1990-07-08 F90 641/2 (1) Alain Prost FRA - Paul Ricard 1
On July 8th, 1990, Alain Prost won the French GP at Paul Ricard on board of this Ferrari 641/2. In France Prost gave Ferrari the 100th victory in history. His most memorable moment in the Scuderia.
With 3 world championship in his pocket “Il professore” signed to join Ferrari in 1990, becoming the first driver signed to the team after the death of team founder Enzo Ferrari in 1988. He replaced Gerhard Berger at Ferrari and was partnered with Britain's Nigel Mansell for 1990 (Berger took Prost's seat at McLaren). As reigning world champion, Prost took over as the team's lead driver and was said to have played on this status. Mansell recalls one incident where at the 1990 British Grand Prix, the car he drove didn't handle the same as in the previous race where he had taken pole position, and later found out from team mechanics that Prost saw Mansell as having a superior car and had them swapped without Mansell knowing. Prost won five races for Ferrari that year, in Brazil, Mexico, France, Britain and Spain. Notable among these was the Mexican Grand Prix, where he won after starting in 13th position. In both the Mexican and Spanish races, he led Mansell to Ferrari 1–2 finishes.
The championship once again came to the penultimate round of the season in Japan with Prost trailing his McLaren adversary, Ayrton Senna, by nine points. As in 1989, a controversial collision between the two settled the race. At the first corner Senna, as admitted a year later, intentionally drove his race car into Prost's, taking them both out of the race and sealing the title in his favour. Prost finished the season seven points behind Senna, and his Ferrari team were runners-up to McLaren.
