain Prost was everything that you need to have a successful sportsman - skill, ability, luck, drama and controversy. He won four world championships but also left four teams hanging in thin air. He won races like second nature and when facing Ayrton Senna, he was at his best and worst. But despite all this, only Michael Schumacher and Juan Manuel Fangio have won more races than Prost's 51.

Alain was born to a well-to-do household where his father manufactured kitchen furnishings. Alain was short but his unending storehouse of energy made up for any shortcomings. He wrestled, skated and played football with incredible zest and the result was a broken nose, many times. Always incredibly athletic, Prost felt that he would go into a career as a gym instructor or maybe even a professional football player but the first time he touched a Kart and discovered racing, he was hooked. It started as fun but eventually, he started participating in races and his fun turned into a maniacal obsession to win races and he did so, winning numerous Karting championships.

Alain decided that school was holding him back so he decided to drop out and pursue racing full time. He earned a living by tuning engines and also became a Kart distributor while still pushing the limits on track. He won the French senior Karting championships in 1975 and his prize was in the form of an opportunity to drive in the Formula Renault category. Alain went on to grab two titles before he got promoted to the Formula Three category in 1978. In 1978 and 1979, Alain won the French and European F3 Championships and that put him on top of the charts for the Formula One teams. Prost looked at all his options and decided that McLaren was where he wanted to start his career at the highest level.

He had four point finishes in his first season in Formula One but his main focus of the season was the number of accidents he had had. Alain Prost broke his wrist in one accident while suffered a concussion in another. Mechanical failures gave him his share of bad luck and Prost was extremely unhappy with the way the team was run and decided that he had to get out of his contract and he went into Renault.

In 1981, he won his first grand prix at home - a Frenchman with a French Constructor won in the 1981 French Grand Prix. It was just too good! It was the beginning of what was to be an incredible change especially in the psychological setup in Alain's mind. But Alain's 9 wins in three seasons weren't enough for the French team or their fans. He was constantly made the prime reason for the loss of the championship title and Prost was involved in a feud with fellow Frenchman, and team mate, Rene Arnoux, who in turn was fast becoming a crowd favourite due to his homely appeal. Alain had had enough and decided that it was time to move on and he moved his family to Switzerland and went back to McLaren in 1984. Alain never looked back.

In 1985, Prost became the first Frenchman to become the World Formula One Champion. In 1986, he repeated the feat and became the first man, since Jack Brabham, to win back-to-back titles. In 1987, he didn't repeat his feat again but he did manage to beat Jackie Stewart's 14-year old record with his 28th Grand Prix win. In 1988, Prost won 7 of the 15 races that his team won in the Formula One season. Surprisingly, that still didn't win him the title as, a certain, Ayrton Senna came ahead and accounted for the other 8 wins for McLaren. This began a rivalry that probably remains unmatched in the sport; one that pushed two drivers so far over the limit that every action was a well-thought plan to disturb the other.

Known as 'The Professor', Alain was known to be a thinker in the sport and to take on Ayrton Senna, Prost would need to bring out all his mental and driving abilities in a way that he had never imagined. Prost would always start a race conservatively, saving his tyres and brakes for later and towards the end, would make an all-out challenge for the win. Senna, on the other hand, had a simple strategy that saw him drive flat-out all the time. His ability and need to drive as fast as he can even in torrential downpour was something that Prost despised. It was also this ability to drive with endless confidence that made Senna more endeared to the fans than Prost - a fact that wasn't appreciated by Prost.

In 1989, McLaren dominated while their drivers were involved in a slug-fest. The initial mutual admiration that they had for each other turned into utter hatred. Prost accused Senna of driving recklessly and of being the team favourite and decided to end it in unusual fashion that season. At the last race of the '89 season, the title decider at Suzuka was to witness a new level of rivalry. At the Suzuka Chicane, Prost deliberately collided with Senna so as to take the Brazilian out of the race and thus, the Frenchman took the championship as well as a new job at Ferrari.

In 1990, with Ferrari, Prost won five races and the battle with his old team mate, Senna, again went down to the wire at Suzuka. This time though, it was Senna who had the advantage and decided to drive into the Ferrari. Prost, who conveniently forgot his act from a year ago, went to the press and said "What he did was disgusting. He is a man without value". In 1991, Ferrari was falling way off the pace and for the first time in ten years, Alain Prost went through the season without winning a single race. Prost blamed Ferrari publicly for the poor form and got fired before the end of the season.

He didn't get another ride in 1992, and decided to become a commentator before turning to Williams-Renault in 1993. He won seven more races that season to take his total wins to 51. This also got him his fourth driving title. In 1994, Senna was to be brought into the Williams-Renault outfit and the prospect of driving next to the man he hated the most, left Prost contemplating retirement. The Professor came out and said that although he had got a lot from the sport, it was time to call it quits.

Prost was a part of the procession that led Senna's funeral march that year.

Prost may have quit racing but he couldn't be torn away from it and turned TV commentator while working as an advisor for McLaren. Prost also bought the Ligier team in 1997 but the embarrassing performances that they put forth was terrible for his image and Prost shut the team in 2001.