15/10/2005
NEWS STORY
Four-time World Champion, Alain Prost, has hit out at F1 rules, both in the way that they are (apparently) forever being changed, and also how they have, in his opinion, damaged this year's championship.
"The real problem is that it (F1) is in a permanent state of conflict," Prost told Le Monde. "The rules are always changing.
"What really upsets me is the 10-place penalty for an unscheduled engine change," he revealed. "It is against the spirit of sport.
"Reliability is important during the race, not in qualifying sessions. The consequence is we have a driver, Kimi Raikkonen, who has won more races than the world champion."
Prost, who will shortly contest the Grand Prix Masters series, suffered as a result of another (thankfully) long abandoned rule, which meant that drivers only retained the results from a (certain) number of races. In 1988 he was 'forced' to 'drop' three second places - Hungary, Belgium and Japan - a total of 18 points, which resulted in a final tally of 87, as opposed to 105. Ayrton Senna won the title with 90 points, having dropped just 4, 3 in Spain and 1 in Portugal.