I was born on November 20, 1972, and grew up in Gersau, a village with less than 1900 inhabitants (back at the time), situated in the centre of Switzerland, next to Lake Lucerne and between the mountains. - Actually, I still think it's one of the most beautiful places on earth...

I am a fan of the French Formula 1-driver Alain Prost since having watched the first races on TV. In 1984 I got an Alain Prost sticker at a Shell fuel station, which was the beginning to my Prost collection. In February 1987, a nice portrait about him was published in a Swiss magazine and I decided to put it aside. In the following months, I saw some other pictures and articles about Alain in newspapers and magazines and began to collect all of them. So, I became more and more a fan of Alain and soon began to collect photos of him as well as some model cars. I bought Alain Prost-books and posters and made some advertisements in motorsport magazines. Like this, I found more people with the same or similar interests and began to exchange various items. Nowadays I'm collecting just everything and anything of Alain and his family. Over the years, I collected many thousands of newspaper clippings and magazine pictures about Alain from many different countries (mainly from Switzerland, France, Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, USA, Macedonia, Hungary, Austria, Italy, Japan, Estonia, Lithuania and Australia). I have also collected thousands of original photos of Alain, hundreds of autographs, tons of stickers, videos, model cars, pins, clothing, autographs, more than 30 different books written by or over Alain and a lot of other memorabilia of him.

I have also visited quite a few Formula 1 Grand Prix. You can find some of my older memories here. Please excuse that bad language skills I had back then, as my mother tongue is Swiss German. But here you go:

• Australian GP, Adelaide, 1993
• Belgium GP, Spa-Francorchamps, 1996
• Monaco GP, Monte-Carlo, 1997
• Monaco GP, Monte-Carlo, 1998
• British GP, Silverstone, 1999
• Monaco GP, Monte-Carlo, 2000
• Monaco GP, Monte-Carlo, 2002

Besides this, I visited the CART Grand Prix of Detroit 1999 (just for fun) and went to the F1 tests in Silverstone on 18th August 1999 as a guest of the Sauber team. On 19th July 2000, I had the possibility to attend the F1-tests in Silverstone again. Both times, it was very special, as I met many F1 drivers. I also have met many Formula 1 drivers here in Switzerland, for example James Hunt and Clay Regazzoni in Gollion, Jacques Villeneuve, David Coulthard and Damon Hill in Villars-sur-Ollon, Eddie Irvine in Emmen, Nick Heidfeld, Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa in Hinwil and Jarno Trulli in Schwyz, to name just a few of them.

I have already met Alain Prost several times: The first time was in Adelaide in November 1993, Alain's last Formula 1 race. I saw him again a few days later at Singapore airport, where he had to change flights (coming from Adelaide). Alain was actually having the same flight itinerary as me (at least until Paris)! The third time I saw Alain was in Monaco in May 2000. In September 2002, Alain was competing in a bicycle race in Engelberg, close to where I live, so of course I went there to see him... In January 2005 I met him in Lans-en-Vercors, where he was racing in the Andros Trophy and in May 2005 in Dijon, where Alain was racing in the French GT Championship. In January 2010 and January 2011 I met him at the Andros Trophy race of Saint-Dié-des Vosges. He even gave me his trophy in 2010, I'll never forget that! I have met Alain quite a few times since then and I'm very proud that he, my childhood hero, knows me by name in the meantime and also follows me on Instagram.

Since Alain's son Nicolas has started racing, I have also visited several races he participated in: Magny-Cours (in 2007 and 2021), Spa-Francorchamps (2008 - 2016), Saint-Dié-des Vosges (2010 - 2012) and Nürburgring (in 2009, 2010, 2015 and 2016). I also saw him at two triathlons he took part in (Lausanne 2009 and Nyon 2010), at the Mucokart event in Vuiteboeuf (2012 - 2014) at the Gstaad Classic in 2013 and also at Le Castellet 2013, where he drove some demo laps in a Lotus F1 car.

As a kid I didn't have many other hobbies besides the hobby called "Alain Prost". All my other hobbies always had somewhat of a relation to that hobby.

When I got a bit older, I had a steering wheel on my computer during several years and drove races from time to time, but nowadays I don't have time for that anymore. However, I was racing in Trackmania Nations Forever until 2010. I started racing for Team RealF1Racing (RFR) in 2006 and stayed with them for over a year. At the time, RFR-team members had to qualify by setting a certain time on the Monaco race track, which happens to be my favourite track. At the end of 2007 I changed to the BBG F1-Clan, where I raced for another year. In 2009 and 2010 I still drove some races for the fun of it as an independent driver...

I also like music of course. I listen to a wide variety. My favourite music groups are The Warning (a three-sister-band from Mexico), Iron Maiden (heavy metal from Britain), Roxette (pop from Sweden), Vixen (mainly in the old line-up with singer Janet Gardner), Def Leppard, Bon Jovi and I also like other genres like Trance. For a while (back in the 90's), I was creating some (mainly German) files for Real Orche, which was was the world leading Midi Karaoke machine at the time. My cousin had a website where he provided those Karaoke files, so I helped him with that. Another hobby is to help other fans of Alain to enlarge their collection and exchange articles with other F1-fans... I also have been designing/hosting some websites for friends and family.

A while ago, I also started to collect autographs of racing drivers (mainly F1 drivers), mainly on big sized photos (size A4). If you are interested in exchanging Formula 1 autographs, please let me know. I exchange any autographs against Alain Prost autographs and also buy your Prost-autographs (and sell my other autographs, but not Prost ones). You can always ask me for a quote.

I also take photos at the races I visit. In 2015, I finally bought my first DSLR camera, a Nikon D7100. I then started to work as a freelance press photographer/journalist. I do have a press pass. You can find my photographer website at www.motorsportphotos.ch

Of course I also have to work to earn the money I spend for my Prost-collection. Since May 1994, I'm working for the canton of Schwyz. I started off as a tax officer at the source tax department, where I worked for 11 years (as you might know, many famous F1 drivers and team personnel were living in the canton of Schwyz at that time: Kimi Räikkönen or Felipe Massa, for example). Since 2005, I'm working at the IT department of the tax administration in changing roles.

Well, I guess that's all for now. I always like to hear from other Prost-fans, so don't hesitate to contact me. You can also find out more about the history of this website.

Prostfan.com is also on Facebook, so you can stop by there for more pictures and latest news about the Prost family... Don't forget to like the page when you're there! However, I'm more active on Instagram at the moment: @prostist on Instagram