The full story behind Alain Prost's Ferrari sacking

Those with a keen knowledge of Formula 1 history could not fail to make the link. When Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo publicly criticised star driver Fernando Alonso after the Hungarian Grand Prix for what he saw as derogatory comments about the Scuderia, one name sprung to mind...

Alain Prost.

Twenty-two years ago, Prost was in a similar, perhaps worse, position to Alonso. Having pushed Ayrton Senna close for the 1990 world championship, culminating in the infamous first-corner wipeout at Suzuka, the following season was dire. The Frenchman managed only five podiums in the attractive-but-uncompetitive Ferrari 642 and its replacement, the 643.

By the time Prost arrived in Japan for what would be his final race with Ferrari, it was already common knowledge in the paddock that he would not be staying with the team for another season. Just a few weeks before, he had publicly criticised it for costing him victory in changeable conditions at the Spanish GP.

The relationship was torn further when it emerged from the US that Michael Andretti had been offered a two-year deal to join the Prancing Horse, despite the team having Prost and Jean Alesi under contract for 1992. Andretti declined the offer, choosing to stay loyal to Carl Haas in Indycar, but it made it clear that the Italian team was shopping around.

Suzuka held the penultimate race of the season in 1991. It was business as usual for Ferrari, with Prost qualifying fourth, 1.970 seconds off the pace. He finished in the same position, 80s down.

Prost (left) swamped by the McLarens and Williams away from the start at Suzuka, nine days before parting company with Ferrari © LAT

Nine days later, Ferrari announced that it had parted company with Prost, with test driver Gianni Morbidelli taking his seat in the season finale at Adelaide.

The reason for Prost's sacking, ostensibly, was derogatory comments about the car, specifically his description of it as a truck. But, speaking today about the situation, Prost says there was much more to it.

"Nobody wanted to know what happened," recalls Prost. "There are people who do know, but it was more political. They had proposed to me to be the sporting director together with being a driver... it was really a political game.

"Did you see the interview when I talked about the truck?"

A good question. The infamous truck reference is not quite what it seems, as a look at AUTOSPORT's report of the Japanese GP reveals.

"After only a few laps, Alain reported, the shock absorbers gave up completely and the steering was ridiculously heavy," wrote Nigel Roebuck.

Then came the killer quote...

"It was like a horrible truck to drive," said Prost. "No pleasure at all."

Now, this is slightly different to generically referring to the car as a truck. It's hardly a sackable offense, which supports Prost's claim that Ferrari was a team wracked with politics.

There had certainly been plenty of changes, with sporting director Cesare Fiorio leaving early in the season. And shortly after Prost's departure, Luca di Montezemolo replaced Piero Fusaro as Ferrari president. Several internal shuffles then took place in the weeks that followed.

But going back to Prost's sacking, it was made abundantly clear by team director Claudio Lombardi that it had nothing to do with his performance in the car.

Prost on the Monza podium, one of his five rostrums in 1991 © LAT

"The relationship between a top driver and a top team involved the performance of the driver and then the behaviour of the car," said Lombardi at the time.

"We are very happy with the performance of Alain Prost. I personally worked with Alain for the past four months and he is a very good driver and a fantastic test driver.

"On the second point, his behaviour during this season has not been at the level that Ferrari would like from a top driver.

"His behaviour inside and outside the team meant that Ferrari had to stop the relationship."

When pressed for an example, Lombardi declined to elaborate for legal reasons. "Probably you know what I mean," he said - hinting once again at the truck comments.

Prost suggests that his ousting was largely to combat his growing influence in the team. In short, it was about power.

"It happened, but not the way they told it," says Prost of the truck interview. "I never had any problem with the team itself, I really wanted to help it, I wanted to be more and more involved.

"We knew at the end of 1990 we could not be competitive with the decisions they made. Remember, they fired some guys, they fired Fiorio, they fired some engineers.

"Then, when the guys fired me it was for political reasons...they were fired two weeks later!"

At the time, Prost made it abundantly clear that Ferrari's attitude was what frustrated him most. He compared the way it reacted to struggles with that of McLaren, where despite winning the first four races of the year Senna publicly highlighted the fact that the car was not good enough.

"Remember the beginning of the season for Senna," said Prost in 1991. "However many times he won, he still rung the alarm bells. His team underwent a tough time, but eventually found the right way again and therefore he has become the new world champion.

"This was the result of a positive attitude typical of an English team, while an Italian team is strictly negative."

Prost felt McLaren was superior to Ferrari both on and off the track © LAT

Prost sat out the following season despite a dalliance with Ligier, even going as far as testing for the team before ruling out racing for the squad he would turn into Prost Grand Prix a few years later. As for Ferrari, it brought in the promising Ivan Capelli, who had come so close to winning the 1990 French GP for Leyton House.

Capelli himself was unceremoniously axed with two races to go in 1992 and Ferrari would not win another drivers' championship until Michael Schumacher in 2000.

Prost, meanwhile, plotted his return with Williams in '93, winning the title and then retiring for good.

Shortly after Prost was sacked, former Ferrari driver Michele Alboreto expressed his sympathy for the then three-time world champion, and he felt the political problems could be traced back to the death of Enzo Ferrari in 1988.

"I could see what was coming," said Alboreto in '91. "The FIAT men were beginning to arrive, taking over, and I didn't like what I saw, the way things were being done.

"To be at Ferrari with a good car is fantastic; otherwise, everything is the driver's fault. I understand very well how Alain felt this year."

THE STAND-IN'S STORY

When Ferrari test driver Gianni Morbidelli left Suzuka after retiring his Minardi-Ferrari from the Japanese Grand Prix with a wheel bearing failure, the Italian probably had a pretty clear idea of what to expect from his car in the season finale at Adelaide.

Minardi had occasionally shown an encouraging turn of speed during 1991 - Morbidelli had started the Japanese GP eighth - but Morbidelli had finished only six races and was yet to score a point in his grand prix career.

While he was well aware relations between Prost and Ferrari were far from good, what happened next came as a bolt from the blue.

"I received the call while I was on holiday in Port Douglas, so I was already in Australia," says Morbidelli of the moment he learned he was to race for the Scuderia.

"The call came from Guido Forti, who was not so much my manager but was a good friend of mine as I had raced for him in Formula 3 and Formula 3000.

Morbidelli thought his Australia call-up was a joke at first © LAT

"He said 'listen, you have to do this race with Ferrari this weekend. You won't be driving for Minardi'. C'mon, I thought he was joking."

The 23-year-old was the obvious choice in the circumstances. He knew the car, knew the team and was available.

"The choice of Morbidelli shows the emergency," said Ferrari team director Claudio Lombardi at the time. "He is now the only driver with experience who is able to drive our automatic-gearbox car."

It was the chance of a lifetime for Morbidelli and would be the only time he had the opportunity to race for Ferrari in F1.

"I knew the team perfectly," he recalls. "Even though I'd been with Minardi as a driver for the season, I was still working for Ferrari. So the atmosphere was very familiar for me. It was like being at home. That made it less pressure for me. My sister sent me my overalls over from Italy, because I only had my Minardi stuff!"

Morbidelli acquitted himself very well. In Friday's first qualifying session, after Ferrari had played up to the TV cameras with mechanics removing Prost's name from the car and the garage signage, Morbidelli was sixth fastest, eight-tenths faster than team-mate Jean Alesi. An engine problem on Saturday meant he could not take advantage of the evolving track to improve and he lined up eighth, alongside Alesi.

"It was unbelievable," says Morbidelli of his weekend. "It was a different pressure, because I was racing for a top team and people expect the maximum and expect a good result. There was pressure, but I feel like I did a good job.

"I wasn't very lucky throughout the weekend. During qualifying on the Friday I was in front of Alesi, and I remember he was so pissed off about that. The day after, I don't know what happened but I had a problem with the engine and I couldn't do the qualifying on Saturday. So I started with the time I did on the Friday, and I was eighth."

Little did Morbidelli know that he was about to participate in the shortest world championship race on record, meaning that the record books note he was a Ferrari racer for just 33 miles.

Morbidelli finished third, but was classified sixth, on a rain-hit Ferrari debut © LAT

"Before the race it started to rain," he says. "I was behind [Riccardo] Patrese and in front of me it was like a white wall. I couldn't see anything and was on and off the throttle on the straight.

"And in one moment, boom it was clear. I overtook Patrese without seeing him - I didn't know where he was! It was on the same lap that [Nigel] Mansell crashed with [Gerhard] Berger and they stopped the race."

All of this meant that when the race was red flagged, Morbidelli was third behind only Ayrton Senna and Nelson Piquet. Unfortunately, that lap did not count and in the official results, Morbidelli finished sixth. As the race was so short, only half-points were awarded, meaning the Italian ended the 1991 championship 24th with 0.5 points.

So what of the famous truck-like qualities of the Ferrari? Morbidelli understood Prost's frustrations, but compared with the Minardi he raced for the rest of the year the Ferrari was a very fine car.

"Well, I wonder what he would have thought of the Minardi," asks Morbidelli.

"The car at that time was not competitive enough compared with the Williams and McLaren. And Benetton was fast as well. We had a lot of problems, to be honest, but the Minardi was like driving in another category. So the Ferrari felt fine to me.

"The atmosphere, even from the year before with Mansell, was a little bit strange. It was good for me, because I had my experience, I did well, I was just unlucky because of the weather."

It was Morbidelli's one day in the sun and the following year he was back in the Minardi. There were better results, notably a fortuitous third place in an attritional race at Adelaide for Arrows in 1995, but it was the only podium in his 67-start F1 career. No surprise that it's the same race four years earlier that he is most famous for.

"It was like touching the stars with one hand for one day - it wasn't enough," Morbidelli concludes. "But I can say I did one race in my life for Ferrari."