Prost: Ferrari, McLaren need new approach to succeed again in F1

The four-time champion thinks that a changing of the guard in F1, with newer outfits enjoying success, is down to those organisation having a clear focus about what they were doing.

He suggests that more established outfits like McLaren and Ferrari may be hampered by the fact that they are too stuck in their ways.

"When Red Bull came, it was obviously a marketing platform - but they had a strategy and they had a plan," explained Prost.

"With Mercedes, you can see that in the last two or three years, they had a plan. They knew that this year was it.

"I kept saying to Renault that this year is going to be very difficult to beat Mercedes. We knew that, if you understood how they were organised.

"If you compare that to McLaren and Ferrari, it only looks like if it is a continuity of what they were doing [previously].

"There is no stop, and then a new start and go. It is the same thing - and sometimes you need to do something a little bit different.

"For sure with Ferrari, everyone was talking about Michael [Schumacher], but it was four or five people together. So when they left it was quite difficult to build something new.

"With McLaren it was the same thing when Adrian [Newey] left."

Ferrari is poised for some major changes over the next few months in its bid to return to the top in F1, while McLaren has already begun a restructure in the wake of a difficult start to this season.