Topic: Winning and Success

Pedro de la Rosa

Pedro Martínez de la Rosa is a Spanish Formula One driver who has participated in 107 Grands Prix for the Arrows, Jaguar, McLaren, Sauber and HRT F1 teams, debuting on 7 March 1999, becoming one of very few drivers to score a point at his first race. He has scored a total of 35 championship points, which includes a podium finish at the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix.

On 21 November 2011, De la Rosa signed a two-year contract to drive for the HRT F1 team, but he only remained with the team for one season, after HRT withdrew from the 2013 team list, leaving him without a drive for the 2013 season. On 16 January 2013, De la Rosa was announced as the Ferrari development driver for the 2013 Formula One season.

He is now the technical and sporting advisor to the Techeetah Formula E team. De la Rosa also runs a driving school and racing team called Drivex.

Matthew Pinsent

In 1992 Matthew graduated in Geography from St Catherine's College, Oxford, where he was President of the Oxford Rowing Club. He took part in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race in 1990 and 1991, when Oxford beat Cambridge by substantial distances.

Also in 1992, at the age of only 21, Matthew Pinsent had his first taste of Olympic success, when in a Coxless Pair with partner Sir Steve Redgrave, he won the Gold Medal at the Barcelona Olympics. Prior to that Olympic win he and Redgrave had enjoyed an unbeaten international season, and it was already obvious that Matthew was developing into one of the world's greatest oarsmen.

At the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 the Pinsent and Redgrave duo won another Gold Medal and throughout the nineties their outstanding combination also brought them 7 World Championship Gold's.

Their unbroken run of successes continued through to the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney when Pinsent, again with Redgrave (now in a Coxless Four with James Cracknell and Tim Foster) again triumphed earning Pinsent his 3rd Olympic Gold Medal. The Race in which he did it was voted ‘Britain's Greatest Sporting Moment' and the crew secured themselves a very special place in the heart of the nation.

After Sydney, Matthew formed a seemingly invincible Coxless Pair partnership with James Cracknell MBE. Undefeated throughout 2001, they went on to complete a unique feat in the history of rowing, by winning the Coxless Pair at the World Championships in Lucerne, only two hours after winning the Coxed Pairs.

In the 2002 World Championships in Seville they defended their Coxless Pairs title, beating an experienced Australian crew who had beaten them in Lucerne earlier in the year and in the process breaking the world record by 4 seconds.

In 2003 an extremely uncharacteristic "bad day at the office" in the World Championship final meant that for the first time in 11 years Matthew ended the year without a gold medal.

On Saturday 21st August 2004 at the Athens Olympic Games, Matthew Pinsent CBE entered Olympic history. In one of the classic sporting moments of all time, he led the Great Britain Coxless four to victory in the Canadian World Champions by only eight one hundredths of a second. The GB crew of Matthew, James Cracknell, Ed Coode and Steve Williams competed for the lead with Canada throughout the 2000 metre race and with 200 metres to go the Canadians took the lead. However, in traditional fashion Matthew increased the stroke rate and the British boat clawed back the lead to win by inches. At the end none of the crew knew who had won…until the roar of the British supporters confirmed victory.

The crew dedicated their boat and race to Alex Partridge whose freak injury in July denied him from being part of the Four. In the aftermath, Matthew Pinsent was emotionally and physically drained. After a year of highs and lows, it was the perfect response to the doubters who had wondered if Britain could win and if Jurgen Grobler had made a mistake putting Matthew and James Cracknell in the coxless four.

Matthew is an outstanding Motivational and After Dinner Speaker. He has appeared at corporate events for some very prestigious companies such as Canada Life, Nokia, Manulife, Procter & Gamble, IBM, British Telecom, British Airways Nat West, Camelot and Lombard.

Matthew was awarded the MBE in the 1993 New Year's Honours List and the CBE in the New Years Honours list 2000.

Since retiring from rowing, Pinsent has worked for the BBC as a sports bulletin presenter and reporter. He was part of the BBC commentary team at the London 2012 Olympics.

In June 2012, Pinsent rowed on the Gloriana as part of the royal pageant for the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. He appeared again on the Gloriana the following month, bearing the Olympic torch as it crossed the river Thames.

Alain Prost

Alain Marie Pascal Prost, Order of the British Empire and the Chevalier de la Legion d’honneur is a French racing driver, born 24 February 1955.

A four-time Formula One Drivers' Champion. Only Sebastian Vettel (four championships), Juan Manuel Fangio   (five championships), and Michael Schumacher (seven championships) have equalled or surpassed his number of titles. From 1987 until 2001 Prost held the record for most Grand Prix victories. Schumacher surpassed Prost's total of 51 victories at the 2001 Belgian Grand Prix.

Prost discovered karting at the age of 14 during a family holiday. He progressed through motor sport's junior ranks, winning the French and European Formula Three championships, before joining the McLaren Formula One team in 1980 at the age of 25. He finished in the points on his Formula One debut and took his first race victory at his home Grand Prix in France a year later, while he was driving for Renault's factory team.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Prost formed a fierce rivalry with Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell. In 1986, at the last race of the season, he managed to pip Mansell and Nelson Piquet of Williams to the title. Senna joined Prost at McLaren in 1988 and the two had a series of controversial clashes, including a collision at the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix that gave Prost his third Drivers' Championship. A year later at the same venue they collided again, but this time Prost, driving for Ferrari, lost out.

His time at Ferrari had further controversy, as his antics caused Mansell to become disgruntled and quit, and Prost was fired after a dismal 1991 season when he publicly criticized the team. After a sabbatical in 1992, Prost joined the Williams team, prompting reigning drivers' champion Mansell to leave for CART. With a competitive car, Prost won the 1993 championship but he retired at the end of the year rather than be teammates with Senna who signed for 1994.

In 1997, Prost took over the French Ligier team, running it as Prost Grand Prix until it went bankrupt in 2001. In 2006, Prost started his fourth year in the Andros Trophy, which is an ice racing competition.

Prost employed a smooth, relaxed style behind the wheel, deliberately modeling himself on personal heroes like Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark. He was nicknamed 'The Professor' for his intellectual approach to competition. Skilled at setting up his car for race conditions, Prost would often conserve his brakes and tyres early on in a race, leaving them fresher for a challenge at the end of the race.

Motor sport journalist Denis Jenkinson described Prost as "a very warm and uncomplicated man who doesn't rely on passion or inspiration. Nor does he indulge in showmanship or bullshit. He is capable of a level of mental discipline beyond the comprehension of most people."