Portal:Formula One/Selected biography/2

Alain Marie Pascal Prost, OBE, Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (born 24 February 1955) is a French racing driver. A four-time Formula One Drivers' Champion, only Juan Manuel Fangio, Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton have won more titles than Prost. 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 25. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Prost formed a fierce rivalry with Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell. In 1986, at the last race of the season, he managed to pip Mansell and Nelson Piquet of Williams to the title. 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. 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, and won the 1993 championship but he retired at the end of the year rather than be teammates with Senna who signed for 1994. In 1997, Prost took over the French Ligier team, running it as Prost Grand Prix until it went bankrupt in 2001, and now competes in the Andros Trophy, an ice racing competition.