Four-time Formula 1 World Champion Alain Prost has made a bold claim regarding how he is perceived, saying that he is “completely underrated” compared to other drivers.
Prost won successive championships for McLaren in 1985 and ’86 and secured more success with the Woking squad in 1989, before adding a fourth title with Williams in 1993.
His Williams run came after a year-long sabbatical in 1992 and ’93 would be his last season before retirement, when long-time rival Ayrton Senna replaced him in the team.
Dubbed ‘The Professor’ due to his calculated approach to race management, Prost ranks joint fourth all-time for F1 titles and fifth for Grand Prix victories (51).
However, he believes unfavourable comparisons to Senna have clouded people’s overall thoughts on his career.
“I do ask myself sometimes how I am going to be remembered,” Prost told MotorSport Magazine.
“It sounds like a joke but I’m completely underrated! I know that. I can see. I don’t know why, but it’s my brand in a way.
“It looks like it stays that way for ever, it is part of the history.
“Look at my other teammates, [John] Watson, [Rene] Arnoux, [Eddie] Cheever, Niki, Keke, Stefan [Johansson], Nigel [Mansell], Jean [Alesi] and Damon [Hill].
“Nobody talks about them. I had five world champions as team-mates, so it is a bit of a shame.
“But it is the way it is. Today you have social media and everybody is coming back to videos of our fights. S
“Sometimes I don’t understand. My career was not only two or three years.”
Senna and Prost were team-mates in 1988 and ’89, with the Brazilian coming out on top to win the championship in their debut season partnered together at McLaren.
Prost emerged victorious following a controversial Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka a year later, but he would more than likely have sealed the title in the season finale at Adelaide.
The Frenchman left the difficult atmosphere at McLaren for Ferrari in 1990 and lost the title after Senna controversially took both drivers out of the running at Suzuka.
Prost admits that throughout their time as team-mates Senna held the upper hand in qualifying, but is adamant that in race conditions this was not the case.
“When he impressed me I must say it was in qualifying sometimes, I don’t remember when exactly,” he added.
“Never in race conditions. Never. In race conditions, in the warm-up, most of the time I was quicker.”
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