![]() |
|
A Point to Prove | |
by Doug Nye, England |
Yet with mere hours to go before the 1979 Monaco Formula Three classic,
the young Prost was beside himself, in police custody, likely to miss
the showcase which could demonstrate his talents to a Formula One
audience. He'd been arrested for juvenile larking about. However, he
says, as the race approached, "I gesticulated so wildly they reckoned it
was probably more prudent to get rid of this whirling dervish as soon as
possible."
He won the Monaco race in his Martini-Renault, and went on to triumph in
both that season's French and European F3 championships. During the same
year's Dutch Grand Prix meeting, Francois Guiter of the Elf oil company
introduced him to Teddy Mayer, then head of Team McLaren. Mayer offered
a possible drive in the United States GP, but the young Frenchman would
turn it down: "I didn't want to chance a one-off drive not fully
prepared, but I asked Teddy to try me once the season was over."
That November, a McLaren test team wheeled out two of its problematic
M29 cars at Paul Ricard. Two potential new drivers were to be tried -
American Kevin Cogan... and Prost.
Mayer says: "I watched him for ten laps, then ran to my car to get out a
contract..."
Prost made his F1 debut on 11 January 1980, in practice for the
Argentine GP at the Buenos Aires autodrome. It was a roasting hot day:
"The cockpit temperatures were unbearable - you could see the asphalt
starting to melt - after practice the foundation blocks were showing
through," he says.
Both McLaren MP29Bs suffered damper problems in first practice, but
Prost - intent upon making a good impression - drove round them.
Chief mechanic Phil Sharpe recalls: "We thought this little Frog was
pretty full of himself, but he just focused on the job and got it done.
While Wattie tended to get bogged down in identifying just exactly what
the problem might be, this new bloke simply went for it."
On raceday, five-times World Champion Juan Fangio's driver briefing
astonished the novice: "He inferred we should make a special effort to
keep our speed down in the early laps. I was completely stunned, but
Fangio had no option, he was acutely embarrassed at the state of the
circuit and he had to be diplomatic.
"But that Argentine GP was pure Russian roulette. I knew I had to make
my presence felt in my first season. I couldn't compete equally with
teams like Williams, Ligier, Renault, Ferrari and Brabham, their drivers
were much more experienced. But, on a surface like that, this first race
would be full of incident. My plan was to drive as prudently as
possible."
Whatever his intention, he completed the opening lap in eighth. Later he
had a double spin, but "after many other incidents, many drivers
retired. I came sixth out of seven finishers and won my first World
Championship point".
Two weeks later, in Brazil, he would finish fifth for two more points
towards his record ultimate career total of 798.5 WC points.
His first Formula One race and his first World Championship point.
Alain Prost's glittering career started here
Alain Prost is not thought of as an excitable man. Quite the reverse. As
four-time World Champion, winner of a record 51 grand prix races, he was
unspectacular, clinically skilled - 'The Professor'.
Team number one John Watson set a baseline time of 1 minute 9.0 seconds
in a standard M29. Then Prost wriggled down into the cockpit: "I held an
F1 steering wheel for the first time. A dream come true," he says. He
not only demolished all Cogan's hopes, but ripped around the track 0.3
seconds quicker than Wattie's best.
The mechanics nicknamed Prost 'Tadpole' - much to Alain's disgust - but
he qualified 12th, completely shading Wattie in 17th.
Doug Nye � 1999 Atlas Formula One Journal. Send comments to: comments@atlasf1.com
Terms & Conditions
The article appears courtesy of TAG-McLaren Communications Office; Photography by LAT