History question: Jerez

[Bibendum]

I have just read James Allen's comments about the podium in Austria. He says:

"I recall that Jerez lost its GP status because one of its dignitaries caused embarrassment on the podium, so it is taken very seriously at the FIA."

Can anyone here confirm that this was the case and, if so, do you know what the "dignitary" *did* to cause embarassment?

Thanks!
Bibendum

[Red]

Yes. Can't remember the details but it was some mayor (?) who really-really wanted to award one of the trophies while he was not on the list. The officials allowed that eventually and FIA was not exactly happy.

[Bibendum]

Thanks, Red! Maybe he'd drunk too much Sherry...

[Speedworx]

It is very true and happened at the 1997 meeting.

[Muzza]

Yes, and it was indeed the Mayor of Jerez the dignitary that stormed to the podium, as reported by the international press of then.

However, it is very simplistic to believe that that was the reason that led FIA to take Formula 1 out of Jerez. This was just an excuse the FIA needed to justify it. And the FIA did all the necessary to broadcast it on the most convenient manner to the press community - something like "you see how we are tough? We are the ones in control, so behave".

I remember noticing how pathetic this "grandiose" attitude by the FIA what. That poor local bully just gave FIA what they wanted.

The real reasons why the GP is not run in Jerez anymore are:

- the guys behind the race in Jerez has always been in opposition to the main parties at the Spanish Federation. It is unnecessary to remember how close the FIA is to the national federations and the servant role the latter pay to the first (I happen to know this all too well). So Jerez's guys were not really "the best friends" FIA could have in Spain, and they were not friends of FIA's friends in Spain either. But since Spain did not have another circuit able to host a GP, it was run in Jerez for a while. Things changed when Montmelò (Barcelona) was built;

- about Barcelona. The Catalan arm of the Spanish federation has been subservient to the FIA since its foundation. Just a single example: the 1975 Spanish GP, run in Montjuic, when the local police was sent to the organizers to force the teams to race, even after the track failed to pass the drivers' safety inspection (not surprisingly, it PASSED the FIA inspection). Well, the GP was run, Rolf Stommelen crashed, vaulted over a very poorly built barrier and killed five people. Nevertheless, the organizers were never, ever summoned (the race just moved back to Jarama, the backyard of the Spanish Federation);

- since the first GP in Jerez there had been "misunderstandings" between the FIA and the local organizers about the number of credentials and who should receive them. This was reported on every single Grand Prix run there;

- the FIA was very "critical" to the lack of spectators in Jerez. This makes me sick. I take my hat off to the Jerez organizers. They did everything by themselves, from raising sponsors to promoting the race. The support by the Spanish Federation was almost zero. There were even folks from the Federation saying that the circuit was too far away, and that people would never go there. Well, the Spanish Moto GP gets 200.000 people there PER DAY every year - with the help of the Spanish Moto Federation.

- When the race was run there in 1997 that only happened because the calendar was shuffled after being published. The race was not to be repeated anyway.

- I could go on and on...

So, please do not believe that the F-1 does not go back to Jerez because of that bully Mayor. There were other reasons, of political and of non-technical nature, that took the GP away.

Finally, it is interesting that we are talking about this today, soon after the Austrian GP, when many young F-1 fans (or at least younger than me) lost their innocence about what was once a sport.

Cheers,

[f1manoz]

The reason crowds are usually poor compared to motorcycling is simply popularity.

The Spanish adore motorcycle racing and it helps when Spaniards are successful in all three classes. Anyone who watched the last race Jerez when Fonsi Nieto won the 250cc race would understand what I mean by fanatical Spaniards.

Formula One, on the other hand in Spain, is not well understood and due to lack of Spanish success, no one really cares, although crowd figures have improved in the past few seasons.

But Formula One will never equal MotoGP/WSBK success unless there is a successful Spanish driver.

[Muzza]

Originally posted by f1manoz
The reason crowds are usually poor compared to motorcycling is simply popularity.

(...original message shortened...)

But Formula One will never equal MotoGP/WSBK success unless there is a successful Spanish driver.

This is correct, but the lack of support and promotion to the F-1 race in Jerez was blatant.

The sky-high tickets for a F-1 race also make a big difference. On a "amount of fun - and sportivity... - per peseta" ratio, would an average fan buy a Moto GP or a F-1 one?

[Mr V]

Originally posted by Muzza
However, it is very simplistic to believe that that was the reason that led FIA to take Formula 1 out of Jerez.

i remember thinking at the time that if bernie had taken the race away from jerez just because some "attention seeker" stormed the podium, why didn't they (jerez) just sue? obviously, as muzza points out, there was more to it! (muzza, your a very informed man! )

[Schummy]

Being a resident in Spain, my view is basically the same as Muzza's. It was mostly FIA politics and it is unfair to say simply that Jerez's mayor is a fool or something like that.

He DID Jerez circuit out of nothing and it was the first respectable F1 track in Spain for many years, and got a GP for Spain when it had lost it. From time to time he does questionable things but basically the guy was a central part in recovering a GP for Spain.

[Bibendum]

Muzza, many thanks for an interesting account. I did feel that the "podium incident" explanation was probably grossly simplified and there probably was some iceberg or another of which this was just the tip.

[jclab]

The name of the mayor is Pedro Pacheco.

[Valve Bounce]

Many of the locals in Portugal also react quite fanatically after the motorcycle or F1 GP's. I was in a seaside town just after the Portuguese F1 GP (I think Damon won) and all night the locals were buzzing around the streets in their motor cycles. Sleep was simply impossible.

However, the podium celebration at Zeltweg was different: it was MSch orchestrating who should stand on the top step, and who should receive the winner's trophy. I know most of us will argue that he did so out of some kind feeling towards Rubens (I wouldn't argue against that) triggered by the strong reaction of the crowd against his win.
It can be interpreted by the FIA that showed MSch and not the FIA runs the show.

Valve[img]http://www.**************************/smilies/bouncy.gif[/img]

[Hans.ca]

Muzza, why was the F1 race moved from Jarama? I covered in 1973 and found it a very good track except for my run in with the Guardia not so Civil.

[Bibendum]

VBounce -- yes, quite; I didn't mean to suggest there was any comparison between the two cases. The more I think about it, the more I am cross about MS's hypocritical patronizing of Rubens on the podium; it just seems very off, to me. And that has nothing to do with Jerez, of course. I was simply curious about that, and am delighted to have had a good history lesson from Muzza (and uzzas).

[Muzza]

Hello, Hans.ca, Bibendum and colleagues,

(this is long, but hopefully interesting)

(Schummy, please bring your comments in)

The Formula 1 race was moved from Jarama due to two reasons. The first (the one that really matters) has to do with - guess what... - local politics.

The early eighties were the years when the FISA (that later would become the FIA) and the FOCA were fighting hard (remember the fracas of the 1982 San Marino GP), an era prior to the Accord de La Concorde.

In Spain, things were not so different: there were two entities fighting to organize the race, the Spanish Federation itself (the FEA) and the Royal Automobile Club of Spain (the RACE, that owned that Jarama track. By the way, it still owns). The FEA was actually a mere intermediary between the RACE and the FISA. In short words, the RACE was organizing the whole event, but the big wigs worked for the FEA, and the two groups were engaged in a political war.

The situation was tenser year after year. The FISA president was Jean-Marie Balestre (no comments, please) and his vice-president was a rich Spaniard with the name of Fernando de Baviera. Baviera was getting embarrassed with the fact that the "FISA friends" - the FEA - were not running the show, and in 1980 he tried to force the RACE to pass the honor to the FEA.

Obviously the RACE did not agree and the argumentation went skywards. The situation got to a stand still when the RACE (cleverly) announced to the FEA that if this latter organ was to run the race, they would need to look for another track. Well, at the time there was no other circuit in Spain!

So Balestre, Baviera, the FISA and the FEA had to put their tails between their legs and let the RACE run the 1980 Spanish GP. But they had their vengeance: weeks after the race was done, it was declared illegal! This is one of the lowest episodes of F-1 history, and it helped to build a lot of tension that would culminate in the FISA versus FOCA war (by the way, the FOCA was aligned to the RACE).

In the following year, 1981, the whole drama was re-enacted, with Baviera (and the FISA behind him, and the FEA ahead) trying to push the RACE out of the picture.

The race was not confirmed until the last weeks before its schedule date. Then, to add more pimienta to the paella, the RACE accepted an entry by a private team running an one-year old Williams with the driver Emilio de Villota. But the Villota was competing in the Aurora Championship, an independent league for used F-1 cars that the FISA abomined and tried to ban! This is better than any soap opera, isn't it? And then, just to make things worse, the FISA-authorized entry of the ATS team, driven by Slim Borgudd, was refused by the RACE...

At the very last minute the RACE accepted to drop de Villota's entry in favor of Borgudd, but by then the FISA had decided that that one would be the last Spanish GP on years to come.

Now, just link this story to the above tales about why Jerez was dropped... Any recurrent pattern here? Sadly, yes.

The second reason, much less important: the whole facility was in very poor shape in the early 80s. The last GP in 1981 was of that famous win by Gilles Villeneuve, with five cars packed together - nice to see, but that what one of the first instances that F-1 experienced a combination of car regulation and track lay-out that makes overtaking almost impossible.

A historic note about Jarama: as most of you know, it was designed by John Hugenholtz, the same guy that pencilled Zandvoort and Suzuka, and the first person to be recognized as a "circuit designer". Hugenholtz was contacted by the RACE in early 1966 to conceive what was called "a Grand Prix track for Spain". The plot chosen was in Jarama, a suburb to Madrid. Hugenholtz had expected to be given a vast stretch of land to play around, but the size of the plot was very small, and of a rather odd shape.

He was obliged than to create a track that twisted itself several times to reach the minimum extension required to run a F-1 race. Today many people believe that Hugenholtz "had seen the future" (how tracks would look like twenty years from them - to my despair, as nowadays lay-outs are horrible), but actually these plot size and shape circumstances forced him to make Jarama the way it is.

And if I am not mistaken, it was Jackie Stewart who coined the expression "mickey mouse" now generally used for tight circuits, after he first tried the Jarama track.

Hans.ca, I am glad your struggle with the "Guardia not so Civil" ended well. Having grown up in a country controlled by a military dictatorship - albeit a relatively mild one -, I can relate to what you mean. In Spain, those were the Franco Years.

Just remember the episode I mentioned above about the 1975 Spanish GP in Montjuïc, when the Guardia - as requested by the race organizers - forced the team owners to line up the cars, and drivers were shoved out of a meeting at gun point.

Regards,

[Muzza]

Hello Again,

I just found this excellent article http://8w.forix.com/e81.html

It explains in details the political issues behind the drop of the Spanish GP in 1981, and the cancellation of the 1980 race.

(I am quite glad that I quoted Fernando de Baviera name right, and I truly don't know how I could have remebered it right, as now I started to believe he was called "Francisco de Baviera"!)

This article supplies interesting additional information:

- the then president of the RACE, Marqués de Cubas, is still in the office!

- the ATS entry, driven by Slim Borgudd, was accepted in the very last minute indeed, with a fax sent by the FISA (I did not even know that fax machines were already operational in 1981... I don't recall that!);

- Emilio de Villota used the same livery in his Williams as he was running in the Aurora series - this must have driven the FEA guys nuts!

- and de Villota car refused to start for practice, just to have a terribe misfire...

A very good article, worth reading.

Cheers,

[Bibendum]

Thanks, Muzza. I'm considering retaining you for a regular F1 tutorial!

[Schummy]

Excellent, Muzza!

As a side note about Jarama layout, I think Jarama's plot size was dictated by the wish of RACE in building a golf course alongside. I find it curious being RACE the main autosport in Spain, and being Spain without any permanent track. It compromised from a beginning the future role of Jarama as an international venue, in a time when tracks were a lot less mickey-mouse than now.

In certain circles RACE was perceived as a society where there were some very rich people in the direction more prone to "social" activities more than autosport activities. Anyway they were (are) a private club and obviously are right to do what they wish, I don't pretend to negate it.

I don't know in what state is RACE nowadays; and I would like to learn from someone who could know more than me about the Jarama's layout origen.

One thing is apparent: in Spain auto racing has had a different route than motorbike racing, and, in my eyes, it has something to do with the organizations involved, not just with the Angel Nieto's effect.

[Muzza]

Bidendum, Schummy and Folks,

There is an error in one my messages: I wrote "The early eighties were the years when the FISA (that later would become the FIA)...". This is incorrect.

Actually the FISA was the sporting arm of the FIA. As a consequence of the Accord De La Place De La Concorde, the FISA was extinct and the FIA made himself directly responsible for the sporting activities. My apologies for that.

Schummy, I am unable to give you the name of a book on the history of Jarama. All that I recall is what I wrote (Hugenholtz being hired by the RACE in 1966 to design the circuit and so forth). And thanks for mentioned the golf course issue - I had never heard of it! Can anyone else help please?

Cheers,

[Bibendum]

Well, just as well FIA's FISA is extinct! To me, it means something quite different -- the Fédération Internationale des Sociétés d'Aviron, the international body governing rowing. Too many FISAs! Somebody must have done a FISAbility study, and I guess the older sport triumphed...