The professor teaches himself a new lesson

Alain Prost is stressed. He's arrived late to Paul Ricard, and with daylight fading he desperately wants to get some laps under his belt in the 2010 Formula 1 World Championship-winning Red Bull RB6.

He's supposed to be demonstrating it in front of tens of thousands of his countrymen the following morning, as part of the World Series by Renault Formula 1 display, which takes place at each round. Usually one of Red Bull's younger drivers is sent along to entertain the crowds, but in France the 'keys' to the Red Bull are being handed to a legend.

This is going to be the first time since 1996 that the four-time world champion has driven a contemporary F1 car, so his agitation is understandable. As he slides himself into the surprisingly comfortable cockpit, one of the Red Bull engineers starts explaining the functions performed by the various buttons and dials on the steering wheel.

Prost interrupts.

"Please," he says. "Neutral, radio and traction control. Nothing else." He later admits his only concern at that time was how on earth he was going to pull away using a hand clutch for the first time.

Or, in his words: "Shit, how do I get started?!"

Prost described the cockpit as 'comfortable'

With darkness seemingly minutes away, the entire paddock hears the distinctive note of an F1 engine firing up. People have been wondering all day when that famous blue-and-white helmet would appear just in front of the iconic logo on the RB6 engine cover, and there's a rush to the pitlane.

Sure enough, it's him. In a lesson to most of today's racing drivers, the helmet design is unmistakeable.

Prost is back in a modern F1 car.

Over the course of the runs he performs during the rest of the weekend, he understandably doesn't break any records. But even after this small taste of a contemporary car, le Professeur's brain has already cracked on with processing as much information about the experience as it can.

Coincidentally, given that he shared the track for a few laps with F1's current naughty boy Romain Grosjean on the Sunday, Prost sympathises with the newcomers who have to prove themselves in tough circumstances.

"It must be very difficult with so little testing," he says on the subject of F1 rookies in the modern day. "The car is very stiff now; it's much more difficult to get the right feeling. You cannot see it moving and pitching; you just have to believe in it. That must be very hard in race conditions.

"The biggest difference between when I stopped in 1993 and now is the front visibility. Actually, this is really annoying! It's unbelievable. I don't understand how it's possible on safety grounds. I don't know; I just don't like it."

But before Ayrton Senna's legion of fans writes this off as Prost just having a moan, there's much more to his observations than a couple of grumbles.

Once he's started talking through his feelings on a modern F1 car, he needs very little prompting as he methodically works his way through the various areas of the Red Bull. And he is humble enough to admit that there was never any chance of him attempting any heroics, even on a track where he won four times in F1.

Now, how do I start this thing?

"To be honest I'm very happy with what I did," he says. "I just wanted to try a car, nice and safely. This was good. I enjoyed it even if I am realistic.

"I know I can push enough to have a proper feeling of what a modern car is like. But it's not the last few tenths I am missing, it's the last few seconds!

I can't say too much about the balance or the set-up, but I never got to a position where I thought, 'Oh shit, it's sliding!' You can feel that the faster you go, the more downforce you have."

The differences between the Red Bull and the cars he drove towards the end of his career start way before the mechanics are even ready to fire the V8 Renault engine up.

"The differences inside the car are very big," he says. "First of all, I have never had to brake with my left foot. I've always had three pedals, and now there are only two. And the brake pedal is very hard, so that's something to get used to the feeling of.

"But in the cockpit, the ergonomics are very good. Everything is much more compact, but in a good way. It's very comfortable; everything is perfect."

That's some pretty hefty praise, especially considering the fact that driver comfort has never been something that sits particularly high on Adrian Newey's list of priorities when he's designing another world-beater.

But Prost is not entirely surprised, and recalls from his dabbles in mid-1990s McLarens that driver comfort was improving at a rapid rate shortly after he stopped racing.

"I stopped in '93, and already when I drove the McLaren in '95 and '96 I could tell that there was a big change in the driving position.

When I last drove the McLaren at Silverstone in '96, I was able to drive on and on without getting tired. It was already very good then, and now this is even more the case. Physically, it must be a lot easier now."

Unsurprisingly for someone who raced through the peak of the 1980s turbo era, Prost is hardly blown away by the power of current F1 engines. But, after giving a classic Gallic shrug, he admits he is still impressed by Renault's current unit.

Prost enjoyed his laps around Paul Ricard

"Getting used to the power they have now is not a big issue," he says. "I started in Formula 1 with 450/500 horsepower, then we went up to 1400 in qualifying with the turbos. But the difference today is the fact that the engine performance is very linear.

You can use the power in a good way, very quickly. There is no problem."

In fact, the power delivery is so good that the only use Prost has for the traction-control dial is asking for it to be turned down. "I needed much less," he offers. "But obviously I didn't start playing with all the other buttons! That's another step."

It's the complicated nature of a modern F1 cockpit that Prost feels poses the biggest challenges in adapting.

So while the kids of today don't have to worry about a third pedal for the clutch and taking their hands off the wheel to change gear, they're faced with plenty of other tasks to perform in the cockpit.

"It's using the tools in a different way," he says. "It's always the same issues. You cannot just decide that you want to go fast.

"If you want to build up to it and do it properly, then you need to take more time. I didn't have my own seat, so I was moving in the faster corners. I could feel that I wasn't being held in tight enough.

"Then if you wanted to take it really seriously, you would go away and make your own seating position, do a couple of days of testing, and then come back after a week and drive again. But you have to be motivated to do that, and I think the way I've done it is fine."

That motivation hints at the answer to an obvious question: why did 16 years pass before one of F1's greatest drivers got back into a contemporary car?

This Red Bull test was Renault's idea, not Prost's. Given only 10 days' notice about the opportunity, he decided to let his curiosity get the better of him. But before then he hadn't been interested in the slightest in getting behind the wheel, even when he ran his own team from 1997-2001.

Prost ran his own F1 team from 1997, but refused to test his cars © LAT

"I've had many opportunities with old teams," he says. "But I could not see any value in it. I drove for McLaren in '95 and '96 because I was working for them [as a technical advisor]. And when I bought my team in 1997, of course I could have done some tests."

But despite the pleas from his engineers, Prost felt the negatives to any sort of test outweighed any potential positives. "My guys kept telling me I should do some tests, saying it would help the team," he adds. "But I always said no. I didn't even want to sit in a car in the garage.

"Remember that when I had my own team, I was still trained. And imagine if, by chance, I went quicker than my drivers? Then it looks ridiculous. On the other side, if I'm very slow, I look stupid. There were no advantages. As far as I was concerned, I was finished.

"I couldn't see any value in it. If you want to do a proper test but you say it's just for fun, then why do it? If the reason to do it is because you have a big ego and you want to show people that you can still be competitive...that's not my style.

"So if you decided to do it, you don't know what to do when you're out there. Do you try to go fast or not? If you only want to go slow, it's ridiculous."

Taking all of that into account, what made him change his mind? This year, Prost has been busy working as a Renault ambassador. The job wasn't supposed to involve him taking to the track in current F1 cars but, as he takes an active role in the development of the firm's 2014 engine, his thirst for knowledge of the sport is increasing.

"There are many different aspects to what I do now," he says. "And there is a lot of work on new projects like the 2014 F1 engine. I find it very interesting.

"So for these reasons, driving a modern car and understanding it is very good. I am going to work very hard with Renault on this, so driving the car is helpful.

I know that I can't go crazy on track, but even what I have done here is enough for me to understand and judge what modern F1 is like."

Prost signs off by saying that his philosophy will never change, and he won't be tempted into conducting a proper test should the opportunity arise.

But he hints that if Renault needs someone to shake down its 2014 engine, which is expected to be ready to run before the end of this year, it "would be another good experience".

No matter how much he fights it, he's still got the bug.

Prost drove his old RE40 a year ago at the same track

Two eras compared: "It's another world"

In the past 12 months, Alain Prost has experienced two Formula 1 cars born 27 years apart.

At the 2011 World Series by Renault meeting at Paul Ricard, Prost jumped back into his 1983 Renault RE40 for some demonstration runs. He was back in the car earlier this year at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, before hopping into the 2010 Red Bull RB6 - again at Paul Ricard - last month.

But despite the fact that he raced the Renault 14 times in the 1983 season, winning four grands prix, he says there is nothing straightforward about jumping back into the turbocharged monster from the past.

"It's impossible to compare those two cars," he says. "It really is another world.

Whenever I am in that [1983] car I keep saying to myself, 'How was it possible to drive these cars, especially around Monaco?' With the gearbox and everything, it is unbelievable.

At a track like here [Paul Ricard] for the first corner you had to think about how you wanted to go down the gearbox. 5-3-2-1? 5-2-1? What do you do with the clutch? Now it's just 'bup-bup-bup-bup'. It really is something else.

"Yes, I raced the 1983 car so I knew it very well, but I already felt more comfortable after just a few laps in the Red Bull."

Sebastian Vettel's view on Prost's drive

"It's nice for Alain to have the chance to drive our car. A car from 2010 is probably quite different to the cars he remembers.

"Obviously he hasn't driven an F1 car for a long time, but he's one of the best drivers ever seen and in terms of feeling one of the best for reliable feedback.

"I know he said there's not much feel in modern cars, but today we still rely on feel. It's unnatural to commit to something that you feel uncomfortable with.

"If I could drive one of Alain's cars I'd be keen to try the 1993 Williams, because it was a dominant car and allowed him to win his fourth world championship. That was a car that was ahead of its time.