Alain Prost

I have no problem with the people who work hard to get success. But I think people are very jealous about success. I work very hard and they don’t appreciate that.

In 1980 I finished three or four times in seventh place.

Maybe I am not French, maybe I am from nowhere.

When you win a race like this the feeling is very, very good.

Without going to what I think is my limit. I always say that my ideal is to get pole with the minimum effort, and to win the race at the slowest speed possible.

It’s always better to speak the language of the team. Not only for the direct contact with everyone – sometimes it also helps you to understand the mentality of the people in the team a bit better.

Sometimes I think I could have got some better results if I had a different mentality; if I could have pushed hard and attacked. But then I would have had a good chance of making a mistake.

I remember in the first part of the race I was sixth and I could have gone quicker, but I had to go slow. It was one of the most difficult things I have ever done.

It’s like when people talk about driving F1 cars in the rain. I have absolutely no problem with it.

Some Italians are geniuses, but you have to find a balance.

You were not in control You had no visibility: maybe there was a car in front of you, maybe not.

So in fact the only thing you can judge in this sport its the longterm. You can judge a career or a season, but not one race.

People don’t understand that it was maybe my biggest pleasure to drive an F1 car when it’s wet.

When I test I never go right to the limit. Only because when you are below the limit you can go at the same speed all day, and that’s the only way you can be absolutely sure about what you are testing.

I have always had this mentality because I hated to break anything on the car.

You can’t always have the best team. It’s always a compromise.

A German team could be quite good. But maybe they are a little bit too convinced that they are the best.

That is an important part of my success. Another big part of my success is that I hated not to finish a race.

I always work the same way, starting from the beginning of the weekend, so I know at the beginning of the race, from all that I have analysed during the practice, whether I will win the race or not.

I don’t like to go over curbs, because I don’t want to be hard on the car.

The people who criticise you will not be the ones taking care of your legs when you are in your wheelchair. People who never drove a car in these conditions, they just don’t know.

I think maybe the English don’t want to try something and look stupid, because they are a bit reserved.

I like the mentality of the Americans. It’s like when you talk about money.

I have had some problems because the French don’t like people to have success, they don’t like the number one.

I was very interested in that. It is very important to have confidence as well as to build up experience.

One of my biggest problems this season was with the clutch at the start of the race. I hate to risk the car.

It’s not too good to have this attitude in F1. It could be a disadvantage.

You want to have fun but you also want to work well. Sometimes I was quite happy at Ferrari, because we would have fun, but then they could not stop having fun and go back to the real work.

I’m brave to say that I won’t take this sort of risk.