The three times Alain Prost “touched perfection”

That’s the thing about Prost. In a 13-season career that spanned 1980-’93 – long, especially in the context of the time – the great Frenchman was consistently a platinum-grade contender. Even in 1991, in a Ferrari team that was beginning to alarmingly lose its way, he finished on the podium five times. Prost’s powers never faded.

He made the point himself when I was lucky enough to meet and interview him. Among my questions, I asked: ‘when was ‘Peak Prost’? When was he at his best?’

He paused for a good ten seconds before answering. “I was at my peak when I decided to be,” he eventually replied. “I always, or at least most of the time, controlled what I was doing and pushed when I needed to push – and when I wanted to push. I never found myself saying ‘you are going down’. I never felt that.

“When I stopped in 1993,” as a newly-crowned four-time Champion after his single year at Williams, “I was still as good as I could be.”

That consistency is a major element as to why he sits comfortably among Formula 1’s greats. Dubbed famously ‘The Professor’, he was also a perfectionist. That’s why, when pushed, he admitted that even though he was nearly always on the pace, he could count only on one hand the occasions when, as he put it, he “touched perfection.”

“I did 199 races and there were maybe three or four,” he said. “But perfection for me is not about myself. It’s the combination of the work, the set-up and what I do with the car.”

That’s the essence of Alain Prost, right there: the appliance of science was always about the graft, so he could tap fully into his genius and undoubted natural speed. From there, it begged the question: which races specifically does he recall as those perfect days? He named three, and here they are.

1986 Monaco Grand Prix

This was an archetypal Prost Grand Prix victory. We recall Ayrton Senna’s greatest races for their all too obvious stand-out brilliance: walking on water for his first F1 victory at the 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix; the charging comeback through the field that won him his first World Title at Suzuka in 1988; that astonishing first lap at Donington in 1993. But Prost’s great victories were often more subtle. Monaco 1986 was not an exciting Grand Prix, not one to especially remember – at least to the rest of us.

In his McLaren MP4/2, with a TAG-badged Porsche turbo engine perfectly tuned for the point-and-squirt challenge of the race around the opulent houses, Prost found the set-up sweet spot. On pole position by a massive 0.4sec over Nigel Mansell’s Honda-powered Williams, he was in another league during the Grand Prix, as Motor Sport’s Denis Jenkinson reported.

“The anticipated charge into the first corner didn’t happen,” wrote Jenks. “Prost made a smooth and unruffled start and just drove away from the rest.

“Prost had demoralised them in qualifying and now it was all over, for nobody in his right mind expects Prost to make a driving error or the Porsche engine to break or the McLaren to fall apart… All looked pretty normal, except the pace of the race, which was as slow as Prost needed to complete his domination. He only lost the lead for a few laps, when he stopped for new tyres, and was back in front when it was Senna’s turn to stop, and that was it.”

Such was McLaren’s dominance, team-mate Keke Rosberg rose from ninth on the grid to make it a Dayglo-and-white 1-2. But the Finn was 25 seconds down on Prost at the flag, and Senna in the Lotus-Renault was third – 53 seconds in arrears. A driver, car and team in total harmony. That’s perfection, right there.

1986 Australian Grand Prix

One of the most dramatic Championship climaxes in F1’s 75 years is largely remembered for Mansell’s dramatic tyre blow-out when he had one hand on the title. Prost’s victory, which secured his second consecutive crown, is sometimes framed through the prism of luck. But there was so much more to it, which is why Prost holds the race in such high esteem among his 51 Grand Prix victories.

Across the season, the Williams-Hondas of Mansell and Nelson Piquet had the edge on McLaren, which is reflected in the former team’s Constructors’ Championship success. Yes, Mansell suffered a devastating stroke of bad luck when his left-rear Goodyear exploded on the Dequetteville Straight at 180mph on lap 64 of 82. But Prost carved out a remarkable victory against the odds, through typical guile and intelligence.

He'd only qualified fourth, outpowered by Mansell, Piquet and Senna. In a year when drivers had to carefully manage fuel, turbo runners restricted to 195 litres for a race, Prost started quietly, running fifth and happy to let the dust settle, with an eye firmly trained on what he’d have left at the finish.

As team-mate Rosberg scorched into the lead from seventh on the grid in his final Grand Prix, Prost also began to move, first past Senna, then Mansell, then Piquet. Nothing less than victory would do for Prost to become World Champion, and with Rosberg likely to fall on his sword for McLaren’s greater good, this looked promising. The trouble was Mansell only needed third to become Champion, and when Piquet spun he had what he needed.

It looked even better for Mansell on lap 32 when Prost slowed with a right-front puncture. The subsequent pitstop took 17 seconds as McLaren’s crew struggled to get a jack under the car and he rejoined seemingly out of contention. But now Prost set to work.

He’d later claim a pitstop had been the plan anyway. But the puncture had leaked the extra time that would have made the strategy work. Now there was nothing else for it. Forget fuel saving, Prost went on a charge, setting a series of record laps.

Then, on lap 63, Rosberg pulled out of the lead and out of his final race, thinking the noises he heard at the rear of his McLaren were engine related. The reality was a delaminating tyre – a forewarning of Mansell’s cruel fate a lap later. Williams, alarmed at the unexpected tyre failure, took the only responsible course of action by pitting Piquet for new Goodyears. Prost had the lead he needed to become Champion.

But four laps from the flag the McLaren’s pace dropped dramatically as Piquet loomed. As Prost told Nigel Roebuck, “From the half-way point, my fuel read-out had been telling me I was five litres the wrong side – that I wouldn’t make the finish unless I backed off. But of course I couldn’t do that, because I was so far behind, after my puncture, so I just had to hope that, for once, the computer was wrong.”

That’s how it turned out, but only just. Prost crossed the finish line with both arms aloft, just four seconds ahead of Piquet, then pulled over out of fuel. He’d won the Title by the smallest of margins, but it was Prost who’d made the crucial difference. That’s why he admits the 1986 crown is the one he cherishes the most out of his four.

1990 Mexican Grand Prix

The third race Prost chooses for perfection is, ironically, one of his most un-Prost-like victories. How he prevailed in Ferrari’s stunning 641 in the high altitude of Mexico City in 1990 wasn’t entirely out of character, but his charge through the field was the kind of drive more associated with Senna than the little Frenchman.

Yet even here, team-mate Mansell’s swoop around Gerhard Berger’s McLaren at the mighty Peraltada tends to steal the limelight. It really shouldn’t.

The weekend didn’t start well. Prost only qualified 13^th, his worst performance since his 1980 rookie season. He spun on his second run on Friday afternoon (F1 qualifying ran over two days back then), and struggled through Saturday complaining of a dire lack of grip.

What was typical was how he chose to focus on race set-up, accepting he wouldn’t qualify well, and approached Sunday in an optimistic state of mind. In fact, he’d felt good about this one even when things were going badly, as he told me in our interview.

“It started from the Friday,” Prost said. “I told my team after qualifying 13^th ‘I am going to win this race’. I don’t know what I bet, but I said ‘I am going to win – easy. If I don’t crash on the first lap.’ I knew.”

Prost was aided by both McLarens hitting trouble. Berger went too hard too early on his tyres and Senna, who led the opening stages, struggled with what turned out to be a slow puncture, his right-rear failing with nine laps to go. Still, Prost made a total of ten on-track passes on his way to victory, including his team-mate Mansell.

The latter’s late pass on Berger was special – but Prost was already long gone by then. He crossed the line 25 seconds ahead of his team-mate. Out of adversity, another perfect day.

The 2025 Festival of Speed takes place on 10^th-13^th July. Friday and Saturday tickets are now sold out, but Thursday and limited Sunday tickets are still available.

Images courtesy of Getty Images.