Prost won 51 GPs and four world championships — it could easily have been seven — and like Fangio, he was a genius at conserving his car in favour of a late-race assault.
More ruthless and cunning than you might think, you still sense that he would have been happier without all the drama. He loved Prost.
We know the story, but its impact never diminishes in the telling. Having crashed during the German GP, Lauda suffered terrible third degree burns to his head and face, and damaged his lungs so severely that a priest read him the last rites by his hospital bed.
So began one of the greatest comebacks in all of sport. Not only did Lauda defy the odds to survive, he was back in the cockpit of his Ferrari just six weeks later for the Italian Grand Prix. He finished a remarkable fourth place, although his wounds were still so raw that he had to peel his blood-soaked balaclava off in one agonising movement. Every year, someone was killed," he told me in When I finally had my accident, I was not surprised.
So I never moaned or bitched with myself. Why does my head hurt? Then there was a simple question: is the pleasure of driving still strong, or do I want to retire? As I got going again, the fitness came back, I went running while listening to some good music, and I thought: do I retire for good, or do I fight fear, fight the accident and go for it?
A star driver, then, but also a genuine hero. A double world champion and winner of 32 GPs, who could have won, oh, maybe five titles, if only the dice had fallen more favourably — and Alonso had chosen for whom he raced and when a little more astutely. He became arguably only the third driver — after Niki Lauda and Michael Schumacher — to exert sufficient force of personality over Scuderia Ferrari to build the team convincingly around himself when he joined them in Ferrari needs a lead driver they can look up to, someone they respect.
The Italians need that kind of figure. Prost won more races but also suffered misfortune and Lauda pipped him to the crown by half a point at the Estoril finale.
Niki Lauda: Race of My Life. There was still time for one more great drive from Lauda before he retired, pipping Prost by 0. Nigel Mansell was the incumbent but two-time world champion Nelson Piquet joined Williams for expecting to be number one. The duel was close. The Williams-Honda was again the best package in and, after Piquet suffered a serious crash at Imola, Mansell was largely on top.
He won six times and led more than twice as many laps as anyone else but was denied possible victories in Monaco, Germany and Hungary. Piquet picked up the pieces and kept scoring consistently.
Top Williams F1 cars. Top Williams F1 drivers. But this also became the most toxic pairing on this list. After some initial skirmishes in , the drivers truly fell out when Prost believed Senna reneged on a deal not to overtake into Tosa at the start of the San Marino GP. They could no longer work together and, despite the efforts of McLaren boss Ron Dennis, it became clear the combination would not stay together. Prost had already announced his intention to leave for Ferrari by the time the duo infamously crashed at the Suzuka chicane, the fallout of which confirmed Prost as champion.
This could have been similar to the Fangio-Moss pairing, only times had changed and precocious rookie Lewis Hamilton had no intention of simply following reigning double world champion Fernando Alonso.
Right from the start, Hamilton made his intentions known, diving around the outside of Alonso at the first corner of the season-opening Australian GP. There was then team orders tension at Monaco, where Alonso won, and the duo battled hard but fair at the United States GP, which Hamilton won.
Both tried to hinder the other during Hungarian GP qualifying, with Alonso getting a five-place grid penalty and losing pole. Really the problem was that Alonso and Hamilton, both of whom made mistakes during the year, continuously took points off each other.
They ended the year on points and four wins apiece. So, despite having two of the best drivers in F1 history, McLaren came away with nothing — and Alonso left to rejoin Renault. Top McLaren F1 cars. This was a more harmonious relationship than the other recent entries on this list, largely thanks to Jenson Button.
The Spaniard joked prior to the start that he hoped to be leading by Turn 1, and while that was not the case, he was soon up to P2 after picking off the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly. Challenged by Sergio Perez for third place, the Mexican driver on much fresher tyres in the closing stages as his second set of Pirellis saw him lapping a second quicker than Alonso who was on a one-stop strategy, Alonso held onto finish on the podium. Team work, El Plan, everything!
QatarGP pic. He was joined on the podium by title rivals Hamilton and Verstappen, but according to Prost it was the year-old who shone brightest of all.
He picked up four podiums, including a second-place finish at Monza. Discussing his own progression through his third F1 season in , McLaren driver Norris said that the step he made in his second year in was perhaps less obvious because of how well Sainz was performing. It also didn't make me look as good, because he's an extremely good driver, and he did a very good job - like, fair play to him. I think this year I've taken that next step which would have been the same or maybe a bit better than him.
Norris put his own progression down to "a combination of understanding everything from the past few years", as well as an improved car that he felt more confident driving to its limit.
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