On This Day: Prost walks away from F1

The glittering Formula 1 career of Alain 'The Professor' Prost came to an end on this day 24 years ago. Having returned from a year-long sabbatical to win the 1993 drivers' title with Williams, being replaced by his long-term rival Ayrton Senna prompted Prost to step away from the sport for good.

Prost retired with 51 race wins among 106 podium finishes in 199 starts and remains among the all-time greats of F1.

At the time of his retirement, only Juan Manuel Fangio's five world titles eclipsed Prost, who has since been joined on four crowns by modern-era dominators Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. Michael Schumacher would go on to win the first of his record seven titles in this year.

Prost had vetoed Williams' attempts to pair him with Senna in 1993, keen to avoid the internal squabbles that had littered their awesome rivalry at McLaren in the late 1980s, and went on to win the title, only after Senna had branded him a "coward" for refusing to team with him.

Frank Williams was determined to work with the enigmatic Brazilian and released the reigning champion in order to bring Senna in.

McLaren, now in need of a star driver to replace Senna, offered Prost the chance to continue his F1 career back at the team where he had won three titles, but the Frenchman declined after testing their Peugeot-powered challenger for 1994, which was only good enough for fourth in the constructors' championship with Mika Hakkinen and Martin Brundle.

"I am not ready to take the risks anymore," Prost said. "To be truthful, I haven't changed my mind since I made my original decision.

"I did the test drive to see if I really wanted to start all over again. The answer is no."

Prost went on to work as a television pundit in his home country before running his own team in F1 for five years. He is now special advisor to Renault.

The '94 season was of course tinged with tragedy as Senna and Roland Ratzenberger were killed in separate accidents at the San Marino Grand Prix.

Prost was a pallbearer at Senna's funeral and said in 1998: "When he died, I said, that I felt a part of me had died also, because our careers had been so bound together. And I really meant it, but I know some people thought it was not sincere. Well, all I can do is try to be as honest as possible."