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...

San Marino Grand Prix, the Imola circuit... This is not my favourite track or place, as there are too many bad memories there for me, so I can safely say I did not miss being at the event this year. Having said that, it is also a place that brings happy memories, and the one that immediately comes to mind is the 1988 season - the dream season by any racing team's standards - when we almost made history by having a 100% winning rate throughout the season.

At the start of the 1988 season, McLaren, as usual, were late getting out the new car, which was due to be tested at the official FOCA test in Imola before the start of the season in Brazil. After many long days and a couple of all nighters, we finally finished our MP4/4 and rushed it out to Luton airport, loaded it into the BA146 charter flight into Bologna with yours truly in the pilot's dickie seat, while Ron Dennis flew in his own Falcon and waited for me down at Bologna airport.

The part of the story that has gone down in history books and has given us great dinner party mileage is that the truckies arrived to Bologna from Imola to collect the car... without the truck! Nevertheless, the truck eventually arrived while we completed the paperwork, and the car was transported to the Imola circuit. We finally completed all initial checks in the small hours of the morning and collapsed in our beds in a state of exhaustion.

The next day was the last day of the four-day test and the last chance to test before the start of the new season. As we wheeled the car out of the garage, everyone was eager to see what the car to be driven by the two best drivers in the world looked like.

Alain Prost was the first to go out and while the hotshots were doing so far high 1:28s, Alain was on low 1:28s immediately. In fact, he got out of the car and pulled me to one side, stating with a big grin: "I cannot believe this! I promise you, I am driving with one hand, it is absolutely fantastic!"

Alain also quickly added, "I just hope that Ayrton takes it easy. We must not show the world what we have!" And indeed, Ron Dennis took Senna to the corner of the garage and explained that the car is great, asking Ayrton to cool it.

After a day's testing during which all we changed was a rear anti roll bar, we came back home extremely tired but happy as sand boys - we had just produced arguably the best ever Formula one Grand Prix car. Furthermore, back at the factory, Ron did his usual pep talk to all employees, saying that we had a package able to win all the races. Ironically, they all thought he was dreaming...

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I quite enjoyed watching this year's qualifying, with the top teams battling between themselves and for pole, and I was very happy for Rubens Barrichello's fantastic lap earlier on, which I thought was good enough to keep him on pole. At one point, I even caught him smiling - a rare sight indeed! But considering it was his 150th Grand Prix, he had his new car, and has just done a tremendous lap - had every reason to be happy with himself.

However, as they say, it ain't over until the fat lady sings, and the fat lady in the shape of Michael Schumacher just clipped him in the last minute by 64 thousands of a second... Talk about demoralization! You have to feel sorry for Rubinho, but I must add that it has always amazed me how people like Schumacher, Senna and Prost could just dial in how many tenths they need, and do exactly that. And to give Michael his due, his final qualifying lap at Imola was an absolutely perfect lap.

The Williams power was not a match for those new Ferraris, while the McLarens occupied their third constructors slot, which does not look too bad until you see the difference in time - one second from pole! This is like a light year behind, which means that you cannot win a race against those two top teams.

Another great performance by Nick Heidfeld - probably the most underrated driver on the grid, who managed to keep the improving Renaults behind him. Once again a disastrous qualifying for the Jaguars, despite having at last the use of their own wind tunnel facilities. Wouldn't we like to be the fly on the wall at a high level Ford board meeting with the Jaguar F1 team on the agenda?...

The race, however, offered a frightening thought - can you imagine Ferrari battling for first and second for the rest of the year? Quite honestly, with the way the new Ferrari is working, that option is certainly on the cards.

It wouldn't have bothered me so much had it not been for the fact that this is only a one horse battle - Rubens cannot race against Michael, and if he could he would not be allowed to. At least in 1988, when McLaren had the best car, the public knew we were going to win, but they had the chance to see the two best drivers in the world fighting in identical cars, and it was so evenly matched that Senna won 8 Grands Prix and Prost 7, out of the 15 races we won.

This year we have got to be prepared for a boring season unless Williams BMW can pull one out from the bottom of the bag. Sadly, the McLaren problems will take months rather than weeks to be cured (if they are able to be cured at all), by which time the Championship will be over.

Nevertheless, it is always impressive to see how Michael can pull so much time right at the start in the opening laps, while the rest are settling in their race, and although I know that no one is unbeatable, it certainly looks like he is just that right now.

What was the highlight of the race for me? I can't honestly think of one. The lowlight, however, was to see a McLaren being lapped by the leader. This is certainly sad, and I do not need to be biased to say that: we were Champions only a couple of years ago!

Jenson Button consolidated his position as the top British driver, and a reasonable performance by young Felipe Massa who continues to impress as the the top newcomer for 2002.

However, let's hope that this was the last boring race of the season. It was boring not only because of the Ferrari supremacy, but mainly for the totally over-reactive decisions of whoever was responsible for completely destroying the Imola circuit after the tragic death of our greatest ambassador.

In case you lost track: Imola now has 4 chicanes, and they still call this a F1 Circuit! If you happened to see the race, you witnessed a procession of two Ferraris, two Williamses, two McLarens, two Renaults, and so on, and it will always be like this on such a horrible circuit, where there is nothing a driver can do.

Furthermore, noticeably this year the crowd was considerably smaller than in the past - and that in a race were the locals were almost assured of a Ferrari victory. Perhaps it is time for the promoters to realize that they made a mistake and change the circuit again into a proper race track? Maybe they will get the bigger crowds back again.

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Finally, if you happened to see the ITV coverage of the San Marino Grand Prix you may have seen the story about Alessandro Zanardi. It was great seeing Alex walking again with artificial legs and creating a new life. His failure to succeed in Formula One the second time around with Williams has been one of motor racing's big enigmas, as he should have done a lot better. But I wish him the very best on his new life - he is a true gentleman, a good friend and a great driver.

Until two weeks from now... Que vivvvaaaa la Espana!

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.