Alain Prost

Alain Marie Pascal Prost (born 24 February 1955) is a French retired racing driver and Formula One team owner.

In 1974, he left school to become a full-time racer, supporting himself by tuning engines and becoming a kart distributor.

His prize for winning the 1975 French senior karting championship was a season in French Formula Renault, a category in which he won the title and all but one race in 1976.

Prost went on to win the 1977 Formula Renault European championship before moving up to Formula Three (F3) in 1978.

In 1979, he won both the French and European F3 championships, by which time he was on the shopping lists of several Formula One teams.

After carefully considering his options, he chose to sign with McLaren for.

He surprised the British team by declining their offer of a race drive in a third car at the final race of the 1979 season at Watkins Glen — reasoning that the token effort would benefit neither him nor the team.

Prost felt that it would be a mistake to race in Formula One without being fully prepared: "..in the end I said, 'No' to Marlboro. I asked them to understand that I didn't want to make a mistake; I didn't know Watkins Glen and I didn't know the car. I said I thought it would be a better idea to organise a test."

He progressed through motor sport's junior ranks, winning the French and European Formula Three championships, before joining the McLaren Formula One team in 1980 at the age of 24.

He finished in the points on his Formula One debut – at the San Martín Autodrome in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he took his first podium a year later – and took his first race victory a year later at his home Grand Prix in France, driving for the factory Renault team.

During the 1980s and early 1990s Prost formed a fierce sporting rivalry, mainly with Ayrton Senna but also Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell.

Prost began his career with McLaren (being run by Teddy Mayer) in 1980 alongside Ulsterman John Watson.

On his debut in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he finished in sixth place, earning one point, something achieved by only a handful of drivers.

Prost added four more points to his tally during the season, scoring points at Interlagos, Brands Hatch and Zandvoort.

In 1986, at Adelaide in the last race of the season, he beat Mansell and Piquet of Williams to the title, after Mansell retired late in the race and Piquet was pulled in for a late precautionary pit stop.

Prost had one younger brother called Daniel, who died of cancer in September 1986.

Prost was an active and athletic child, who enthusiastically took part in diverse sports, including wrestling, roller skating and football.

In doing so he broke his nose several times.

He considered careers as a gym instructor or a professional footballer before he discovered kart racing at the age of 14 while on a family holiday.

This new sport quickly became his career of choice.

Prost won several karting championships in his teens.

A four-time Formula One World Drivers' Champion, from 1987 until 2001 he held the record for most Grand Prix victories until Michael Schumacher surpassed Prost's total of 51 victories at the 2001 Belgian Grand Prix.

Prost discovered karting at the age of 14 during a family holiday.

Senna joined Prost at McLaren in 1988 and the two had a series of controversial clashes, including a collision at the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix that gave Prost his third Drivers' Championship.

A year later at the same venue they collided again, but this time Prost, driving for Ferrari, lost out.

Before the end of a winless 1991 season Prost was fired by Ferrari for his public criticism of the team.

After a sabbatical in 1992, he joined the Williams team, prompting Mansell, the reigning Drivers' Champion, to leave for CART.

With a competitive car, Prost won the 1993 championship and retired from Formula One driving at the end of the year.

In 1997, Prost took over the French Ligier team, running it as Prost Grand Prix until it went bankrupt in 2002.

From 2003 to 2012 he competed in the Andros Trophy, an ice racing championship, taking 38 race victories and winning the championship three times.

Prost employed a smooth, relaxed style behind the wheel, deliberately modelling himself on personal heroes like Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark.

He was nicknamed "The Professor" for his intellectual approach to competition.

Though it was not a name he particularly cared for, he would admit later that it was an appropriate summation of his approach to his racing.

Skilled at setting up his car for race conditions, Prost would often conserve his brakes and tyres early in a race, leaving them fresher for a challenge at the end.

Alain Prost was born in the commune of Lorette near the town of Saint-Chamond, in the département of Loire close to Saint-Étienne, France to André Prost and Marie-Rose Karatchian, born in France of Armenian descent.

Prost finished the year 15th in the Drivers' Championship, equalling points with former world champion Emerson Fittipaldi.

Despite the encouraging debut season, Prost had several accidents, breaking his wrist during practice at Kyalami and suffering a concussion during practice at Watkins Glen.

He also retired from the previous round in Montreal a week earlier because of rear suspension failure.

At the end of the season, despite having two years remaining on his contract, he left McLaren and signed with Renault.

Prost has said that he left because of the large number of breakages on the car and because he felt the team blamed him for some of the accidents.