Formula 1: Was Alain Prost robbed of a fifth world title?

Alain Prost retired after the 1993 Formula 1 season and went out on top, winning the 1993 title. But should that have been his fifth as opposed to his fourth?

It’s impossible to remember Alain Prost’s Formula 1 career without thinking about his intense McLaren rivalry with the legendary Ayrton Senna in the late 1980s. The two took turns winning and finishing runner-up to their teammate in the 1988 and 1989 seasons.

But Prost’s career was legendary in its own right and goes beyond what happened in those two entertaining seasons. He retired in the 1993 season on top, winning the title after taking a sabbatical in 1992.

He retired a four-time champion, the second in the history of the sport, and a 51-time race winner, which was the all-time record at the time.

Nearly three decades later, only three drivers have won more titles and only three drivers have won more races.

More from Formula One

• Formula 1: Top Red Bull threat identified for 2024
• Formula 1: Why the Max Verstappen retirement obsession?
• Formula 1: Williams ‘mistake’ hints Logan Sargeant’s future
• Formula 1 awaiting key confirmation for 2024 season
• Formula 1: The ‘championship’ Max Verstappen only leads by 3 points

But should he really have been a five-time champion, a mark that would have tied Juan Manuel Fangio for the record at the time and would rank behind only two drivers to this day?

The 2020 season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix highlighted a bizarre McLaren statistic that highlighted one particular race in the team’s history, with that being the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix. Carlos Sainz Jr., on the 55th and final lap of his final race driving for the Woking-based team, drove his #55 Renault E-Tech 20 1.6 V6 t-powered McLaren MCL35 to a sixth place finish, scoring eight points. With teammate Lando Norris having finished in fifth and scoring 10 points, that brought the team’s all-time point total to 5,555.5.

But Formula 1 has never used an official scoring system which awards half-points. So how did this happen?

It happened in the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix, which was, ironically, the race that many believe marked the “arrival” of Prost’s future rival.

The sixth race on the 1984 schedule, contested 37 years ago today, was scheduled to be a 76-lap race around the 19-turn, 2.057-mile (3.310-kilometer) Circuit de Monaco temporary street circuit in Monte Carlo, Monaco.

The race was run in wet weather after a delay for heavy rain, but after 31 laps, it was decided that the conditions were too poor for the race to continue. The race was official, but with a catch.

Prost, who started from the pole position and led 26 laps, including the final 16, was the race winner, while Niki Lauda failed to score points after spinning off and retiring after just 23 laps.

On a side note, Senna finished in what was a career-high second place in his fifth career start, recording the race’s fastest lap for the first time in his career and showcasing his prowess in the rain as a young rookie.

But full points were not awarded for this event as a result of the fact that it was drastically shortened. So the nine points which Prost would have scored became just 4.5.

At the end of the season, Prost had 71.5 points instead of 76. Lauda, who didn’t lose any points as a result of this decision, had 72 and won what would be his third and final title by just 0.5 points. Prost was ultimately denied what would have been his first.

Prost went on to win four of his own throughout the rest of his career, with his first two coming back-to-back in the next two seasons.