Jenson Button: Why Alain Prost is my F1 hero

When I was very young I knew nothing about Formula 1. I hadn't encountered it yet. So my earliest memories of watching grands prix are from when I was aged around six or so, around the time my dad bought me my first kart. He was a huge fan of Alain Prost.

At that stage in your life you're still learning a lot about the world, but I'd say the 1986 F1 season was the first I remember watching: the red-and-white McLarens were striking, and usually running near the front.

The championship went down to the last race, but I remember that earlier in the year at the German Grand Prix, Alain had to try to push the car across the finishing line after running out of fuel on the last lap. And he was classified sixth! That's how it was in those days. There were a couple of teams that were so far ahead that you could run out of fuel, get out and push, and still come away with a points finish.

Obviously the tools to measure fuel consumption weren't as accurate as they are today. It's interesting to see pictures from that time: Hockenheim's stadium section looks the same today, except for all the fans, and it's interesting to see that even then you weren't allowed to have cigarette sponsorship there.

The Australian Grand Prix was the season finale, and it was very exciting. The maths was quite complicated in terms of who had to finish where to win the championship, but it was down to Mansell, Prost and Piquet. Mansell and Piquet were both driving for Williams; Prost was in the McLaren.

The only thing I actually remember about that race from watching it at the time was seeing Nigel's tyre exploding, which handed Alain the championship. It's the old adage that to finish first, first you must finish. Prost wasn't just smooth and quick, he was a very 'complete' driver, who had the vision to avoid trouble - for the most part.

The rivalry between Alain and Ayrton Senna defined many years of F1 and it was a privilege to have been growing up then, in the late 1980s, to watch it unfold. My dad and I loved watching those two race.

I like the way Prost used to drive and the way he used to look after the car, the way his approach was about more than just outright laptime - he knew how to build a team around him. Obviously I also liked Ayrton's speed, because he was super-fast over a lap. I respected both of them, but as a youngster I chose Prost.

When he moved to Ferrari it was really funny - to a 10-year old - seeing him in a different car after growing up with him in red-and-white McLarens. I was definitely a driver fan rather than a team fan. Seeing him in a red car was very cool - and that one, the 1990 Ferrari, was a beautiful, stunning car.

Not being in the same team wasn't going to stop Ayrton and Alain being fierce rivals. There's a picture of them both on the podium together in Alain's last grand prix - at Adelaide in 1993. Prost was with Williams for his last F1 season and he won the title pretty comfortably.

On the podium, Ayrton is looking thoughtful and moody even though he's won the race - and I think it's because he knows Alain is leaving the sport. I heard that he phoned him quite a lot, saying: "Why are you retiring?"

He'd lost his main rival. There are and were many great drivers in F1 but when you've been through so much with one person, both good and bad, it means a lot. You miss them when they're gone. Even if you're winning everything, you miss the challenge of having that other driver who used to push you to your limits.

Even though there was a lot of hatred between them, there was a lot of respect. With a competitive team-mate, when you beat them you think: 'That was awesome.' It puts your achievement in context. If you're paired with a new driver, or someone with less experience, it doesn't mean as much when you beat them.

I didn't get to meet Alain until I tested for his F1 team at the end of 1999 in Barcelona. I was only 19 years old and in the middle of this crazy time. I'd been on holiday in Mexico - I was going to be there for two weeks - but after five days I got the call to come back and test the car. I was so excited to meet Alain and drive his car.

I was in the car after Jean Alesi - he'd driven it the day before - and it was me and Nick Heidfeld testing that day. I went faster than Alesi had done the day before, so, for me, having grown up watching him race, to go quicker than him felt very special. I didn't know anything about fuel loads, or old and new tyres. All I knew was what the stopwatch said. I was going to take that! I loved every second of it.

It was actually a really nice car to drive. But I remember on my final lap, as I was going through Turn 3, the engine seized and the rear wheels locked solid. I'd done 33 laps, which wasn't a lot in total, but it felt like I'd done enough to show I had speed in a racing car. Whether I could set a car up was another thing - and I couldn't. I had a lot to learn.

More recently I've had the opportunity to drive Alain's championship-winning MP4/2C at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. I've always loved Goodwood. Lord March puts on a great show and you always get to drive such special cars. This one, a car from the 1980s, originally driven by my racing hero, was probably the most special experience I've had there.

It is an amazing bit of kit. F1 cars have massive power now but you know it's coming, whereas with this thing you don't. There's no power at all from the 1.5-litre engine until the turbo kicks in, and it spools up, and then suddenly you get this massive hit in the back. It's a different kind of challenge altogether.

McLaren have a whole department, led by Neil Trundle, who used to be one of the chief mechanics of the race team, dedicated to keeping these machines running, and you can see how pleased they are when a current driver gets into a classic and is really excited about it.

I've also had the privilege of getting to know Alain himself a lot better in recent years. He's very wise, still incredibly competitive and now really into cycle racing. We rode to Italy from Monaco this year and he's mega-fit.

He's going to the world championships this year in his age group. He's done that for the past couple of years, but the courses have been flat and obviously he's quite little, so they've favoured riders with more power. This year there are some hills, so I reckon he's got a great chance of being a world champion on two wheels as well as four. How incredible would that be?

It's great when we ride together. We don't always talk about motor racing but sometimes we do, and it's always very interesting to hear his comments about matters of moment. You can see why he was known as 'The Professor'.

Jenson Button was talking to Stuart Codling