INTERVIEW
"Few people know this story, which ultimately started it all." This story is that of Alain Prost, 14, passionate about football ... until he accidentally falls into the "bath" of motorsport. Guest of There is not only one life in life , Sunday on Europe 1, the former Formula 1 driver with an impressive track record - 51 Grand Prix victories, 106 podiums and 33 pole positions - returned to this happy coincidence.
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"Me, it was football"
Alain Prost was then 14 years old. He is on a family vacation, on the French Riviera. "I had a brother who was older than me, but who was very sick," he tells Isabelle Morizet. "He had a brain tumor at the time, and he was the one who was passionate about motorsport, not me. Me was football, it was sport."
The future champion multiplies the activities, realizing "all that [he can] on the physical plane". "I did cross-country, I did athletics. I broke my wrist while on the beam, doing gymnastics." His brother, "being sick", cannot follow him.
"I saw a star"
"And one day, my mother comes to see me and says to me: he (his brother, editor's note ) wants to go karting in Antibes", continues Alain Prost. "I had my arm in plaster, I said: 'Me, I don't want to, it's not my thing.'" But to please his brother, the teenager finally accepts. "We did the ten minutes of karting, and then there was a small race organized. I left last, because I had my arm in plaster so it should not be shown too much."
Despite his delay and his break, Alain Prost came first. "Well, it was a rental race ...", he relativizes. "But I saw a star. I don't know why, I said to myself this thing is for me, this is what I want to do. I have not stopped thinking about that since that day -the."