Prost reveals past talks with Ferrari to partner Schumacher

Alain Prost says he once held talks with his good friend Jean Todt about coming out of retirement and joining Ferrari to help Michael Schumacher win the F1 world championship.

Prost’s final year in F1 in 1993 saw the Frenchman win his fourth and final title driving for Williams.

The Frenchman then opted to retire from the sport at the end of the season and he was replaced at the Grove-based outfit the following year by Ayrton Senna.

But while in retirement, Prost was offered several opportunities in the years that followed to return to the grid, with McLaren boss Ron Dennis twice knocking on the Frenchman’s door and Ferrari also touching base with the four-time world champion to discuss a surprising proposition.

“I had different opportunities,” Prost remembered, speaking to Tom Clarkson on the latter’s Beyond the Grid podcast.

“McLaren with the Peugeot engine was an opportunity, with a lot of money in fact, a lot of money. And I said no.

“Then I had, very close, another opportunity with McLaren a few years later, and even with Ferrari when I talked with Jean, and at the beginning with Michael.”

In 1996, Schumacher had moved from Benetton to Ferrari where team boss Jean Todt had put together what would become known as the Scuderia’s “dream team”, featuring himself, Schumacher, designer Rory Byrne and technical director and master strategist Ross Brawn.

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But during a casual conversation between Todt and Prost, the former queried the latter on the possibility of coming out of retirement and returning to the grid with the Scuderia, alongside Schumacher.

Read also: Prost mulled late bid for FIA presidency

Prost, who had raced for Ferrari in 1990 and 1991 before team and driver suffered an acrimonious split, did not reject outright the idea of returning to the House of Maranello, but demanded one very surprising condition should he accept the proposal.

“We had the discussion with Jean, I said okay we have to be clear: if I go there I am a number 2, and I try to help Ferrari and Michael to win the championship!

“Because that would be a sort of a, you know, a clear attitude. I don’t want to have any arguments, or things with the press, the media or whatever…

“Michael is number 1, I am number 2, and I’m here to help. That could have been a possibility.”

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It’s hard to imagine a driver of Prost’s ambition – a four-time world champion and a 51-time Grand Prix winner – accepting to play second fiddle to anyone, what’s more at Ferrari.

“It was only to be part of Ferrari’s success for many, many years,” he said. “And that was part of the challenge, and the human side, because the human side is much more important than people think. It’s very important to me.

“If you are in the team, let’s say okay I am here for that, I am an employee again you know. But I’m going to help Jean Todt, I am going to help people and obviously Michael, because there was no way I could compete with Michael after retiring for one, two or three years and then coming back.

“But then I could help. So that could have been a challenge, maybe a crazy challenge but I was very curious to… We were talking about that with Jean, not for long but we were talking.”

“Ask Jean [why it didn’t happen], maybe because we find that it would be difficult to do it. I even do not remember who they were talking to at the same time, maybe it was better not to tell me.

Asked why Prost felt tempted by the challenge, the Frenchman replied “why not?”

“You do things when you’re 20, you don’t do the same when you’re 40 and don’t do the same at 60, you know,” said Prost.

“You have to accept it and be part of a new project or challenge, and why not? When things are clear, why not?”

In the end, Eddie Irvine was chosen to partner Schumacher at the Scuderia in 1996, the great German’s first year with Ferrari.

But Schumacher’s first world title with the Italian outfit would only come in 2000, which was also Rubens Barrichello’s first season with the team.

Would Schumacher have been crowned earlier had Prost joined Ferrari? We’ll never know…