In the early 1980s, Formula One was the ugly battle. The drivers were just pawns in political torque.
- The parties to the F1 series power were Fisa and Foca. They were led by Jean Marie Balestre and Bernie Ecclestone.
- The long-running powder barrel exploded in the Spanish GP in 1980. As a result of the event vessel that began, the F1 series was in danger of being destroyed.
- Keke Rosberg was one but an important pawn in the power struggle.
– That’s where we have reborn Hitler.
– A flamboyant little Napoleon.
In the 1980s, the press text was colorful. But in this case Iltalehti’s legendary F1 journalist Juhani Melart did not exaggerate in his text.
Bernie Ecclestone and Jean-Marie Balestre Indeed, they barking at each other in such wild parables. The emotions were hot, but no wonder. The battle for the F1 series was a raw game.
Parties
Jean Marie Balestre (left) and Bernie Ecclestone fought for the dominance of the F1 series in the early 1980s. The political game was hard and dirty. Aop
There were two parties in the dispute.
In the second corner, Fisa (Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile) stood in the F1 series. It was an organization under the FIA International Automobile Association that took care of the benefits of car manufacturers (Ferrari, Renault, Alfa Romeo).
The counter force was Foca (Formula One Constructors Association), representing private F1 stables. The organization included, for example, Williams, McLaren, Lotus and Brabham.
In a carrier, Foca had more stables in his camp, but Fisa was most important.
Both camps were pulled by two big personalities. Fisa’s leadership was Jean-Marie Balestre, Focan Bernie Ecclestone.
Who will determine?
The F1 stables were divided into two camps. Renault represented Foca, Williams Fisa. Zumawire / mvphotos
Both organizations were founded in the 1970s. The buttons rushed against each other from the beginning.
In Foca’s view, Fisa was biased in favor of Ferrari and Renault.
Car manufacturers made good engines, but the cars they built were lost in the aerodynamic features of the Foca stables. Critical votes believed that Fisan was considered to interpret or change the rules arbitrarily to please car manufacturers who invest financially.
Fisa and Balestre, in turn, are primarily Ecclestone. Not only was he the leader of the Brabham stable, he had also got a mandate from Foca to negotiate good money for the stables on the TV rights of the Games. The French camp was not pleased that someone else owned you and your Hami would add power from the sport.
Soldiers could out of the depot
The racetrack became a football field in Jarama in 1980. As the bosses fought from the domestic dominance, the mechanics came up with another entertainment. Aop
The powder barrel exploded in the 1980 Spanish GP.
In Foca’s opinion, Fisa had helped Ferrari and, above all, Renault, by punishing British stables that built better cars.
As a response, Foca had instructed the drivers of stables in their organization to boycott some of the early -season races.
Balestre didn’t like it at all. On arrival in Spain, Fisa would be fined for drivers who missed the meetings in previous races.
There was no legal right to the fines in the Foca camp. Fisa nodded by proclaiming a driver who would not pay his fine, losing a competitive license and thus his right to participate in the F1 series.
The situation ripped into an open quarrel in the Jarama track depot, which served as the Spanish GP stage. Foca teams announced that they were boycotting competition. It threatened to reduce the number of cars participating in the competition only.
The motor sports club, which was responsible for organizing the competition, promised to pay the drivers fines, but it was not good for Fisa. Thus, the organizer who desperately had the ticket revenue made a tough decision. It organized a competition but kicked Fisa out of the track.
Balestre experienced a humiliating loss of power as the armed Spanish National Guard brought him out of the depot area.
The French later received his revenge in the cabinet. Fia wiped out the competition from the 1980 World Championships, as rebellion had not been driven as a competition under the Spanish National Automobile Federation.
F1 tore in half
Balestre wanted to keep power tightly. Zumawire / mvphotos
At the end of the 1980 season, the situation was inflamed so bad that Foca announced that it would set up a competing formula series.
For a while, the kingdom class of motor racing was in turmoil. The organizers and racetracks did not know who to settle down. The beginning of the F1 season was postponed and for a while it seemed that the F1 series would really be divided into two series.
In the end, the dispute got a ceasefire. The pressure of this was the ringing journalist Goodyear and the cigarette giant Marlboro, who had fallen a huge amount of money into the sport. It was completely irrelevant to these companies in which series their products would be visible as long as they were visible.
Focan was forced to bend to the negotiations, as Fisa was not only entitled to a valuable F1 product name, but also with several races.
Foca and Balestre had virtually no chance to fulfill their hard threats.
There was something important about the bloody dispute. In early 1981, the Concorde Agreement, which is still an impact on the Formula One and the rules, was drawn up.
“He ran like a chicken”
“Things stand – men are lying.” Iltalehti reported on Kyalam’s events in January 1982. IL Archive
The F1 season 1981 was finally driven, but Fisa and Foca’s cams continued in the back.
The next season started again with a scandal. Fisa announced that it had changed the superlial for F1 drivers so that the drivers would be the property of the stables. This was to prevent any future Foca leap attempts.
The fireplace drivers went on strike on the eve of the South African race weekend. Members of the Driver Association were locked in the hotel room while the first exercises were to start.
Drivers’ strike saw a rare situation. Balestre and Ecclestone once agreed. They threatened the striker F1 drivers by removing licenses and an eternal ban if they did not arrive on the railway area on Saturday.
The front of the drivers was kept, with the exception of one. Frightened Ao Fabi In the darkness of the night, it splashed with Balestren and Ecclestone, the plans of the drivers.
– Teo ran like a chicken. He lost all of us forever, the strike participated in the strike Keke Rosberg Later he remembered to Autosport.
After the fierce negotiations, the competition was finally driven when Fisa gave up his demand. For drivers, fined and conditional prohibitions of competition were ultimately a word of word that was never put into practice.
However, the story can accommodate another boycott.
This cannot continue
Renault and Ferrari did not get strange opposition to the 1982 San Marino competition. Aop
The battle between Fisa and Foca is essentially associated with the largest technological innovation of F1 cars at the time.
Thanks to the beads mounted on the edges of the car, the air could not escape under the car. It created a ground effect that produced a huge amount of downforce. It made it possible to have ferocious curved speeds and thus better spins.
The earth effect was a gimmick controlled by Foca stables in particular. Fisa’s desire to limit the Earth effect to the 1981 season was one of the great disputes of that year.
Fisa was crashing through the rule change, citing safety, but Foca stables thought there was a real desire to help Ferrari and Renault, who did not make the soil effect in their own cars.
Foca teams were responsible for technical solutions along the cunning rules.
The 1982 Brazilian GP winning Brabham Nelson piquet and secondly placed by Williams Keke Rosberg was rejected as a result of a protest by Ferrari and Renault.
Rosberg lost second place and six World Championships with a rejection. Fortunately, they did not pay the world championship. IL Archive
Rejecting the Foca stables and raising the Fisa stable to win was the blast of the war torch for Ecclestone and his troops.
A couple of races later, the Foca stables boycotted the San Marino competition as a retaliation.
The act was very drastic in the era of the new Concorde agreement. It guaranteed at least 26 cars setting to the organizer. If this was not possible for arguing, F1 would be exposed to contract violations and thus to major claims for damages.
Only 14 participants were seen in Imola.
F1 decision-makers may have been angry, but not stupid. Balestre and Ecclestone buried their war ax in silence, and the war between the two parties, which had continued so long, waned.
Ecclestone crushing
Ecclestone and Max Mosley (left) rose to power in the early 1990s. Zumawire / mvphotos
After giving up Brabham, Ecclestone concentrated all his vigor from creating formulas as a first-class TV entertainment. That’s where he really succeeded. Already in the early 1990s, the F1 series was a global phenomenon followed by hundreds of millions of people.
At the same time, Ecclestone had become not only the rich but also the most influential man in the F1 depot.
Balestre continued as chairman of Fisa, but for the French, like so many others for too long in the self -controlled.
By the 1990s, Balestre was completely alienated for its popularity, or rather its lack. The French did not even bother to campaign in the 1991 Fisa presidential election. Ecclestone right handed as a candidate Max Mosley won him crushingly.
A couple of years later, Mosley also became chairman of FIA. First of all, he stopped Fisa, thus removing one of the most disgusting spike from Ecclestone’s meat.
Of the characters presented at the beginning of the story, Napoleon had won Hitler.
Sources: IL Archive, F1 Racing, Autosport, F1 All the Races – The First 1000 (Velo Publishing), Lucky! -Documentary series Bernie Ecclestone’s life.