Four-time F1 World Champion Alain Prost had a legendary career in the sport, but he too had to overcome his share of hatred received.
Today we know Prost as one of the most successful F1 drivers of all time. He’s an icon of the sport, who has shared intense Championship battles with several rival drivers during his time behind the wheel.
His most famous rival was Ayrton Senna, a driver who pushed him to his very limits as a competitor. Behind the scenes however, drivers had to deal with a lot of adversity from fans of their rivals.
In a podcast with 2016 Champion Nico Rosberg, Prost talks about some of the most difficult moments he faced as an F1 driver. Surprisingly, his first experience with public hatred came from his own countrymen back in 1982. At that year’s French GP, Prost and his Renault teammate Rene Arnoux had an agreement with the team beforehand.
Surprisingly, the French public sympathized with Arnoux after the race, and Prost recalls the abuse he faced from a worker at the fuel station on his way back from Paul Ricard.
Alain Prost recalls when he received abuse from a gas station worker in France
Prost talks about how he was going back home from Paul Ricard after the 1982 French GP. He had to stop to refuel his car on the way back, and encountered and incident that he admits made him afraid.
“I lived in a small city close to Saint-Etienne,” he said. “I came back in the evening after leaving the Paul Ricard. And I stopped on the fuel station, you know at the time when we had these fuel cards.”
“A guy was there and he recognized me. Well, I thought he recognized me. He said, ‘Oh I saw the race, I was very upset’.” What happened next shocked Prost to the very core.
The person at the gas station started ranting about Prost without realizing that it was him in front. ‘You know this f**king Prost! This a**hole!’ the man said as narrated by the Frenchman.
“I had the card in my hand, I put it in my pocket. From this moment on, it was just one day, but it had been a disaster.”
You can love your favorite driver without hating his rival, says Prost
Prost’s most heated rivalry was his one was Ayrton Senna. It was a difficult time for him, especially because of Senna’s immense popularity and huge fan base. It led to moments where he was victim of ‘death threats’ and other forms of abuse.
“For many years, I didn’t read the newspaper because I didn’t want to read anything about me”, Prost continues. “I’ve had two cars burned in front of me and messages on my answer machine which said things like ‘we’re going to kill you’. I was really afraid at one stage, it really went over the top.”
Prost then went on to say that he tried reaching out to fans who hated him. He wasn’t sure what they hated about him as a person, and asked them about it on several occasions.
“Very often, I tried to discuss with Senna’s (or someone else’s) fans. I tried to discuss with them and I told them, you can be a fan of a team or a driver. It’s good for the sport. But why do you hate me? You can just ignore me or be the fan of the other driver, but you don’t have to hate me,” Prost told those fans.
Prost overcame the hate and adversity to establish himself as one of F1’s greatest ever. He has four World Championships and 51 race wins in his career which spanned from 1980-1993.
