BBV10s Debrief: Send us your thoughts on Prost and Ligier in 1992!
Added 2025-03-03 11:24:33 +0000 UTCThe Bring Back V10s Debrief is returning after a short break! Now the pesky F1 car launches and testing for 2025 are out of the way, we can get back to basking in the V10 era.
So cast your mind back to episode six of season 11, when we covered the Alain Prost/Ligier saga of early 1992, and let us know your thoughts, comments and questions!
Comments
Seems more likely that Senna ends up at Williams in 93, no?
Aaron
2025-03-05 02:38:51 +0000 UTCAnother rabbit hole time- If Prost joins Williams for 92 as was discussed, is he still around to block Senna in 93? Or does he get that final title in 92 and retire to keep kicking the tires on Ligier until 97, or does he jump in then? And if Prost retires after 92, do we get a Senna/Williams title in 93, or Mansell comes back a year later paired with Hill or Senna at Williams?
Robeson
2025-03-03 23:33:27 +0000 UTCIs it ultimately a failure of French politics and business that the 90s French superteam failed after the ambitions of the 70s and 80s?
Simon Emms
2025-03-03 22:51:51 +0000 UTCDo you think Alain Prost could've thrived as a team principal in a different team? Maybe a higher midfield team with better backing... Also going back to my question on the 2002 US GP, I liked your answer of Kimi Raikkonen for who'd have the best chance of winning the Indy 500. I was tempted to say Jarno Trulli on one of his good days. (Not sure the Trulli train would work quite so well though)
Liam Scully
2025-03-03 18:14:39 +0000 UTCMy main thought here is just how much I abso-LUT-LEY love the wonderfully weird and wacky nature of the characters in this era. I mean yes, bring back the engines, but mainly, bring back the personality and colour. All this corporate speak nowadays can get in the bin. Bring back Eddie Jordan and Guy Ligier I say.
Benjamin
2025-03-03 17:40:40 +0000 UTCIf Prost had bought into Ligier in 92, I presume he would have blocked Flavio taking the Renault engines for Benetton. Would that have forced Flavio to retain the Ford engines for Michael’s 94 & 95 title bids, and how would those title seasons have gone with an indifferent Ford supplying them??
Kyle Tyler-Biggs
2025-03-03 17:21:50 +0000 UTCWould a Prost livery back in the early 90s have been a better prospect than the corporate one we eventually got in 1997?
Oliver Dale
2025-03-03 17:13:27 +0000 UTCAmong all the chat of french superteams, was there ever any discussion around Ligier, Larousse, AGS, Dams etc joining forces? If that had happened, would it have been an unmitigated disaster (probably)?
Tom Miller
2025-03-03 17:08:47 +0000 UTCThe livery got me to try Gitanes when I still smoked in my 20s... but not a very remarkable cigarette
Joseph P Herbias
2025-03-03 17:05:54 +0000 UTCWhat would have happebd if renauly bought ligier or gave them works stauts would that have worked better
Andy Barber
2025-03-03 16:26:10 +0000 UTCWhat would happen to Ligier 1997 onwards if Prost did not acquire them?
Peter Selecký
2025-03-03 16:22:57 +0000 UTCNot a long or elaborate point, but this never actually works right?! I can't see any scenario where if this happens, it's a success by any metric. Sorry to be negative, big fan of BBV10's and The Race in general
Adam Brewer
2025-03-03 16:13:43 +0000 UTCI am not surprised Williams and especially Renault wanted Prost over Mansell for 92. Let’s park hindsight for a moment, Nigel hadn’t shown he could sow up a championship and 91 hadn’t helped that theory one bit. Also in 91 Patrese had at times been faster, certainly more times than you would expect for a comfortable no.2. Of course history shows that the 92 car was so good it didn’t matter and Nigel thrived in it and Riccardo didn’t. But had McLaren turned up then Williams might have had good cause to be nervous. This isn’t taking anything away from Nigel who was one hell of a racer but Williams wanted a championship and up to 92 to do that against McLaren and Senna you needed someone that made very few mistakes. Is that Mansell or Prost? I’d say on the evidence of 90 through to 91 it’s Prost. Just a shame Williams didn’t elbow Riccardo so we could see for ourselves in 92
Brendan Queenan
2025-03-03 15:55:05 +0000 UTCWhat other stories of world champions almost joining back of the grid, or lower midfield, teams deserve being told? I know there were several that did actually happen, e.g. Fittipaldi to Copersucar, Hill to Arrows or Villeneuve to BAR; and plenty has been said about those. So just the "almost" ones please 😉
Jan Alexander
2025-03-03 15:17:02 +0000 UTCAs Prost entered the twilight of his driving career, he seemed to be being walking a tightrope between being a potential team owner and also a driver for quite a while. Given the amount of post-retirement testing that Prost went on to do (even beyond the 93 season), do you think his heart was set on driving or team ownership by 1992?
Steve D
2025-03-03 15:16:06 +0000 UTCIs there any chance that Prost’s flirtations with driving for or even buying Ligier were more of a marketing ploy to increase interests (especially French ones) in the team rather than a genuine outcome at the time, considering the realistic possibilities of Prost getting a future drive at Benetton or Williams? It seems like at the time this “will he won’t he” was a great way to keep both Prost and Ligier relevant and in the news even more than if Prost actually drove for them.
sabrina
2025-03-03 15:09:05 +0000 UTCIf Prost had bought and drove for the team in 1992 onwards does the French super team dream become any more likely? Ok so yes he don’t get access to the Williams and the title in 93 however . I can’t help but think that getting support from Renault means that he has an engine partner who’s more committed then Peugeot Could you make a case for Renault staying in f1 after 97 because of the allure of the French super team ?
Simracer Sam
2025-03-03 14:16:33 +0000 UTCIf Prost had missed racing too much and decided to take the Ligier drive in 92, presumably this rules him out of going to Williams in 93? Assuming Prost doesn't go to Williams as he stays at Ligier (or buys them out a few years early if he decides to quit at the end of 92) is it more likely Mansell stays at Williams, or Senna goes there one year early? Either way, it feels like Prost's decisions at this time changed the future, way more than we realised.. Imola 94 probably never happens if senna goes to Williams early achieves a few more championships, and his pole record especially becomes almost uncatchable, or else Mansell stays + he never gets to indycar and win all that he achieved there but ends up a two or three time world champion.. Thoughts?
Aidan Dulohery
2025-03-03 13:27:45 +0000 UTCBienvenue aux coin de sympathie de Thierry Boutsen!
Chris Parrott
2025-03-03 12:49:14 +0000 UTCIt seems such a bizarre anomaly that, given its rich, storied and lengthy motor racing history, that Alain Prost remains France’s sole Formula One world champion. How, Glenn, do you account for that and do you think any other French driver of the V10 era could have been world champion in the right equipment i.e. definitely not a Ligier!!
Chris Parrott
2025-03-03 12:46:52 +0000 UTCI feel like we need to introduce a BBV10-special Thierry Boutsen Sympathy Corner Between Mansell claiming to be 1.5 seconds faster than him in the 1990 Williams, and the claims that Prost was 2 seconds faster than him in the Ligier, poor Boutsen is being out to be “Deletraz-esque” when in fact he was a very decent driver, who could certainly do a job even if he was never Champion material. By the way, you can have the newly coined term “Deletraz-esque” for free😊
Rich Snape
2025-03-03 12:41:45 +0000 UTCWith this being a couple of years before the alleged talks between Senna and Jordan for Senna to take a stake in the team, what could have happened if Jordan made a similar offer to Prost? Would this have been more likely to get off the ground than the Ligier deal and how would the subsequent years have changed as a result?
Michael Sanderson
2025-03-03 11:53:52 +0000 UTCThe story of Prost almost driving for Ligier is fascinating. If Prost had gone ahead, which race would have been his best and what would the result have been? I think maybe in the French GP a podium behind the two Williams might have been possible
Disc Infiltrator
2025-03-03 11:48:17 +0000 UTCBecoming very interested in Motorsports history I got really fascinated by the desire to create motorsport teams that would become the epicentre of motorsport excellence for a country - BRM, Dan Gurney's AAR did, even Toyota and Honda emphasised their origins. I always have wondered why, it has rarely been successful, so why would a French national F1 team have done any better??
Alexander Law
2025-03-03 11:46:53 +0000 UTCI think this has been my favourite Bring Back V10's episode. I'll admit to being a Prost fan at heart but the story of what nearly happened in 1992 has always fascinated me. With Williams on the horizon for 93' Prost played his cards as only he can to get the best seat for that year.
Simon Pope
2025-03-03 11:40:37 +0000 UTCThe pace advantage that Prost is thought to have had over Ligier's actually 1992 driver line up feels hard to believe. It would suggest that the 1989/90 Williams would have been incredibly competitive if it had had Prost behind the wheel. Is there any proof to back up these claims?
Mark Martin
2025-03-03 11:30:52 +0000 UTCIf Prost had signed for Benetton for 1992, would this have effectively ended Martin Brundle's F1 career? I've always felt his performances in 1992 alongside Schumacher helped rejuvenate his stuttering F1 career, whereas if he had spent another year in a Brabham (or some other backmarker fodder), he possibly would never have got the subsequent drives at Ligier, McLaren and Jordan.
Stuart Coulter
2025-03-03 11:28:17 +0000 UTC
