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Strike threat

21. May 2022 
by Pierre Van Vliet
4126 views

Well before the strike movement we remember at Kyalami in 1982, the drivers had seriously considered not to race at the Spanish Grand Prix held at Montjuic in 1975. Still traumatised by the tragic deaths of François Cevert and Helmuth Koinigg at Watkins Glen, they were worried by the dire state of the guard rails around the urban Catalan circuit.

During a control visit by the representatives of the GPDA (Niki Lauda, Jody Scheckter, Graham Hill, Emerson Fittipaldi and James Hunt, picture above), it appeared that most of these rails were poorly fixed. Facing the lax attitude of the local authorities, certain managers decided to go to work and fix this, like Ken Tyrrell and his engineer Derek Gardner (picture below).

The Grand Prix finally took place but was marked by a dramatic accident when the Hill of Rolf Stommelen flew off the track, killing four spectators. The race was stopped, and this was the end of a F1 race in the heights of Barcelona.

To be noted: Reigning World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi had decided to anyhow not participate, judging the circuit not safe enough. Also, only half of the points were allocated to the winner Jochen Mass (his only F1 victory), and half-a-point for the sixth placed Lella Lombardi, the only woman to appear (so far) in the World Championship rankings.

Source: DR

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