2011 Australian Grand Prix – Race

The curtain-opener to the 2011 Formula One World Championship finally got underway early this morning. The testing, speculation and hype was put to one side as the Class of 2011 went head to head in Melbourne’s Albert Park.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel dominated the race throughout, and took the win from McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, the surprise package of the day being Lotus Renault’s Vitaly Petrov, who commendably finished in third place.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day though was Christian Horner’s revelation that neither of the Red Bull’s had been running KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) for the entire weekend. “We felt Kers was a potential risk, and we made a decision not to run it. It didn’t look like we needed it.” And he was right, Vettel had built a lead of 2.6 seconds over Hamilton by the end of the first lap, and Hamilton WAS running KERS.

Hamilton was able to match Vettel’s pace for a period however, the McLaren driver was also better on his tyres than Vettel, who was heard on the radio to be complaining of a loss of grip on several occasions. Both drivers ran two-stop strategies in a race where the hype was that as many as four stops could be expected from the front-runners.

Lotus-Renault’s Vitaly Petrov had an astounding start to the race, he was the beneficiary of Jenson Button in the other McLaren hanging out Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso into turn one at the start of the lap. Vettel’s teammate Mark Webber, driving in his home Grand Prix, had managed to maintain third off the grid, but he was first to blink and change tyres, Petrov then moved into third and maintained that to the finish.

“I’m very happy to be alongside Sebastian and Lewis on the podium, but from first practice the car has looked very strong, we focused on the race, and the team did everything perfectly,” said Petrov.

With the race developing, Jenson Button was having a battle of his very own with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. He was heard over the radio asking “How’s he getting away from me?”, despite Button using the new DRS (Drag Reduction System). But the nightmares did not end there, in trying to pass Massa, Button had used a run-off area and was adjudged to have gained an advantage, a move that was penalised by a drive-through penalty.

After emerging from the pit-lane in twelfth, Button drove well and managed to bring his MP4-26 home in sixth. The McLaren team will be happy that the hard work they had put in back at the MTC in Woking has paid off. It was abundantly clear that the MP4-26 was not all that had been expected of it, testing showed it was way off the pace, but the updates they bought to Melbourne, a new floor and exhaust system, seemed to have done the trick.

There were losers in the race too. Michael Schumacher suffered a puncture at the start, and was eventually retired from the race as a precaution. His teammate Nico Rosberg had a coming together with Rubens Barrichello, for which Barrichello was punished with a drive through penalty. Unfortunately for Rosberg, it proved fatal and neither Mercedes finished. For me, Barrichello had a terrible weekend, spinning out of control during Qualifying, and driving terribly during the race, to me, someone who has driven in 307 Grands Prix, should know better.

Sauber were the other talking point of the day. Having only made one stop throughout the race, Sergio Perez managed to raise a few eyebrows. However, it was shortlived. Scrutineering highlighted some technical infringements with both Sauber cars, unfortunately they were stripped of seventh and eighth places, which promoted Felipe Massa into seventh, Adrian Sutil in to eighth, Sebastian Buemi into ninth and debutant Paul di Resta into tenth and a final points paying position.

With Perez and Kobayashi disqualified, Timo Glock not classified, Barichello, Rossberg, Kovalainen, Schumacher and Maldonado made up the long list of retirees from todays race. Next stop Sepang in Malaysia.

2011 Season Preview – Part One

With a week to go before the long awaited curtain opener to the 2011 season in Melbourne, this article takes a look at the title contenders, runners and riders, and their prospects for the season.

Red Bull – 1 Sebastian Vettel – 2 Mark Webber

The Milton Keynes outfit have invested heavily in development of the car since Dietrich Mateschitz bought the old Jaguar team in 2004. Mateschitz made it abundantly clear last season that he expected repayment in the form of a World Championship. Despite making things as difficult for themselves as possible, they not only delivered the Constructors’ Championship secured in Brazil, but doubled up with Sebastian Vettel securing the Drivers’ Championship in Abu Dhabi.

But can they do it again? Well, little can be taken from Winter Testing, granted, however the new RB7 looks to be quick in both Qualifying and Race trim. Add in a dose of reliability, and the Adrian Newey designed RB7 may just have the elements required to retain one or both titles. [As much as it pains me to say]

McLaren – 3 Lewis Hamilton – 4 Jenson Button

Taking the unusual decision to leave the launch of the MP4-26 until as late as possible, seems to have not been the ideal decision for the team. Aesthetically, the car looks great, but both Lewis and Jenson have hinted that the set-up still isn’t quite there. Added to this, the MP4-26 only covered about half the testing mileage of its competitors Ferrari and Red Bull. Problems with the Woking outfit? I for one certainly hope not.

More positively however, after an upgrade was put on the car before the final Barcelona test, Button reported that the balance was better, whilst Hamilton alluded to the fact that they just haven’t been able to ‘put all the factors together at once’. If this were a pre-season School Report, the verdict surely would be ‘must try harder’.

Ferrari – 5 Fernando Alonso – 6 Felipe Massa

The launch of the new Scuderia contender this year was overshadowed by a legal battle with the Ford Motor Company, after initially choosing to call their car the F150. This was retracted after a threatening letter was sent to Ferrari, and they have decided to change the name to the F150 Italia.

After the embarrassment of throwing away their championship hopes in Abu Dhabi last year, the F150 Italia looks to be a competitive machine, and if anything CAN be taken from pre-season testing, which of course it can’t, it does look like it may just give the Red Bull a run for its money.

Mercedes GP – 7 Michael Schumacher – 8 Nico Rosberg

Having lacked any of the performance of its predecessor, the then Brawn GP, Mercedes really disappointed last season. Michael Schumacher emerged from retirement hoping to make an impact again on the world of Formula One, this he did, but unfortunately in the negative sense.

The team has now been bought in its entirety from the former Brawn principals, and early indications during pre-season tests show the car running pretty quick in short runs. Quite how that transfers once in race trim remains to be seen. Whilst Schumacher doubts the car will be in a position to challenege for the world championship, he believes podiums are a definite possibility. Meanwhile, the spotlight surely must be on Rosberg to prove that his outperformance of Schumacher last season was more than just a chance occurence.

Renault – 9 Nick Heidfeld – 10 Vitaly Petrov

With Robert Kubica’s horrendous crash during a Rally excursion in the off-season, it is unlikely he will return to Formula One in the foreseeable future. His replacement, Nick Heidfeld seems to be a safe bet for the Renault team. Whilst he has performed well since his debut in 2000, scoring a couple of podiums, he has yet to win a race. This means that, of the current drivers on the grid, he has the most GP starts of all, without getting stand on the top step of the podium.

His teammate, Vitaly Petrov had a checkered first season in Formula One. His debut race in Bahrain ended prematurely after his right-front suspension was damaged, attributed to him hitting a kerb too hard. He scored his first points in China, finishing seventh. But in Turkey he collided with Alonso and suffered a puncture, only managing to finish fifteenth. His crashes continued, a first session crash in qualifying in Belgium was followed by a collision with Nico Hulkenberg in Japan, and once again he crashed in Korea. However, the highlight of his season surely must have been at Abu Dhabi, when he finished ahead of both Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso, thus ensuring that Alonso would not win the championship.

It remains to be seen whether Petrov will lose his habit of crashing this season, and whether the pairing with Heidfeld will work, and with testing being inconclusive in Renault’s case, it seems difficult to quantify at this stage, but expect Renault to challenge for points and possibly podiums.

Look out for another post in the next couple of days that will look at the remaining teams, the fortunes of the midfielders, and a look at the new teams battling it out in their own mini-championship.

2011 Season Regulation Changes

The 2011 Formula One Season sees a raft of changes in regulations, allegedly designed to increase the enjoyment of the sport to its worldwide audience. With the tyre changes being covered in a previous post, which can be found here, the remaining changes will be detailed in this post.

F-Ducts and Double Diffusers

We start with a look at those devices that have been prohibited this season. The somewhat controversial F-Duct that was introuced successfully by McLaren last season has been ruled out this year. The official line is that any device or procedure that uses driver movement as a means of altering the aerodynamic characteristics of the car is prohibited. Tightening of the regulations on stepped floors means double diffusers in their original sense are also banned.

Team Curfew

Carrying on the prohibition theme, teams will no longer be allowed to have personnel working through the night on the cars. A curfew has been introduced at all circuits, which is designed to put an end to long working hours for garage crew, mechanics etc. Where a practice is scheduled to begin at 10am, teams will not be allowed into the circuit between midnight and 6am. When a practice starts at 11am, teams will not be allowed into the circuit between 1am and 7am.

Adjustable Rear Wings

Under new moveable bodywork regulations, drivers can adjust the rear wing from the cockpit, altering its angle of incidence through a set range. The system’s availability is electronically governed – it can be used at any time in practice and qualifying, but during the race can only be activated when a driver is less than one second behind another car at pre-determined points on the track. The system is then deactivated once the driver brakes. In combination with KERS, it is designed to boost overtaking. Also like KERS, it isn’t compulsory.

KERS

This technology caused problems for some teams during its debut season in 2009, but others, namely the big teams, used it to good effect. Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems have been given a reprieve for the 2011 season, teams had agreed to a suspension of its use in 2010. KERS takes waste energy generated under braking and converts it to additional power. Drivers then have the ability to use that additional power, in limited quantities per lap, by operating what is effectively a ‘boost button’.

Whilst the technology is nothing new to those teams that have used it before, the challenge for designers and mechanics this time round will be how to fit it into the car. Remember in 2009, when KERS was last run, refueling was still allowed. With it being outlawed from the beginning of 2010, engineers will now need to contend with larger fuel tanks, so bodywork is likely to have increased in size. In a move to accomodate teams using KERS, minimum car weight has been increased by 20kg to 640kg.

Gearboxes

With Bernie Ecclestone obsessed by bringing down team’s operating costs, again he has moved to clamp down on this by increasing the necessity of a gearbox to last five races in 2011, instead of the previous four. Every unscheduled gearbox change will result in the driver having to drop five places on the grid at that meeting. Subsequent unscheduled gearbox changes will also incur a five place grid penalty.

Wheel Tethers

With several stray wheels over the course of the 2010 season, teams are now required to place a second tether on each wheel, in the hope that incidents such as those involving Buemi and Liuzzi last season at China and Germany respectively are avoided completely.

107% Qualifying Rule

Controversially, this rule has been re-introduced for the coming season. It is certain to put some pressure on those towards the wrong end of the grid in terms of performance. The rule states that, if a driver fails to complete a timed lap within 107% of the fastest recorded lap during Q1, he shall not be allowed to start the race. There are, however exceptional circumstances where stewards may permit the car to start, if for example the driver had set a suitable time during Practice.

Penalties

Stewards will now have the power to impose penalties for driving and other rule infringements, this could include time penalties, the right to exclude drivers from race results or even suspend them from subsequent races.

Those are the main changes to regulations for the 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship, I hope you enjoy the season as much as I know I’m going to!

2011 Tyre Changes in Formula One

With the 2011 Formula One season looming on the horizon, I thought it a good idea to write about the changes in Regulation, the first of which will look at Pirelli’s announcement regarding its tyre compounds.

The beginning of the 2011 season sees the transition in sole tyre supply from the Japanese Bridgestone, who decided to move away from Formula One after 14 years at the end of 2010, to the Italian manufacturer Pirelli, with their P-Zero tyres. Pirelli have a pedigree within Formula One, and have served as tyre suppliers to the sport in 1950-58, 1981-86, and again in 1989-91.

Much speculation has been bandied around in the press of late with regard to the durability of the new tyres; whether or not, when negotiating the contract, Herr Ecclestone had insisted that Pirelli manufacture the tyres in such a way that the two different ‘Dry’ compounds were as far apart in terms of performance and durability as was possible.

Little ‘concrete’ information can be taken from the recent rounds of testing, but one thing is becoming increasingly apparent, that there is likely to be  more pitstops this season. Does that make for a more exciting season? We shall have to wait and see.

In a move to distinguish the type of tyre being used to the viewing public, Pirelli have announced they will be using different coloured logos on each of the compounds walls.  For Dry weather tyres, the logo on the Hard Tyre will be silver, the Medium compound will be white, Soft compounds will carry yellow logos, and the Super-Soft will be red. The Wet tyres meanwhile will carry orange logos on the Full Wet, the Intermediate tyres will cary light blue logos.

Announcing the initiative, Pirelli’s Motorport Director Paul Hembrey said: “These will enable both live and television audiences to tell at a glance who is on what compounds, which will be vital knowledge as tyres are set to form a key part of race strategy this year.”

This may well be the case. The standard during the 2011 season was a one-stop strategy, however teams are estimating that this will increase to at least three stops this season, so those drivers and or cars that can look after their tyres better, look to be at a distinct advantage, even without a wheel yet being turned in anger.

Changes to the 2011 rules (more of which to come later in a later post), mean tyre allocation has been reduced from 14 sets of dry weather tyres per driver, per race weekend, to just 11.  Drivers will be allocated three sets (two prime, one option) to use in P1 and P2, a set of which much be returned at the end of each session. Eight further sets will be available to each driver for the remainder of the weekend.

To make things further complicated, the FIA have decreed that there must be a two-compound gap between the available types of dry weather tyre at each race, which basically means that there is no chance that the white and silver coloured logos will confuse viewers, as the hard and medium tyres will never be used in the same weekend.

Again, following on from recent times, each driver must use both types of dry weather tyre during a race, and where a race is declared as wet, they will have a free choice.

Pirelli have already allocated the compounds that will be taken to the first three races of the season; so Australia, Malaysia and China will see the hard and soft compounds, the hard designated as ‘Prime’ and the soft the ‘Option’ tyre.

A Christmas Message from The Vanquish

After seeing out my first F1 Season as a blogger, I wanted to wish all of my readers, old and new, a very happy Christmas and a prosperous 2011.

It has been a busy year for me personally this year, after taking on a new job, and I haven’t always been able to write as much as I wanted, especially after each race.

I have plans for a couple of my Grand Prix Legends pieces over Christmas, I’ll let you know what to expect, and when via Twitter (twitter.com/TheVanquish), or why not subscribe to receive notifications by email?

So this message is a personal thank you from me for your support and patience during the year. I promise I will try and write more next season!

The Vanquish

Grand Prix Legends – James Hunt

James Simon Wallis Hunt was born on 29th August 1947, the son of a very successful Stockbroker. Educated to a high level, Hunt was originally due to study as a Doctor. However, a friend took him to see a motor race on his 18th Birthday, and there the obsession began.

Starting off racing Mini’s, Hunt progressed through the ranks to Formula 3, where he was noticed for his agressive driving style by Lord Hesketh, who later recruited him to his own Formula 3 team. Hesketh Racing however, were no ordinary team, their objective was simply to have ‘as much fun as possible’.

Despite his reputation, ‘Hunt the Shunt’ as he was affectionately known, mainly for his penchant for writing off cars, made his debut in Formula One at the 1973 Monaco Grand Prix. However, both Hunt himself, and the Hesketh team were not taken seriously by their rivals, mainly due to their Playboy lifestyle. The team would all arrive at races in Rolls Royces, stay in Five Star hotels wherever they went, and drink copius amounts of champagne.

Hunt was running 6th in his debut race at Monaco, before having to retire due to engine failure. The rest of that season remained unsuccessful for both Hunt and the team, their first success not materialising until a non-championship BRDC International Trophy race at Silverstone, where the majority of the F1 field were represented.

It was in 1975 that Hunt secured his first Formula One win, at the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. A smattering of points finishes throughout the season saw Hunt finish fourth in the Championship. Sadly, it seems that two seasons of opulent flamboyancy by Hunt, Hesketh and the team, had stretched the budget sufficiently, forcing Lord Hesketh to call an end to his involvement in Formula One, after failing to find a sponsor for his team.

Hunt was without a seat in Formula One in the build up to the 1976 season, until Emerson Fittipaldi decided to leave McLaren. With no other top drivers available, McLaren conceeded that Hunt was ‘their best option’, and signed him to the team.

It proved to be a shrewd move on the Woking based team’s part, Hunt took the McLaren M23 to six Grands Prix victories that season, but it was a season frought with problems. Hunt won the 1976 Spanish Grand Prix, but was disqualified due to a car that was 1.8cm too wide, a decision that was later overturned.

Hunt was once again steeped in contoversy at the British Grand Prix in the same season, being disqualified from winning the race after an accident in the first corner which was attributed to him. Once again, Hunt suffered at the Italian Grand Prix, following a problem with octane levels in the fuel, Hunt was forced to start from the rear of the grid.

The season progressed to the Nurburgring for the German Grand Prix, another race, unfortunately, where there was controversy and incident. Niki Lauda suffered a horrendous crash, his Ferrari 312T2 snapped to the right, spun through the fence into an earth mound, rebounding out onto the track. Sadly, two drivers were unable to avoid the flame engulfed Ferrari, Harald Ertl and Brett Lunger both collided with Lauda’s stricken car. Joined by Merzario, who had stopped after seeing the wreck, the three drivers fought to get Lauda out of the flaming car.

Lauda had suffered serious burns, and was left fighting for his life in a German specialist burns unit; meanwhile after a restart, Hunt secured victory at the Nurburgring, closing the lead Lauda had developed in the Drivers’ Championship. Lauda’s exclusion from the following two races due to his injuries, allowed Hunt to close the gap further still, and the title was all down to the final round in Japan, with Hunt just three points behind Lauda.

The Japanese Grand Prix was a horribly wet affair, Lauda had returned to drive the Ferrari, but was forced to retire early in the race, citing that he was unable to blink due the facial burns that he was still suffering.

Hunt led most of the race, but suffered a puncture and had to pit. The stop was delayed, and having received unclear instructions from his crew, Hunt dropped down to third. But a finish in third with four points, was sufficient for Hunt to be crowned World Drivers Champion by a margin of just one point.

The 1977 season saw the beginning of the decline in Hunt’s career. An underperforming McLaren M26 caused Hunt to fall considerably behind rivals Lauda and Andretti, but developments throughout the season saw Hunt being dominant towards the latter part of the season. Unfortunately, it was all too litle too late, Hunt only managed to finish in fifth in the title race.

The 1978 season was no better, Hunt only managed to score 8 World Championship points, mainly due to the fact that Lotus had managed to develop their innovative ‘Ground Effect Aerodynamics’ with the Lotus 79. McLaren were slow to respond, only bringing in their ground effect developments halfway through the season. Unfortunately, it did not work as expected. This caused Hunt to suffer a serious decline in motivation, only compounded by teammate Patrick Tambay outqualifying him in one race.

The 1978 Italian Grand Prix appeared to be the turning point for Hunt. Ronnie Peterson’s Lotus was pushed into the Barriers in turn one, subsequently bursting into flames. Hunt, Patrick Depailler and Clay Regazzoni managed to rescue Peterson from his stricken car. Sadly, Peterson died a day later.

Hunt was particularly good friends with Peterson, and his death had a massive impact on him, he never forgave Riccardo Patrese, who Hunt blamed for causing the accident (it was later proven that Patrese had no part in the accident).

In 1979, with Peterson’s death hanging over him, Hunt moved to the Walter Wolf Racing Team, the car however, was uncompetitive. Six years after his debut in Formula One in Monaco, the 1979 Monaco race would be his last. Hunt failed to finish, and decided to make a statement to the baying press, announcing that he was walking away from the sport.

Hunt was as flamboyant on the track as he was off it. His reputation as a Playboy preceded him, embroiled in speculation regarding beautiful women, alchohol, cocaine and marijuana, he was regularly spotted at nightclubs and discos the world over.

It was during retirement though that Hunt found a real niche as sidekick to Murray Walker, in the commentary box for the BBC F1 coverage. His knowledge and insight into the sport bought Formula One to life for those watching, your author was captivated by his commentary, and quickly became a fan of the sport.

In 1993, Hunt suffered a heart attack, and died prematurely at the age of 45. A sad loss to the sport without question. Had he still been alive today, I am certain he would still have been involved, in whatever guise. In my opinion, a true gent, thoroughly deserving of the title of Grand Prix Legend.

Belgian Grand Prix – Race

There is always drama and a few surprises at Spa Francorchamps, and the 2010 Belgian Grand Prix did not fail to deliver. Round 13 of the 2010 World Championship would get underway under somewhat dry conditions. However, the unusual micro-climate of the Ardennes forest soon threw it’s hat into the ring, and drivers were going wide, left, right and centre.

Yet again, Mark Webber had put the Red Bull on pole position, but a poor start saw him dipping into anti-stall and lose at least four places, the main beneficiary being Lewis Hamilton, who had yet another strong start. Whilst Red Bull are generally strong in Qualifying, they have rarely capitalised on the advantage. But a collision between Fernando Alonso and Rubens Barrichello, who was celbrating his 300th Grand Prix start, saw the first deployment of the Safety Car, bunching all the cars up while the debris was cleared.

Lewis Hamilton had been confident going in to the race, and this showed in his pace, but team mate Jenson Button also benefitted from an excellent start, and before long was in second place behind Lewis, with a one-two for the McLaren team looking a distinct possibility. Despite having his front endplate damaged in traffic, Jenson managed to keep pace with Lewis, but the rain started again on the 16th lap around Blanchimont and Vettel braked too late, lost control and slammed into Jenson, damaging his sidepod and radiators judging by the resulting steam pouring out of the MP4-25. Soon after, it was race over for Jenson, and a possible massive points haul for the McLaren team, no longer even a possibility.

An understandably furious Jenson Button had this to say: “All I felt was a really big bang in the sidepod and I lost drive immediately, I don’t know what he was playing at really. From the point of view of the championship, it’s a massive blow,” .

Vettel’s actions were soon brought to the attention of the Stewards, and it wasn’t long before he was punished with a drive-through penalty for ‘causing an avoidable collision’. This dropped him right back in the field, and thus out of the points. But later on in the race he would touch Liuzzi’s front wing after trying to pass him. His poor performance this weekend shows me he is not yet worthy of being World Champion, he needs to mature considerably before being given that responsibility, and I just don’t see it coming yet.

At three quarter distance Lewis was ten seconds clear of the chasing pack, but the rain was imminent, and when it did start to fall, he lost it at Rivage, narrowly avoiding the barriers. Luckily he was far enough in front to not make too much difference and pitted immediately for inters. He was followed into the pits by both Kubica and Webber, both opting for inters too, but Kubica overshot his pit box and Webber capitalised, and got out of the pits ahead of the Polish driver.

There was yet more drama to come on lap 39 when Alonso spun at the exit of Les Combes leaving his Ferrari stranded in the middle of the track, which caused Race Control to once again deploy the Safety Car. Bernd Maylander certainly had a busy afternoon!

When the Safety Car came in, Lewis had managed to back the pack up and his restart was impeccable, giving him an albeit slight advantage over Webber and Kubica. Hamilton’s composure and racing ability ensured victory at Spa Francorchamps and leapfrog Webber in the standings to sit atop the Driver’s table once more this season.

Lewis said of his victory “I’m ecstatic, a race like that can be a lottery, and I’m so happy to come out on top, it almost feels like this is my first win. It’s just phenomenal! The team did a remarkable job, we’re constantly pushing, we’re not as fast as some of these guys, but it’s great that we maximise what we have.”

With just six races to go in the Championship, Hamilton has a slender lead in the Driver’s standings, and McLaren are marginally behind Red Bull in the Constructor’s. The F1 circus swings into Monza in just under two weeks time in what could prove to be a crucial round for now surely the only two main protagonists in the running for the Driver’s title, Hamilton and Webber. The question is, who will be consistent, I know who my money is on…

Grand Prix Legends – You Decide!!

Having neglected my blog for a while, for which I apologise, I am getting the writing bug again!

I’m hoping to have some time in the near future to write another of my Grand Prix Legends posts, and I want you to decide who I should write about. There have been some suggestions already via my Twitter Feed, and good ones they are too, but a vote is the only way to decide, so over to you!

I’ll leave the poll open until next Sunday, to give everyone time to influence the decision, GET VOTING!!

Monaco – Under Construction!

Having had the privilege of having an ‘acquaintance’ in Monaco recently, I have ‘obtained’ some behind the scenes photographs of the preparations that are ongoing in the run up to the race in less than four weeks!

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Thought you might appreciate those! Who is the mysterious figure in the pit-lane? Please leave a comment and rate this!

Grand Prix Legends – Alain Prost

Prost followed the usual trend, and entered Motorsport via Karting, he progressed through the ranks winning both the French and European Formula Three Championships, joining the McLaren F1 team aged 25 (1980).

On his debut in Argentina, Prost scored a point, finishing in sixth. He remains only one of a very small number of driver’s to score in their first race. Despite a promising start to his career, and having two years left to run on his McLaren contract, he decided to leave for a drive with Renault in 1981.

Prost was joined by compatriot Rene Arnoux to produce an all French line up. But Prost would retire from six of the first seven races. It would be at his home Grand Prix, fittingly, that Prost would score his first victory with Renault. Two more retirements would follow in Britain and Austria; he would finally place fifth in the Driver’s Championship in his first season with the French marque.

His second season with Renault began well with wins in both South Africa and Brazil, but that was as good as it got. He did however improve on his previous attempt by finishing fourth.

During their time together at Renault, Prost and Arnoux’s relationship was not the greatest to say the least, but after the French Grand Prix that year it would decline further. Prost, who finished second to Arnoux, believed that he had reneged on a previous agreement where Arnoux would support him in the race.

Arnoux left Renault in 1983 to be replaced by Eddie Cheever. Prost secured a further four wins that season, but his relationship with the team and fans worsened. Prost believed the team were too conservative in the development of the car, and conversely, Renault blamed Prost for not winning the Championship for them. He was fired from the team just two days after the South African race, from which he retired.

He would return to the McLaren fold for the 1984 season to partner double World Champion Niki Lauda. Prost won his first race in Brazil on rejoining McLaren; and would go on to win six further races that season. Despite only winning five races, teammate Lauda would pip him to the Championship by just half a point.

The culmination of the 1984 Championship would be down to the foreshortening of the Monaco Grand Prix. Due to heavy rain, the race was stopped at the end of lap 32. Prost led the grid from Pole, and went on to win the shortened race. Because 75% of the scheduled laps had not been completed, only half points were awarded. If only the decision to Red Flag had been left a little later, Prost would probably have gone on to win the Championship that year.

Prost became the first Frenchman to win the Driver’s Championship in 1985; driving the McLaren MP4/2B TAG Porsche V6 (pictured above). Winning five of sixteen races that season; despite a Disqualification at San Marino for a car that was 2Kg underweight after scrutineering. Prost won by a huge margin of 20 points.

In 1986, Prost would be joined at McLaren by Keke Rosberg, replacing Niki Lauda, who had decided to retire from the sport at the end of the ’85 season. Prost would go on to successfully defend his Title, although the challenge from the Honda powered Williams cars was significant.

The 1986 season wasn’t without difficulties for Prost, he almost managed to run out of fuel at San Marino, but managed to coax the car over the line to victory. It was however, his actions at the German Grand Prix that would be noteworthy. Running in fourth, Prost had again managed to run out of fuel in the finishing straight on the final lap. To the delight of the crowd, Prost hopped out of the cockpit and tried to push the car over the line, but it was too far and he ended up finishing sixth.

The 1987 season would see Prost win three races, but more importantly, he would overtake Jackie Stewart’s record for the most Grand Prix victories, with 28 wins. Despite this, he would finish the season in fourth place, thirty points behind Champion Nelson Piquet.

In 1988, Prost convinced Team Principal Ron Dennis to sign Ayrton Senna to McLaren. This helped in persuading Honda to move engine supply from rivals Williams to McLaren, and would see the pair have the most successful season in recent history. Between them, Prost and Senna dominated and won fifteen out of the seasons sixteen Grands Prix; a record which remains unequalled to this day.

Prost scored 105 points in 1988, but only the eleven best results counted towards the Championship, so only 87 points were counted. Senna would score 94 points, with 90 points counting towards the Championship and became Champion despite not scoring the most points that year.

The McLaren dominance would continue into 1989, and would see the relationship between the two drivers deteriorate to out and out hatred. Prost had accused Senna of “Dangerous Driving” and even accused the team of favouring Senna with set-up and the resources he was offered.

The embittered pair literally came together at the Japanese Grand Prix. Prost had turned into Senna’s path as he went to pass him for the lead, and the team mates collided into the final chicane on lap 46. The Frenchman got out of the car, and the marshals separated the two, but had inadvertently put Senna’s car in a dangerous position. In pushing Senna forward to move him from danger, Senna managed to bump start the car and continue the race to win. But he was disqualified for missing the chicane, and later fined $100,000 and given a suspended six-month ban.

Prost’s accusations of favouritism towards Senna within the team would compound his exit, and he resigned in July 1989. He was promptly snapped up by the Scuderia, joining Nigel Mansell for the 1990 seas0n.

Alain would finish his first season with Ferrari in second place in the Championship, and took the place of lead driver as reigning World Champion, much to the disgust of Mansell. But Prost had seen Mansell as a threat to his superiority, and had convinced the Ferrari engineers to switch their cars (as detailed here).

The Prost/Mansell relationship had deteriorated significantly for Mansell to leave the team in 1990 to rejoin former employer Williams, and Prost was joined at Ferrari by compatriot Jean Alesi. Prost had failed to win a race in 1991 and blamed the team for their inferiority, publicly criticising the team by describing the car as “handling worse than a truck”.

He was fired prior to the end of 1991, and would go on to take a sabbatical in 1992. But he would return in 1993 to the Williams team, where he won his fourth and final title. But he was regularly challenged by Damon Hill, and ex-team mate Senna. Prior to the Portuguese race that year, he announced he would retire as the World’s most successful driver in the sport’s history.