Prost, one of only three drivers to have won four world championships, is
resolute in his theory since the death of former nemesis Ayrton Senna at
Imola’s Tamborello curve in 1994, F1 circuits have become less lethal but
also less challenging. In his eyes Monaco, where crash barriers at the
swimming pool rush into the field of vision at 160mph, is a blessed dash of
colour in an increasingly monochrome landscape.
“When I first won here in 1986, it was the first time I truly felt communion
with the car,” he says.
“From the first lap to the last, it was like a dream. You can only have that
on a track like this.” Employing a subtle, calculating style to which Jenson
Button has often been identified as a direct heir, Prost found that
the greater the complexity he encountered at Monaco, the more he relished
the task.
“When you have many more parameters you need to fix, that’s what I like,” he
agrees, grinning.
“You also feel the danger in Monaco. The start always used to be a very tense
moment. Going up towards the casino, it was a worry if you were in the
middle of the pack. I remember the tunnel, too, when it didn’t even have the
lights inside. Nowadays you have nothing to compare to the old Monza or
Silverstone, where you knew if you made a mistake you could have a major
problem.
“I love the atmosphere of Monaco most of all, but it is also a much more
difficult race to approach. The driving is far more complicated.”
That perfectly suited a man renowned for his consummate slickness behind the
wheel, whose Monte Carlo duels with Senna all but defined the sport in the
late Eighties. Prost claims not to think first of his Brazilian bête noire
when he is here – “I save that for Suzuka,” he mutters, reliving their
infamous first-corner shunt there in 1990 – but he remains profoundly
dismayed by his depiction in Asif Kapadia’s 2010 film, Senna.
Having given 10 hours of material to the director, all about his little-known
reconciliation with Senna after his retirement in 1993, Prost was
incredulous to see this theme all but excised from the final cut.
“I am still very disappointed,” he admits. “I said what I wanted, I think with
dignity, but there are many things missing from the film. They changed a
major part of our relationship, after I retired. They could have had a
fantastic human story, but they chose to go commercial instead.
“There’s no way I would make a film myself to tell the truth, I’m not like
this. But I told them only I knew the full story. You know when Ayrton seems
to be saying to the camera, ‘Alain, we miss you’. That was fake, all
arranged. You cannot caution against these things.”
As one half of motorsport’s most engrossing human drama of modern times, Prost
casts his eye across this year’s grid and laments the paucity of personality
on display.
Remembering the ferocity of his rivalry not only with Senna but Nigel Mansell
and Nelson Piquet, too, and how sharply it contrasts with today’s sanitised
PR cocoon, he says: “It’s very difficult to understand this. These drivers
start very young, and their personalities were maybe not as mature as ours
were.
“There was more solidarity, more respect between us then. Even if it is
sometimes tougher now, it’s not the same. The human side is different.”
Who, then, does he consider the finest driver of the 2013 vintage? Prost is
drawn, understandably, towards Sebastian
Vettel, who stands to emulate him as a quadruple champion at the
tender of age of 26, but cites Lewis
Hamilton as a case for not inflating expectations.
“Sebastian has won three in a row already, which is exceptional. If you
remember when Lewis won his first championship, everybody said he would win
seven or eight. We are still waiting [for his second].”
As for the tyre debate anguishing F1 this season, Prost is wonderfully
dismissive. “We had to think much more about saving the fuel, the tyres, the
gearbox, the brakes,” he stresses.
“When I test-drove a Red Bull recently I was very surprised because, while it
didn’t look that different to what I knew, everything was working closer to
the point of perfection.”
Prost recognises that greatness is not gauged purely in terms of titles.
Indeed, the tally of Monaco victories can serve as an equally reliable
barometer, when one considers the Frenchman’s four versus Senna; indeed, in
the 10 years from 1984 to 1993, only their two names were inscribed upon the
most coveted Monégasque trophy.
“The good drivers always won here,” he says, trying to affect a modest smile.
“The only exception was Jim Clark.”
So precious are Monaco wins to a driver’s sense of self-worth that Prost
remains troubled by the memory of 1993, when he was given a stop-go penalty
for a jump start. “I thought that the victory had been stolen from me, and I
really felt it here,” he acknowledges, pointing to his heart.
“I was never able to accept it. One more win in Monaco is important. It’s like
a championship in itself.”