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...

Having decided to stop "working" after forty years in the sport, I spent all winter tormenting myself, thinking how much I would miss my fortnightly fix of racing. But it was not until I saw an ITV advertisement for the Australian Grand Prix - with Murray Walker appearing at the end, saying "I'll be watching!" - that it actually dawned on me that I was going to be "watching" too.

This worried me; I could not cope with the idea of getting up in the middle of the night to sit in front of the box, sick as a parrot, thinking I should be in Melbourne and not at home... Have I done the right thing? Is there really life outside Formula One?

While I am still trying to find out if there is, I decided to go out for a short break and not spend my first Grand Prix outside the sport sitting at home. Therefore, I am writing my first column for Atlas F1 while sitting comfortably on a flight heading south to California with "er indoors," having told her that we were going to check on the progress of our house being built in southern Spain, and leaving her to pleasantly discover at the last minute that we were going to L.A. rather than Malaga. Having spent two years in California at the end of the Sixties, we were looking forward to reliving the experience, also knowing that I will most likely end up watching the Grand Prix with my old boss, Dan Gurney.

* * *

Formula One has just survived one of its worst winters. Amazingly, more than a year ago, all the Constructors agreed to ban testing from the last Grand Prix of 2001 until the first day of January 2002. That meant two and a half months with no Formula One news at the exact same time when it is getting more and more difficult to obtain the wherewithal to survive in the sport. Let me tell you: Formula One needed this long break like a hole in the head, and I am sure this will not happen again!

But the sad reality is that while there was not much news, what little there was has been damaging to the sport, like the sudden departure (albeit on the cards) of the Prost Team.

Is Prost's demise a warning to the Sport? Are we spending too much money? Yes, of course we are, and every now and then we have hints of losing all this money! What is going to happen when the cigarette money leaves the sport in 2007? The computer, communications and electronics money will be coming in, as is happening now, and the likes of Ferrari, Ron Dennis and Frank Williams will always find the money. Personally, though, I would have liked to see less of it around. Then, perhaps, we could get rid of the private jet and helicopters - who needs those?!? They do not improve the racing. But then again, I am a racing man...

And what is the governing body, the FIA, doing about it? There are a few ideas, but one which appears to be gaining popularity is the suggestion by the FIA President Max Mosley that all the teams should be limited to two engines per race, therefore forcing the manufactures to produce more durable engines, with the obvious result of saving money... Yes, sure, this will cut down costs, but who will be saving that money? The engine manufacturers, not the teams! What have the teams done to upset Max? or is he trying to be nice to the big names?

Mind you, the only good thing about this suggestion is that a driver who blows his engine the day before the race would only be allowed to participate with a fresh unit by starting from the last row of the grid. Of course, in Michael's case this would add flavour to the racing, but I don't think the Williams drivers would be too concerned about it with all that BMW power...

The other suggestion, which really makes me mad, is to abolish the running on Fridays.

I am happy that I survived in the circus with the Friday as part of the show. But if you took away the Friday running of the race weekend, you would wipe out half the profits of the race promoters, who rely on the Friday to build up the promotion for the weekend racing.

Furthermore, we shoot ourselves in the foot by taking Formula One out of the media for a day. Come on, Max, where are your mathematics? Right now the papers start talking about F1 from Thursday prior to a Grand Prix - and sometimes even from Wednesday - up to Monday and Tuesday. So why should you take this perk out of the sport? And from the Sponsors? We need it.

If we want to save money, then let's avoid testing throughout the racing season, and instead have the Fridays prior to the Grand Prix free for all. Let's face it: this is the only time the small teams actually do their testing anyway, as they cannot afford private test sessions, and it will give the real petrol heads and punters more enjoyable Fridays.

As things stand now, in the more popular circuits, where the teams are allowed to test during the year, we find that only the Minardis are running on the Fridays, as everyone else has done enough testing there beforehand and are saving the tyres for the weekend, which of course is not fair for either Minardi or the punters! But then again, I am a racing man...

* * *

Right, it's Melbourne, Australia, and it's GO GO GO again. Prior to the race, the main question was whether Ferrari could retain their supremacy, even with the 2001 model. Obviously, McLaren have the chassis to beat them, but will the engine be able to do it? So says the winter testing! And Williams certainly have the engine, but will the chassis be up to it? Either way, it was clear that this will be a three horse race with a few more teams filling up the grid...

We welcome with open arms the new Toyota Team into Formula One. I do not care whether you are Japan's premier car manufacturer and you have lots of cash or not, you certainly have big balls to come into F1 on this day and age, and a living proof that the sport is still on its way up. Welcome also to Allan McNish in his well overdue F1 debut.

It was certainly a big disappointment that, after waiting for 5 months for the start of the Formula One season, we had a crash at the start that left only 12 cars running and shortened the race by 5 laps, as the cars proceeded in orderly fashion behind the pace car.

In my opinion, race director Charlie Whiting should have stopped the race. Yes, we know that if the cars and the debris can be collected and removed by just using the pace car, that this is what should be done as timing and television schedules worldwide will suffer otherwise. But come on Charlie, this was the beginning of the race, not the middle! And let us not forget that, after all, we are in the entertainment business and the millions of fans throughout the world were deprived of 10 racing cars and 5 prime racing laps!

Having said that, if the race had been stopped, we would most probably have had a Ferrari 1-2 finish and perhaps this too would not have been a good thing for the Sport in its maiden race of the season.

The crash at the start of the race was very spectacular if you like that sort of thing, and thank God that once more no one was hurt. If you ask me, I think Rubino was a bit naughty by closing the door on Ralf, knowing that Ralf does not know where the brake pedal is and was having a wonderful start. However, it is perhaps time for Ralf to get the message that race cars can also slow down!

The rest of the race was very much predictable, once it was clear that David Coulthard was having serious car trouble and was not able to keep it on the black strip. Otherwise, we would have seen a great battle as I believe that both Ferrari and McLaren had the same speed on the straight, but I thought that perhaps DC would have had the edge on the corners, if to judge by what we saw in winter testing.

We certainly missed the two Prost cars, and definitely missed Murray Walker, but what a great feeling it was to see Paul Stoddart and Mark Webber of Minardi jumping and cheering, so delighted with their fifth place - could you imagine Ron Dennis or Jean Todt getting that excited with a 5th place?... It was a well-deserved accomplishment by two Australians at their home track and doing great. More power to them, I say; to me, that was the highlight of the race.

Anyway, I can't wait for Malaysia now. But could someone please tell the ITV executives that Kimi Raikkonen does not drive for Sauber any more? His new team is now McLaren, if they hadn't noticed...

...And yes, it was much better being on the inside than being outside looking in!

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.