Karun Chandhok shares how he thinks Alain Prost would have coped as Michael Schumacher’s Formula 1 teammate

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Michael Schumacher and Alain Prost were two of the most successful drivers in Formula 1 history.

They won 11 drivers’ championships between them, but their careers barely overlapped in the 1990s.

Alain Prost made his F1 debut in 1980 with McLaren, but had to wait until 1985 before winning back-to-back titles for the team after a spell with Renaut.

Prost and Ayrton Senna had some ferocious battles and the Frenchman came out on top in 1989 before walking away from the sport in 1991.

Senna was even blocked from racing for Ferrari by Prost such was their rivalry, but as battle on track came to an end, Michael Schumacher arrived on the scene.

A one-off race in 1991 with Jordan was enough to convince Benetton to sign Schumacher for the rest of the season.

Karun Chandhok was speaking on the Bring Back V10s Podcast about Prost’s lack of an F1 team in 1992.

The Frenchman returned to the grid in 1993 one last time to win his fourth and final championship with Williams, but there was a point where he could have been paired with the legendary Schumacher.

Alain Prost could have been teammate with Michael Schumacher at Benetton in 1992

It was put to Chandhok that Benetton briefly believed they had signed Prost for the 1992 season before the Frenchman declared that he turned down the move as he felt the team would only ‘offer him a car from the second division’ as journalist Glenn Freeman put it.

Chandhok has asked how he thought Prost would have fared at Benetton against Schumacher and said: “Well, it was, wasn’t it in 1992? But everything was a second division car apart from the Williams.

“Listen, Prost was he as devastatingly fast as he was in the mid-1980s? No, he’d been an F1 by that stage for over a decade.

READ MORE: Martin Brundle’s verdict on who had more talent between Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna after competing against both

“But would he have still been a very effective teammate to Michael Schumacher? I think so.

“He was still strong in 1991 against Alesi, wasn’t he? And very, very competitive when the car had a sniff of a result like the French Grand Prix or the British Grand Prix.

“He was the one to pick up the podiums, not Alesi on those days. So I think a motivated Prost – and I think that’s the key point – would he have been motivated to take on a challenge at Benetton knowing that the car was going to be a second and a half slower than the Williams? I’m not so sure.

“And in the end, he was absolutely right not to take the deal and instead sign the deal nice and early for the Williams seat in 1993.”

Alain Prost vs Michael Schumacher’s head-to-head Formula 1 records

The only full season that Prost and Schumacher competed in together was in 1993 when as Chandhok suggested, Williams were still by far and away the strongest team on the grid.

Prost beat Senna by 26 points that year with his Williams teammate Damon Hill four points further back.

Schumacher was the only other driver to reach 50 points and only achieved one Grand Prix victory in Portugal that year.

For context of how strong Schumacher was that season, his teammate Riccardo Patrese didn’t even reach half of his tally across the 16-race calendar.

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

Prost could only watch on from the sidelines as during the 2000s, Schumacher broke every record he held.

The German’s partnership with Ferrari was one of the most iconic in the sport’s history, winning five championships on the bounce.

Max Verstappen is hoping to match that record in 2025 and Prost has already compared Verstappen to another former world champion based on his recent performances.