Tag: Alain Prost

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Formula 1 McLaren

McLaren dares to praise Alain Prost

Alain Prost, 1985

As custodians of The greatest F1 rivalry of all timeâ„¢ McLaren is in the unique position of having the luxury of curating the legacies of not one, but two of its most iconic drivers. For reasons too controverisal to dissect now Ayrton Senna is the beneficiary of “the good guy” status, which unwittingly leaves his adversary Alain Prost to play the role of “the bad guy”.

Over the years, then, for fear of reminding people that Prost won four world titles to Senna’s three, as just one example, Prost’s name is usually in the shadows to Senna’s spotlight. If you didn’t live through the 1980s and early 1990s you could be forgiven for thinking Prost drove for anyone but McLaren, such is the team’s willingness to remind everyone of Senna’s legacy in McLaren’s red and white livery.

So for this unabashed Prost fanboi I was impressed to see that McLaren can and has pumped up Alain’s tyres. Follow the link below to read the nine reasons you should dig Alain.

Of course you only need one: Prost is the greatest!

[Source: McLaren]

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McLaren

MSO reveals Prost-inspired McLaren P1

McLaren P1 Prost

We’re going to start this post with a little rant. Such is the aura and legend of “the great” Ayrton Senna that you could be forgiven for not knowing that a little bloke by the name of Alain Prost won three of his four world championships with McLaren.

“Oh did Allan Prost drive for McLaren too? I thought only Senna did,” quips some kid who never saw either of them race.

For me, a proud fan of The Professor, the lack of wider recognition given to Prost’s achievements at McLaren has always sat uneasily in the shadow of the perennially increasing legend of Ayrton Senna.

So to see that McLaren Special Operations has prepared a one-off P1 “Prost” for this weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed is both a surprise and very welcome. Hitherto you could be excused for thinking McLaren was willing to airbrush Prost’s steady tricolour helmet design from the history books in favour of the flash of Senna’s brash yellow.

Thankfully, though, we now see before us an incredible P1 inspired by Prost’s racing colours and we couldn’t be happier to see it. Thank you McLaren, thank you.

There’s more photos of the P1 Prost after the break and click here for more on McLaren’s Flat out and fearless campaign.

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Formula 1 McLaren

Tooned 50: Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna

Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna

The Alain Prost–Ayrton Senna rivalry is perhaps the most intense intra-team stoush Formula 1 has ever seen. After Ron Dennis put his money on Senna when the inevitable split came, McLaren’s Tooned animated series starts by bestowing more credit than you might imagine on the four-time world champion.

So it was always going to be interesting to see how this light-hearted look back at McLaren’s history was going to handle Ayrton Senna. It’s all pretty harmless really, but in attempting to delicately tiptoe around the Prost rivalry it seemed they forgot to properly respect Senna’s own immense on track achievements.

For the trivia buffs Bruno Senna provided the voice for the role of his uncle.

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Formula 1 McLaren

Alain Prost F1 image archive

Alain Prost

Motorsport Retro brings us another update from the Cahier Archive, this time featuring four-time world champion (and AUSmotive favourite) Alain Prost.

Cast your mind back to the 1988 Formula One season. That was the year McLaren won 15 out of the 16 races, obliging a home win for Ferrari at Monza. Under today’s scoring regime, where the driver with the most points from all races wins, Prost would have pipped Senna by 11 points.

While Senna won eight races to Prost’s seven, the little Frenchman retired twice and in the remaining 14 races finished no worse than second. That’s right, no worse than second. An amazing display of consistency by ‘The Professor’. History tells us that only the best 11 races counted towards the championship in that era and hence Senna won the title by three points.

We wonder how history would reflect the often hostile Prost–Senna rivalry and the standings of both men if it was five world championships to two?

[Source: Motorsport Retro | Pic: Cahier Archive]