Alain Prost names the only teammate he had in Formula 1 where was happy to be the number two driver

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In the history of Formula 1, there have been some incredibly tense battles between teammates.

It’s very rare that seasons like the 2024 campaign occur when four teams are regularly battling for race wins and the Constructors’ Championship fight went down to the wire as a result.

Typically, the title battle comes down to the drivers with the fastest car on the grid which is normally where intra-team rivalries spawn from.

The likes of Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Michael Schumacher were always happier when they had a number two driver alongside them that wouldn’t threaten their supremacy.

Although Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas finished second in the Drivers’ Championship at Red Bull and Mercedes respectively, F1 hasn’t seen a title fight go down to the wire between teammates since Nico Rosberg defeated Hamilton in 2016.

However, in previous eras of Formula 1, this was a regular occurrence.

Alain Prost ended his career as a four-time world champion and earned the nickname ‘The Professor’ due to his driving style.

Prost’s rivalry with Ayrton Senna was legendary, but in an interview with Beyond The Grid, he admitted that there was only one racer that he was ever happy to be a number two driver alongside.

Alain Prost reveals he was happy to be ‘number two’ to Niki Lauda at McLaren

Prost missed out on winning the 1983 championship at the final race to Nelson Piquet, leading the Frenchman to join McLaren the following year from Renault having somehow not won a title at this stage of his career.

In 1984, Prost lost out to new teammate Niki Lauda by half a point, and when asked how he felt at the end of that campaign, he said: “It was another season, another ambiance.

“You know, when I came to McLaren, Niki had a contract of being number one and I signed a contract being [the] number two.

“I was happy to sign [the contract] because he was number one, but it was not number one like today.

“Where, if he was behind me, I had to give way, it did not work like this.

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

“But when we were testing, he had to test the development [parts]. If we had only one front wing, for example, he would have the front wing.

“I accepted that and in fact, I never felt [like it] a big problem.

“But we had such a good year, all together, with the team, with Niki that at the end, when you lose, that losing again [by] half a point…I did a good season.

“I had more problems, maybe more failures. I did [some] mistakes too because I was fighting a lot against Nelson. And Niki was always behind, but got the points.”

Prost went on to say that the most difficult part of that winter after missing out on the 1984 championship was reading the newspapers afterwards.

He couldn’t believe that the press were suggesting that he would never be a world champion and that motivated him going into 1985 to make sure it was his year and that he potentially had to change his approach during races.

Niki Lauda and Alain Prost left Formula 1 as two of the sport’s greatest drivers

Lauda’s 1984 title win was the third and final time he achieved that feat, retiring at the end of the 1985 season.

Hamilton considered the Austrian one of his most trusted advisors during his time racing for the Silver Arrows and a tribute to Lauda still exists in the Mercedes garage at every race.

Prost won the championship in 1985 and 1986, with Keke Rosberg brought in to replace Lauda.

READ MORE: The F1 driver who was once told he’s on course to have a ‘Niki Lauda-style career’

Two more championships followed in 1989 and 1993, with the latter earned while racing for Williams after a brief stint at Ferrari.

Few drivers have raced for all three of the sport’s most iconic teams – although Carlos Sainz will be following in his footsteps this year.

It speaks volumes about the sort of driver and person Lauda was that someone as competitive as Prost was happy to play second fiddle to him at that stage of his career.

The Frenchman’s relationship with his other great rival Senna never materialised in that way, although Prost paid tribute to Senna on the 30th anniversary of his death last year.