London, Nov 13: Alain Prost had one of the best F1 track record, alongside legends such as Juan Manuel Fangio and Ayrton Senna. But all these great names were left behind by Michael Schumacher, who has today the most impressive F1 statistics ever: 70 Grand Prix victories and six world championship titles.
What bothers Alain Prost is that people try to compare Michael's career results with his own. "What annoys me most is the way certain drivers sign number one contracts leaving the number two with nothing to do but lick their boots," said Prost to The Sun. "There is no natural, internal rivalry. Michael is an exceptional driver but the circumstances have worked very much in his favour. He has never been up against really sharp opposition either in his own team or outside."
During his F1 career, Michael Schumacher had to deal with teammates such as Piquet (only for a few races at Benetton), Brundle, Letho, Verstappen, Herbert, Irvine and Barrichello while Prost was confronted in his team with drivers such as John Watson, Rene Arnoux, Niki Lauda, Keke Rosberg, Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, Jean Alesi and Damon Hill.
Alain Prost doesn't agree with Ferrari's policy of winning at any price. For example, Prost was appalled by the very slow start of Barrichello at Indianapolis. According to the four-time world champion, this slow start was a voluntary manoeuvre to help Schumacher, who was only starting from seventh position on the grid.
However, Prost also admits that Ferrari would not have won as many races or titles if they had shared their efforts equally between their two drivers. Prost probably remembers his own stormy collaboration with Ayrton Senna at McLaren and most particularly the one that he had with Nigel Mansell at Ferrari in 1990. Alain Prost believed that Nigel Mansell was partly responsible for his unsuccessful battle against Ayrton Senna for the title that year.


Bureau Report