# Racing F1: What made Alain Prost a "tactical genius"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racing-f1-what-made-alain-prost-a-tactical-genius/256823>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [July 25, 2004, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racing-f1-what-made-alain-prost-a-tactical-genius/256823 "2004-07-25T17:17:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Silocke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Silocke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silocke)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2004, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racing-f1-what-made-alain-prost-a-tactical-genius/256823/1 "2004-07-25T17:17:43Z")

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I’ve watched the guy on a couple of old tapes. I will admit that one impressive feature he _does_ have is that he manages to sort of win without winning (or going fastest - for lack of a better word). He kind of comes up on the drivers stealthily - and though I found him by far the most fascinating to watch, I just don’t get why people rate him such a “tactically astute mind” (at least according to Clive James).

Bear in mind I was watching races from the '84 and '85 season. Maybe his mental sharpness wasn’t quite as prolific as it (maybe) was in later years. I only started watching Formula One from 2002 so I’m not quite so aware of it’s history - but what exactly is there so much to be “tactical” about? I mean I know car set-up is important; but most of that is done by the teams right? How much input can a driver have? And even if it is quite substantial, I don’t know why you would give Prost so much credit for it.