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 will follow the 2002 season in a personal column, which comes straight from the heart of a guy who is, after all, just a racing man...

Reading some of the media reports from the Australian Grand Prix, it was interesting to hear the different views of some of the team bosses regarding whether or not the Melbourne race should have been stopped after the first corner incident, and very typical comments! If your two cars were still running, yes, it was the right decision, if they were out, it was appalling! Race director Charlie Whiting's answer was: if a driver makes a mistake and causes an accident he deserves to be out of the race. Yes, sure, we can all live with that, but what about the rest of the six or eighth drivers that somehow got involved, why should they be penalised?

Perhaps this could be a new rule in the FIA yellow book, and in the future only those who aim to win the race at the first corner and cock it all up, should be the only ones suffering the consequences, and the rest should be allowed to restart... This would be a more fair and democratic way to deal with the problem, and I am sure it would make drivers more aware of the implications, should they decide on a kamikaze mission.

The Malaysian Grand Prix is one of the more recent insertions on the F1 calendar, and already in its short history it has become one of the favourites among the circus members. It is not really surprising, since it has, without a doubt, the best and the largest pit and paddock complex in the world. The facilities are second to none, which makes it so much more pleasant for the teams to work at. Even though the temperature is in the fourties, with about 80% humidity, all the offices, dining and meeting areas are air conditioned and the workshops well ventilated.

The race track is wide, with enough overtaking places, and it's a circuit where the really good handling cars and drivers will shine. The whole complex of the racing circuit, pit, paddock, offices, press and media facilities are outstanding, designed by the same architect that designed the Kuala Lumpur Airport, which is one of the best in the world. However, the first time that I arrived there and saw this state-of-the-art dream racing circuit, I was a little sad, because my thoughts were that if Bernie Ecclestone would take to Malaysia any possible future country representatives, who were planning to stage a new Grand Prix, and tell them: "This is how I want it done," I can assure you this would be the last ever Grand Prix entry, as I am sure that no-one would be able to undertake such a vast expense.

Malaysia has many other attractive incentives that has made it popular among the regulars. Apart from the weather, the food is superb, the shopping excellent, the people are humble and very friendly, the hotels are all top class with swimming pools, and up to last year, were inexpensive. But of course, even the Malaysian people have now got greedy and prices have soared on a par with Monaco. In spite of this, I would heartily recommend it to any petrol head that wants to combine his favourite sport with a sunny and hot holiday.

The Malaysian Grand Prix weekend started with the two McLarens first and second in Friday practice, but at McLaren we learnt not to read too much from this, as more often than not it went downhill from then on. Significantly, though, Kimi was in front of DC, and continued to be so all throughout the weekend, as Coulthard had another race meeting full of car troubles.

In qualifying, Michael Schumacher, as usual, excelled here at Sepang and placed his red machine on pole, followed by a happier Montoya in the first of the Williams. Rubens Barrichello started from the second row with the younger Schumacher beside him and the two McLarens filling the third row. I am sure by now they are beginning to wonder how come they were so quick in the winter championship and cannot quite find the same form now, leaving Williams as the only real Championship contender for the men from Maranello. Interestingly enough, the times were slower than last year!

Renault continues to emerge as the top team of the second division, with Button qualifying ahead of Trulli by more than half a second, and Jarno is normally renowned for being able to squeeze a fast lap on Saturday afternoons. Just in front of Jenson in sixth place, Nick Heidfeld once again showed how quick he is and how good the Sauber are, who are contenders for the top spot of the second division.

I always felt that Nick was a good, quick, and serious peddler with a perfect size and weight for a race driver, and felt really sorry for him that having been our test driver - and I believe still under contract at McLaren - he was not chosen as Mika Hakkinen's replacement. He was devastated at the time as he felt he did not do an inferior job to Kimi in 2001, but perhaps Ron, as everyone else, felt that Kimi's first year in a Formula One car was absolutely astounding and therefore he must have a lot more to come.

Another disastrous qualifying for Jaguar and BAR, with Jordan and Arrows marginally better. And nothing to be ashamed of by Toyota, with Mika Salo in tenth place. Sadly, however, the Champagne seemed to have dried up at the Minardi camp.

In the race there was once again a first corner incident, but this time there were only two cars involved and there was no serious damage at all. Michael went ahead doing his very usual and characteristic start from pole, immediately moving to the opposite side of the road in order to block his rival, this time being Juan Pablo Montoya. Juan Pablo, making a perfect start, let Michael through on the inside and moved towards the middle of the road, then closed to the right for the first corner. Michael being Michael tried to stay with him and squeezed through with the obvious understeering consequences which made them touch.

Juan Pablo lost 12 places and Michael 12 seconds in the pits changing his nose. All good stuff; Juan Pablo has passed Michael four times, while Michael has only passed Juan Pablo once. This is all good racing! However, the race stewards decided that it was not racing and imposed Juan Pablo the new penalty of driving through the pitlane. At this stage I did not know what to do, but I certainly thought of switching the TV off and getting back to bed! This is bullshit.

This is one of the reasons why I began to get disenchanted with Formula One. We have too many officials, too many people wanting to put their spoon in, and all they are doing is ruining Formula One. This is the pinnacle of the sport, top of the league Motor Racing at its best, and it is tough. These are professional, highly-paid, aggressive men that risk their lives for their beloved sport, they are not Girl Guides playing rounders.

I have a special bond with Juan Pablo as we are both from south of the border, and he is without a shadow of a doubt the most exciting driver I have ever seen since the great master Ayrton left us, and I truly believe he is Michael Schumacher's biggest threat. But as long as he has some men in blue blazers sitting in an air conditioned room dictating the rules in an inconsistent manner, he will have a much tougher job, since he is definitely more than capable of doing it on the race track.

If the officials want racing without contact, they should play scalextric with grooves on the circuit. Real racing is not like that, you have to psyche the opposition, you have to be aggressive, you have to intimidate your opponent, you have to create a gap if there isn't one, and you will not always get away with it, but like Ayrton Senna always told me: nice men do not win races!

Nice to hear that Michael was also unhappy about Juan Pablo's punishment together with all the drivers and the millions of spectators worldwide, so hopefully FIA supremo Max Mosley will show remorse and do the honourable thing by sacking the men in the blue blazers responsible for trying to kill the sport.

On a day like this, irrespective of Ferrari's pole, I felt it was all the way a Williams day. Ralf made a good start, did not do a thing wrong, and had a good strategy. The ever improving Michelin worked well in the tropical conditions, and Juan Pablo confirmed the top form of the team by fighting back to second.

The two McLarens did not look very strong, but definitely good enough for third and fourth as they were running when the first of the engines went on DC's car, giving Nick Heidfeld his position. I am sure at this stage he must have thought, "Well who needs a McLaren!"

Ten laps later, Kimi's engine suffered the same fortune as Coulthard's, but in spite of that, I am sure that Kimi and his mentors, including Mika Hakkinen, must be very pleased with his performance so far at a top team.

The highlight of the race was seeing another British racing driver doing well. Jenson Button must be very happy with his race after such a mediocre 2001 in the last of the bad Benettons, clearly outqualifying his fast teammate. Morally, that should have been his first podium place. I particularly enjoyed him defending his second place from Juan Pablo, the man that arguably stole his seat at Williams, until Juan Pablo got the better of him.

The other clip of the race I also enjoyed was seeing Enrique Bernoldi defending his position (and in fact re-passing World Champion Michael Schumacher) in the ever improving Arrows. Well done Enrique, I forgive you now for holding David Coulthard 35 laps in Monaco last year! And well done Sergio Rinland, another South-of-the-Border engineer now with Arrows and the creator of the neat, fast and innovative 2001 Sauber F1. Rinland, as a matter of fact, introduced engineering ideas, which are now followed by some of the top Teams - for example, Sauber's 2001 front suspension.

Another bad race for Jaguar and BAR. And what about Jordan? At McLaren we never had No. 1 and No. 2 drivers or team orders, but the one thing we always said was, "Please, please do not take each other off." But don't worry Eddie, every team does it at least once...

Right, now we'll dance La Samba as we look forward to Brazil, Brazil.

See you in two weeks,

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.