Alain Prost explains why he thinks Nigel Mansell was ‘jealous’ of him when they were Ferrari teammates

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Alain Prost could argue that he’s had the greatest collection of teammates in the history of Formula 1.

The Frenchman raced alongside the likes of Niki Lauda, Keke Rosberg, Damon Hill, Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell and that’s just listing the former world champions.

Prost was also paired with the likes of John Watson, Rene Arnoux, Jean Alesi and Stefan Johansson who were all rapid on their day.

It makes the fact that Prost ended his career as a four-time world champion even more impressive.

However, his relationship with some drivers was better than others.

Prost blocked Senna from joining him at Ferrari after their previous stint together at McLaren.

It led to the Brazilian winning the championship the following year with his old team, but Prost simply couldn’t deal with trying to race alongside one of his greatest rivals again.

Prost was happy to be the number two driver to Lauda at the beginning of his career and had immense respect for the Austrian during their time together at McLaren.

The 1990 season saw Prost and Mansell lining up alongside each other, with the Frenchman coming out on top despite losing out to Senna in the championship.

In his 2018 episode of the Beyond The Grid episode, Prost explained why he felt that Mansell was ‘jealous’ of him during their time together at Ferrari.

Why Nigel Mansell was ‘jealous’ of Alain Prost at Ferrari

Prost was asked about how he seemed to force his teammates in F1 into retirement and said: “Yeah, for sure, Keke [Rosberg] was one of my best teammates.

“He was really a friend too, was really, really good.

“But for sure, yeah, maybe he did not get along with the McLaren philosophy and the philosophy also to set up the car, but he was good.

“Nigel is different. He’s Nigel. I never understood why he was… For example, he was jealous because I was speaking Italian.

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“But if you start like this…you cannot…

“With Niki [Lauda], we never had any problem, never. [There were] never any arguments in two years.”

Nigel Mansell backed himself in his battle with Alain Prost

Mansell’s battle with Prost during their two seasons together at Ferrari was fascinating.

The Brit finished fourth and fifth in 1989 and 1990 respectively, while Prost won the title in their first year together before missing out to Senna the following season.

However, their rivalry persisted beyond those two campaigns alongside each other.

READ MORE: All to know about Alain Prost including Ayrton Senna rivalry and failed F1 team

Ahead of the short-lived Grand Prix Masters series when Prost and Mansell were supposed to be reunited, he said, via Autosport: “The rivalry is still there, definitely.

“Alain will do everything in his power to win, he doesn’t like getting beaten by anyone and least of all me.”

Mansell believes he would have destroyed Prost in 1993 had he continued racing in Formula 1 and not shifted focus to CART in the United States.

It’s a fight we never got to witness, but Mansell was more than motivated to defeat the man who thought he was ‘jealous’ of his relationship with his Ferrari team.