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

Mutual admiration turned to all-out hatred with the Frenchman accusing his Brazilian teammate of "dangerous driving" and of receiving more than a fair share of attention from both McLaren and Honda. The Frenchman had a clause in his contract which prevented rival Ayrton Senna from joining the team that year. Prost was part of a new-look driver line-up at Williams with test driver Damon Hill coming in to replace Riccardo Patrese who had left to join Benetton.

He finiAlain Prostd in the points on his Formula One début in Argentina and took his first race victory at his home Grand Prix in France a year later while he was driving for the factory Renault team. He progressed through motor sport's junior ranks winning the French and European Formula Three championships before joining the McLaren Formula One team in 1980 at the age of 25. Prost employed a smooth relaxed style behind the wheel deliberately modeling himself on personal heroes like Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark.