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 Monaco Grand Prix was the first event of 2002 that I attended, and naturally I was looking forward to it, although with some reservations as it would be the first time in 40 years that I was going to be on the outside looking in. However, I was invited to take part in a round table forum as part of the package offered to Grand Prix Tours guests, so I had at least one commitment and thus didn't feel a complete anorak...

The Monaco Grand Prix is ideal to visit for someone like myself who has been involved for so long in the sport. Being the most prestigious event on the Formula One calendar, every personality from motor racing - past and present - was to be there, including the legendary Cliff Allison, Ferrari and Lotus driver of the 1950s. Moreover, the Grand Prix is run over four days, and you have more time to chat with your friends and there are parties galore night and day.

Apart from this, I think all of us who love the sport and have been associated with it are deep down frustrated racing drivers, and we all in our youth terrorized our neighbors by screaming our tyres around the block, so the fascination of Formula One cars running on normal streets still appeals to us and fills us with excitement.

The whole weekend was full of different parties, presentations, lunches, dinners or simply get-together for a boozy evening. It started on Tuesday evening with the charity football match between the Nazionale Piloti - the drivers' team - against the Star team of Prince Albert. Of course the Nazionale Piloti is headed by Michael Schumacher and Giancarlo Fisichella, and their team ended up as the 2-0 winners. As you can imagine, on the eve of the World Cup, it was a fantastic atmosphere to start the weekend with, particularly as it was followed by a great dinner at a superb restaurant by the sea in Menton, with dozens of ex-F1 drivers.

The following day I was given a great ego boost: I had just arrived at the F1 paddock, when I suddenly remembered that I had no pass, no credentials, nor was I wearing team clothes, and I had first to get in before I could collect my pass. I was thinking that there is no way the Monegasque guards would let me through, being the most strict and unsympathetic guards in the world, and I was approaching the gate wondering what on earth I was going to say to the guard on duty, to persuade him to let me through.

As soon as the guard at the entrace to the paddock saw me, he said: "Bonjour monsieur Ramirez, bienvenue encore," and raised the gate. I was speechless, but just managed to say 'merci beaucoup' and kept walking with a big smile on my face, thinking that my 40 years in the sport at least accounted for something!

It was great to be back. Every other step I took brought me face to face with a friend, but there were also some new faces in team uniforms that I had not seen before. For some years now we have had an injection of new people in the sport and there are two reasons for this: the teams are getting bigger, and the workers themselves do not last so long in the sport - especially the mechanics, who tend to get involved for the excitement rather than the passion and soon afterwards decide that there are better ways of earning a living.

I was a guest of Juan Pablo Montoya and was staying on his boat - a state of the art, beautifully designed 20-meter Italian Azimuth vessel - and therefore I was going to see the Grand Prix from a totally different angle. This was an entirely new experience for me and I was able to see how the other half lived! Furthermore, I could not have been in better care. Juan Pablo's family are the most unassuming, uncomplicated and delightful people there are, and I felt at home from day one. Every detail was taken care of, including a fantastic Italian cook.

On the Thursday night a dinner had been organised in memory of Gilles Villeneuve on the occasion of the 20 anniversary of his death. This was held onboard the boat and included Joan, his widow, who was there alongside Pierre Dupasquier, Christian Tortora, Pino Allievi, Peter Windsor, Nigel Roebuck and other old friends. It was a night of reminiscences and anecdotes from us old codgers who knew this charismatic man at his best and at his worst!

*   *   *

I spent Saturday evening with Mika, Erja and Hugo Hakkinen, playing billiard at their home, looking at his trophies and reminiscing about the old times, and then eating out at their favorite restaurant, just by the main palace square, until the early hours. I have stayed in touch with the Hakkinens since last November, but I was curious to see Mika face to face, as many people said he had put on weight and dyed his hair black (!) - but none of this was true; he looked like he could just step into that McLaren and put it on pole again.

I have never seen Mika so relaxed and happy as he is now. Hugo is the most fabulous happy chap you have ever seen - at an age when he is starting to be interesting and good company, so I just wonder if we are ever going to see Mika prepared to forsake all this and get back behind the wheel. Formula One definitely misses him, but does he miss Formula One? Only time will tell...

I always remember the time when he was our test driver in 1993, and he was invited as the guest driver in the F1 supporting race for the Porsche Cup before the Grand Prix. He was to drive the Porsche 911 and he had never ever driven a Porsche in his life. If you have not driven a 911 Porsche, believe me - they are not the easiest cars to drive, nor was his car the best prepared, and he was going to compete against all the specialists in that category who raced them every week. But despite all that, Mika put the car on pole and won the race! On that day I said to myself, "we have one hell of a driver here..." I could not wait for him to take over Michael Andretti's place.

*   *   *

This year's Grand Prix had another fantastic qualifying session, with the circuit getting quicker and quicker all the time, having had no rain over the weekend. As more and more rubber was put down on the road, the pole changed hands dozens of times and finally ended up in Juan Pablo's hands, with a perfect lap nearly four tenths of a second quicker than David Coulthard. I was definitely staying on the right boat!

The race was, without doubt, the best of the year. Although the lead never changed, it was action packed behind Coulthard. I watched the start and the finish from the pits and the middle from the boat with Pablo Montoya Snr. Sad though I was when JPM's engine failed, I was delighted for DC and had everything crossed for him, hoping that justice would be done that day, redeeming what happened last year - when he was on pole and the team electronics let him down, robbing him of a sure win.

When JPM returned to the boat he said that he was annoyed with his engineers, because having tested the start in the morning, the launch control was not working adequately, and he requested a manual start without the software. However, he was told that they had found the trouble, and that it was going to be OK for the race, which clearly it was not. Mind you, it hardly mattered since the engine decided to call it a day a few laps later.

Well it was a great win for DC - good for McLaren and good for Formula One at a time when the Sport is losing some of its credibility. Let's hope it continues. As for me, I have once more experienced that feeling of standing on the grid when the engines are roaring and ready for battle, the floor vibrating through your legs and up to your heart. There are only a few places that this feeling is so much vivid as in Monaco; it also brought back so many memories and reminded me of the fact that I really still miss the sport a hell of a lot. I miss the people, the buzz, the atmosphere, the problems and the challenge to fix them, the women, the winning and the parties - all the things that kept me young!

We left Monaco after another great party celebrating David's win, and the circus will now move to another flyaway race in Montreal - yet another favorite of the Grand Prix brigade. I can only wish I was there...

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.