After forty years of working in Formula One, former McLaren team co-ordinator Jo Ramirez joins the millions of racing fans who watch the action on TV. Now writing for Atlas F1, Jo follows the 2002 season in a personal column, which comes straight from the heart of a guy who is, after all, just a racing man...

The Canadian Grand prix, for one reason or another, has always been a favourite among the Grand Prix brigade; more so now that it takes place in the wonderful city of Montreal and in the summer time. But even in the late 60s when it used to be in Mont Tremblant St. Jovite, a fantastic twisty and bumpy circuit in the Mountains by a very picturesque lake, it was still much-loved. Mind you, I was always sorry for the Lotus guys in yellow uniforms which magnetised the millions of bugs around the lake.

During most of the 70s the Grand Prix was held at Mosport. This was not the ideal circuit or place, and the only thing that comes to mind about that venue is the bizarre ending of the 1973 race, where three drivers - Emerson Fittipaldi, Peter Revson and Jacky Oliver - all stood on the podium claiming to be the winner!

The problems had already begun at the start of the Grand Prix, which was delayed for about an hour due to a torrential rain. The race started on a wet track and although every one was on rain or intermediate tyres, by the time the race was a quarter way through the pitlane became very busy, with every one rushing in for tyre changes, and soon after Jody Scheckter and Francois Cevert collided. This immediately brought out the pace car, but it came out in front of Howden Ganley, as the officials were clearly confused, and Howden, who must have had a smile from ear to ear, could hardly keep the car in the road after the pace car pulled off as he was pushing like a real winner!

At the end of the race, Colin Chapman threw the traditional cap in the air as Emerson went by, thinking he had won. The flag man did not wave the flag to Fittipaldi but to the next bunch of cars together thinking for sure one of these most be the winner. Clearly neither he nor the officials had any idea. McLaren were convinced that Revson had won and also the Shadow lap chart had Oliver as the winner.

As you can imagine, the rest of us without a stake, and even Howden Ganley's BRM crew thought this was hilarious and everyone was making jokes about it. A few hours later, after the officials had gathered all the information at hand - including the contesting teams' lap charts - they came up with the following order: Revson, Fittipaldi, Oliver. This, of course, would never happened (sadly!) in these days of fully-computerised, idiot-proof systems.

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In those days I was working with Ken Tyrrell, looking after Francois Cevert, so it was my car that was damaged when Francois collided with Jody and ending up hitting the guard rail head on at 100 miles an hour. I was amazed that he managed to walk out of it with only strained tendons in his legs, as the top of the space frame aluminium monocoque was well over a foot below the bottom of the chassis and the steering wheel was bent 45 degrees from where his arms held on in the impact.

He was taken to hospital for checks and dressings on his legs, and that evening when I visited him the webbing of his safety harness was still embedded on his chest and shoulders like a two-feet wide bruise. The following days, Ken and Norah Tyrrell, Jackie, Francois, and all the team went on a mini holiday to the Niagara Falls on the way down to Watkins Glen for the last Grand Prix of the year, and Jackie, myself, and the rest of the team took turns to carry Francois around in order to hasten the mending of his legs for the next weekend! Can you imagine that kind of team family these days in Grand Prix racing?

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1978 was the first year that the Grand Prix moved to its present venue in the Ile Notre Dame, just ten minutes from the center of Montreal, in the middle of that famous world exhibition of 1968, where some of the Nation Pavilions still stand. Others have been converted for different usages like the Casino de Montreal, which I believe was the United States Pavilion.

Montreal has always been reasonably successful for McLaren, but I particularly remember 1992 when everything finally came together for Gerhard Berger. He drove for McLaren for three years, but unfortunately only won three races: the 1991 Japanese Grand Prix (courtesy of Ayrton Senna), and Canada and Australia in 1992, his last year with us. That year in Canada he took the lead from Ayrton when Senna's gearbox gave up, and drove a strong race to the flag.

However, in the post race scrutineering, the rear wing height was different from left to right and the car was moved to a more perfect flat surface to be measured. While all this was happening, Gerhard started to get very nervous and decided to go back to the hotel, asking me to call and let him know whether he had won or not! The wing was eventually found to be OK and Gerhard, who is the most genuine race driver I ever had the pleasure to work with, was able to smile again. I am so happy for the success he is now enjoying as the Formula One project leader for BMW.

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The highlight of my Canadian Grand Prix experience had to be in 1997 when I arrived in style on the QE2, invited by Autosport to be part of a round table headed by Murray Walker, Alan Henry, Nigel Roebuck, and John Fitzpatrick to entertain a group of motor racing enthusiasts (including Mika Hakkinen's parents). I took my daughter Vanessa with me, and it was a wonderful experience for both of us. The daily hour-long talks were a lot of fun and they filled the theatre every day even when the weather was great and people could have been sunning out on the top deck. All through the six-day crossing to New York people approached us to say how much they enjoyed the talks adding only that it was a pity that they were so short. Well as long as they said they were short it was ok, I would hate to be told that they were too long!

To me, the trip was a reliving of my arrival in Europe back in 1962 in the original Queen Elizabeth, the biggest and most luxurious vessel of those days, and would you believe the tourist class fare was cheaper than flying! This is the reason why I chose that form of travel, as I had all the time in the world and the experience of the trip was more appealing. Now I am one of the few lucky people that can proudly claim to have been in the two Queens.

On arrival in NY, a quick trip to Manhattan, as Vanessa had never been there before, and a short flight in to Montreal to start work. That year David Coulthard almost sealed the trip with gold when he was comfortably leading the Grand Prix by lap 51 and came in for a precautionary stop for tyres. As he tried to rejoin the race the clutch refused to engage, costing us the lead and the race.

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Another interesting qualifying this year, with J.P. Montoya claiming another pole. He was determined to win the race, but again his engine had different views, hence his unusual disappearance avoiding the press after the race. The inevitable red roller coaster drove to another win, but this time it would appear that he was running out of brakes, and perhaps another few laps more and DC could have had the most unexpected win of his career. Nevertheless a good result for the old team.

Back to Europe in two weeks but the wrong venue - it should be forbidden to run race cars anywhere else but the real Nurburgring!

Until two weeks from now...

Jo X

About the author:
Jo Ramirez began working in Formula One in 1961, when he arrived to Europe from Mexico with his childhood friend Ricardo Rodriguez. He worked as a mechanic and a team manager with Dan Gurney, Emerson Fittipaldi, Ken Tyrrell and many others, before making McLaren his home for 18 years - where he worked as team co-ordinator between the years 1983 and 2001 and where he made life-long friendships with the sport's top drivers. Jo retired from F1 at the end of the 2001 season. He joined Atlas F1 as a regular columnist in February 2002.