Alain Prost Net Worth Income Profile and Salary. (Saint Chamond, 1955) French motorist. A Formula One driver between 1979 and 1993, his 51 Grand Prix victories placed him in the late 1990s as the most prolific rider in the history of the motorsport premier class. He also won four absolute victories in the World Championship, number only surpassed by the five titles of another great myth of the speed, the Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio.
A member of a middle-class family (his father had a furniture workshop), he soon showed great physical qualities and a passionate interest in sports such as golf, skiing, tennis and football, which he wanted to pursue professionally. He started in the motor world in karting competitions, where he won triumphs such as the 1974 French Championship or the Elf Valiant Award for best student at the Magny-Cours Circuit’s driver school.
His successes in the specialty opened the doors to him of Formula Renault, a category in which it obtained the titles of champion of France (1976) and of Europe (1977); In this last year it produced its debut in Formula 2, where it remained only one season. Immediately he joined Formula 3, the prelude to the motorsport specialty: Formula 1. The six partial victories reaped and the final achievement of the European Championship of 1979 opened the doors to him of the maximum category, in which it debuted To the controls of a McLaren.
In his first race, the Grand Prix of Argentina already managed to get into the points, and at the end of the World Championship, he won the final sixteenth place. In 1980 he signed for the Renault team to replace his compatriot Jean-Pierre Jabouille, and a year later he obtained his first triumph in the French circuit of Dijon. The following two seasons, 1982 and 1983, served to position in its own right among the greats of the pilot, but also earned him some reputation as a second, as both lost the opportunity to win the world title in the last race.
For the 1984 season, he returned to McLaren, where he had veteran Austrian champion Nikki Lauda as his teammate, whose regularity allowed him to precede Prost in the World Championship standings. Nevertheless, the Frenchman obtained seven partial triumphs, with which he endorsed his condition of great motoring star. The reward for his efforts for the world title came in 1985, the year in which he was proclaimed world champion for the first time after winning the victory in five major awards.
The 1985 season began a rivalry that would mark the future of Formula 1: that of the French driver with Ayrton Senna, a young Brazilian star who was beginning to emerge that season. Prost’s second world stunt came in 1986, after a bitter dispute with his rivals that was not resolved until the last race of the season, the Australian Grand Prix. In the following campaign, he could not revalidate the championship, which was to be in the hands of another of its great rivals, Nelson Piquet, although it did manage to beat the absolute record of victories that until then had Scotch Jackie Stewart, to obtain in the Great Prize Of Portugal his victory number 28.
In the face of the 1988 World Championship, McLaren boss Ron Dennis took on the services of Ayrton Senna, who was then a great sporting foe for Prost. The two best riders of the moment joined in the same team, which, coupled with the superiority of the Honda engine mounted by McLaren, resulted in an overwhelming dominance of the English team. That year the championship was for the Brazilian, who thus managed his first world title.
However, Prost took full revenge in 1989: the championship stayed the same until the last race, which was to be held at Suzuka’s Japanese circuit. Prost appeared on the Japanese track with a slight lead over Senna, who was ahead of the Frenchman to win the world title. However, an irregular maneuver made by the Brazilian caused the departure of both track and the disqualification of that one, which secured the championship for Prost, who decided at the end of that year to break with the tense situation generated by the coexistence with Senna in McLaren and signing for the Italian team Ferrari.
The title of 1990 was solved in the last race, with the same protagonists, and in a similar situation, although this time the outcome was the opposite since the exit of track of both benefited to Senna, that was crowned like a champion by a second time. During 1991 there were serious tensions within Ferrari, finally resolved with the departure of a Prost team that did not get to take part in the last Grand Prix of the season. After intense experiences, the Frenchman decided to take a sabbatical year and did not sign with any team to compete in the 1992 exercise.
His departure from the Grand Circus did not last long, as he attended Williams’ bid to compete in the final races of the season. His new team in 1993 faced the challenge of achieving his fourth championship, which would achieve after a tough fight with Damon Hill, his team’s second driver and son of legendary English rider Graham Hill. Prost won the British Grand Prix that same year his 50th victory in F1 (in 198 races), a figure never reached by another driver.
At the end of that same season decided to retire definitively, thus putting an end to one of the most fruitful races in the history of motorsport sport. His merits are evident in the square but stellar figures that his Formula 1 race has seen: 51 races won, 32 pole position (first place on the grid after training), 40 fast laps in race and 786.5 total points Achieved.
With his retirement, for many premature, Formula 1 lost one of its great protagonists and won forever a myth. His style, characterized by the coldness and precision of the course, the perfect control of the mechanics, and an extraordinary ability to avoid conflicting situations, contributed to foment the rivalry with Ayrton Senna, who represented a different conception of piloting, more spectacular and based on Intuition and risk, but also more prone to errors.
The confrontation between the two drivers frequently moved beyond the circuits, contributed to give dynamism and relevance to a show in need of new attractions, which reached its highest levels of popularity during the culminating moments of the Senna and Prost races. Despite the bitter controversy between them, Prost did not hesitate to pay a public tribute of admiration and respect to his eternal rival after his death in the accident during the celebration of the Grand Prix of San Marino, in the Dino Ferrari circuit of Imola.
His presence at the multitudinous posthumous ceremony held in São Paulo (Brazil), in which he accompanied Senna’s relatives at all times, further magnified the figure of one who is already considered one of the greatest glories of French and world sport. After his retirement, Alain Prost has continued to be related to the world of competition as technical advisor of several teams and television commentator. In 1996 he launched a new Formula 1 team after taking over the infrastructure of the missing Ligier team. He currently resides in the Swiss town of Yens along with his wife Anne Marie and their sons Nicolas and Sascha.
Discussion about this post