Prost says being a team manager his 'biggest mistake' F1 News - Prost says being a team manager his 'biggest mistake' Prost says being a team manager his 'biggest mistake' Four-time Formula 1 World Champion Alain Prost says the 'biggest mistake' he made during his career was becoming the owner of his own team, revealing he wanted to scrap the deal days before he signed a contract. Prost purchased the existing Ligier team ahead of the 1997 Formula 1 season to form Prost Grand Prix and enjoyed a positive start to life as the eponymous team manager, overseeing a pair of podium results with Olivier Panis in the first six races driving the Bridgestone-shod, Mugen-Honda-powered JS45, which had been designed before Prost came on board. However, with its own car to design and a switch to Peugeot power as part of an exclusive deal for 1998, Prost Grand Prix began its decline, with points' finishes becoming scarce, a single further podium at the 1999 European Grand Prix being followed by an entirely point-less season in 2000. Despite better fortune in 2001 with a switch to Ferrari power under the Acer banner Prost Grand Prix folded at the end of the year. Indeed, Prost says he looks back on that period with the most regret, revealing in an interview to the FIA that he actually wanted to back out after the original five-year free engine deal with Peugeot was whittled down to a paid three-year contract. Three months after I started the team, we had some very good results and we almost won a race, he said, referring to Panis' charge up the order in the Canadian Grand Prix, which many believe he would have won had he not crashed and broken his legs. But to my family and close friends I was saying 'I'm dead'. I knew from the beginning. I know Formula One too well. I know the country too well. If I made one mistake, it was this. It would have been better not to have done it. I should not have made the decision to do it at the last minute. Two days before I signed the contract I did not want to do it anymore. We had a plan with Peugeot and a contract for five years of free engines with lots of development. Then they came back two days before I signed it and it was only three years and I had to pay for the engine In the end, I was happy to stop. Prost also says he had joked with Ayrton Senna about the prospect of the pair coming together as team manager and driver, saying the talks with Ligier had started when the Brazilian was alive. It's funny, maybe one week before the accident [Senna's fatal crash at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix] we were talking on the phone and I said to Ayrton, 'You know, it would be funny one day if I had a team and you could be my driver. And we were laughing about that. We were talking at the time to buy Ligier already. At the start of '94. That would have been fantastic, definitely very good.
Totally agree. Alain Prost is one of the most maligned F-1 Champions ever, and I just dont get it. He was THE class of the field in the 80's... always there even in un competitive cars like the McLaren in 87 and Ferrari in 91... He did him self in by aligning with the French Press - who were just so un trustworthy... and alowed Senna to get under his skin.... however he was and is ... a superb driver of the highest order.
All of that, and one of the luckiest guys in the buisness, the stars really got aligned for him so he could get that Mclaren seat. 1- The place was for Gilles whom after the Imola episode was on his way out from Ferrari, Ron had already tried to get him once but failed, this time, it seems he would finaly get his way. 2- Nelson Piquet was the second choice to join Niki, but he hated Ron, he refused, he even made a deal with Prost, asking a lot more money from Dennis and other demand, in order to meke a better deal for Prost. 3- The fact that Renault decided to sack Prost at the end of the 83 season, if not for that he would have probably stayed there.
Doesn't surprise me. There is something nice about *just* having to worry about driving. All the overhead, politics, cost, and headaches of running a team are the ugliest parts to me personally.
...And the fact that, after Gilles's death at Zolder and Piquet's refusal, Ron decided that he was to keep John Watson after all, but John Watson delayed his decision to renew for weeks; I don't recall at the minute if it was to obtain more money or what, but when Watson finally decided to sign, Prost entered the McLaren landscape, having just been fired by Renault, son Ron was able to sign Prost for peanuts, and Watson was left high and dry. Rgds
Watson thought that based on his 82 and 83 performances that he was at least worth as much as Lauda ... rememember Lauda came back in 82 for the price of $1M.... so Watson held out dragging on negotiations till well after the racing year ended. then Prost got the sack... messing around with Ducarouge's wife ( another story) ... so then he was on the open market - desprate for a drive... voila.
As the gossip went at the time, "et pour la petite histoire" as we say in French, it was not with Ducarouge's wife, Tom: remember that Gérard Ducarouge, at the time, was technical director at Alfa-Romeo (perhaps even already bound for Lotus?). It was said to be with one of Renault's executives' wife, or someone in the team, but frankly, who cares? They got rid of him rather inelegantly, and the team also never won a race after he was fired...until their newborn identity in the 2000. Rgds
I don't know about messing up with anyone's wife, but Prost had a personality clash with Renault's team manager, Gerard Larousse. in 1983, Prost was in the hunt for the tittle until the last GP, where his car failed. At the post-season debriefing back in Viry-Chatillon, Prost and Larousse were rumoured to have exchanged their points of view, with Prost accusing Larousse of bad management, etc... Prost apparently said: "For next year, it's me or him staying , but I won't work with him anymore!". Faced with that choice, Renault decided to let Prost go immediatly. In all truth, he was the best asset Renault had, and after him, the team went from failure to failure: neither tambay or Cheever ever mounted a strong attack on the WDC. Renault closed the Viry-Chatillon team. Their return in the 2000, was through buying the Enstone team, ex-Toleman and ex-Benetton where Briatore was the main asset.
