caption years championships birth_place races nationality points name birth_date nickname poles wins image article_title birth_name podiums
prost in 2012 1980 -- 1991 , 1993 4 -rrb- -lrb- 1985 , 1986 , 1989 , 1993 lorette , loire , france 202 -lrb- 199 starts -rrb- fra french 768.5 -lrb- 798.5 -rrb- alain prost 24 february 1955 `` the professor '' 33 51 festival - 013.jpg automobile international 2012 - photocall - alain prost alain prost
 alain marie pascal prost 106
alain prost

alain marie pascal prost , obe , chevalier de la légion d'honneur -lrb- born 24 february 1955 in lorette , loire -rrb- is a french racing driver .
a four-time formula one drivers ' champion , only sebastian vettel -lrb- four championships -rrb- , juan manuel fangio -lrb- five championships -rrb- , and michael schumacher -lrb- seven championships -rrb- have equalled or surpassed his number of titles .
from 1987 until 2001 prost held the record for most grand prix victories .
schumacher surpassed prost 's total of 51 victories at the 2001 belgian grand prix .
in 1999 , prost received the `` world sports awards of the century '' in the motor sport category .
prost discovered karting at the age of 14 during a family holiday .
he progressed through motor sport 's junior ranks , winning the french and european formula three championships , before joining the mclaren formula one team in 1980 at the age of 24 .
he finished in the points on his formula one début at the in san martin autodrome in buenos aires , argentina -lrb- where he took his first podium a year later -rrb- and took his first race victory at his home grand prix in france a year later , driving for the factory renault team .
during the 1980s and early 1990s , prost formed a fierce rivalry mainly with ayrton senna , but also nelson piquet and nigel mansell .
in 1986 , at the last race of the season , he beat mansell and piquet of williams to the title after mansell retired late on in the race , and piquet was pulled in for a late precautionary pit stop .
senna joined prost at mclaren in 1988 and the two had a series of controversial clashes , including a collision at the 1989 japanese grand prix that gave prost his third drivers ' championship .
a year later at the same venue they collided again , but this time prost , driving for ferrari , lost out .
before the end of a winless 1991 season prost was fired by ferrari for his public criticism of the team .
after a sabbatical in 1992 , prost joined the williams team , prompting reigning drivers ' champion mansell to leave for cart .
with a competitive car , prost won the 1993 championship and retired from formula one driving at the end of the year .
in 1997 , prost took over the french ligier team , running it as prost grand prix until it went bankrupt in 2002 .
he currently competes in the andros trophy , which is an ice racing championship .
prost employed a smooth , relaxed style behind the wheel , deliberately modeling himself on personal heroes like jackie stewart and jim clark .
he was nicknamed `` the professor '' for his intellectual approach to competition , though it was a name he did not particularly care for , although he would admit later on that it was n't a wrong summation of his approach to his racing .
skilled at setting up his car for race conditions , prost would often conserve his brakes and tyres early on in a race , leaving them fresher for a challenge at the end .
