Lost Track: Circuits of the Yore XVI - Pedralbes, Spanish Grand Prix

Track Photo Courtesy - allf1.info

Last month I visited Barcelona. It was my first time in Spain and I loved it. It was a short stay of three days in one of the beautiful and happening cities of the world and this abrupt stop was memorable nevertheless. I recall the crowded street of La Rambla, the Mediterranean Sea side, the monumental Sagrada Familia, the colossal ‘Camp Nou’ – abode of FC Barcelona, Poble Espanyol and the Olympic Stadium which also was the venue for Montjuïc race track. There were many other memoirs too like the colourful water fountain in its glory at night, Arc de Triomf, random Tapas joints, introduction to Gazpachos and an unforgettable dinner at the roof top restaurant of Vila Olimpica.

Amongst all this, I also went around the streets in a relatively busy locality called ‘Pedralbes’. Famous for its monastery - ‘White stones’ as translated in Catalan also was the first place in Spain which drew the likes of Fangio, Ascari and the rest of the 50’s Formula 1 drivers. It was a street circuit, a quick one where cars could reach up to a speed in excess of 300 km/h. The roads were wide, slightly grand and featured city’s broom corners. 

With the driver’s championships hanging in balance, the final event of the 1951 season was to culminate at Pedralbes, which was making its F1 debut. Which driver would it be? Alfa-Romeo having won the previous year looked good with their driver Juan Manuel Fangio, who led the championship at the start of this race. Ferrari on the other hand had hopes on their star driver Alberto Ascari to overcome the two point deficit and win the driver’s title. The job was half done with Ascari taking the pole and Fangio coming in second.

Crowd gathered in good number to watch this thriller unfold. Both drivers were pumped up to win their maiden F1 driver’s title. And so, the race started. Engine wise both Alfa-Romeo and Ferrari were evenly matched for speed. But it was the tyre choice that was going to be decisive. Ferrari opted for 16 inch rear tyres while Alfa Romeo went for 18 inch. This difference of 2 inches turned out to be a big disadvantage for Ferrari. They soon found their cars struggling with grip issues and tyres losing their thread rapidly. Ascari suffered the most and his championship hopes now solely rested on Fangio’s retirement and him taking 2 points or more. 

Fangio went on to win first of his five world titles. Ascari could manage only fourth. After having two successful seasons in F1, Alfa-Romeo announced of their F1 withdrawal from the 1952 season onwards owing to finances and the lack of it. In 1952 and 1953, the Spanish Grand Prix was replaced by Dutch Grand Prix. Pedralbes was back for the 1954 season in place of Zandvoort track of Netherlands.

Like it was in 1951 Pedralbes again hosted the ninth and the last race of the season. This time there was no such pre-race drama. Fangio was already a world champion coming into this round and he now driving for Mercedes could race without any title pressure. Barring for the two races he drove for Maserati, Fangio won four races with Mercedes.

Ascari was a double-world champion by this time and repeated his feat of 1951 by taking the pole position at this 6.3 km circuit. He was racing for Lancia and they had brought in their 90 degree V8 engine as a part of their chassis for this race. The pace was there to be seen - fastest practice lap, pole position and the fastest lap of the race. By the end of nine laps both the Lancia driven cars were out of the race. Luigi Villoresi retired on lap 2 struck by brake problems and seven laps later his mate Ascari would end his race and season due to clutch problems. The fastest car didn’t last the distance.

Mike Hawthorn who went on win his solitary World Championship in 1958 won this race for Ferrari. This win was made easy by leakage issues which Fangio had to deal with as he lost oil towards the end of the race. The duel of Hawthorn and Fangio didn’t reach the climax as a result of this unfortunate incident. Fangio lost his second position and finished in third. This third position is quite a significant one. Out of his 52 entries in F1, he won a Bradmanesque 24 times, came second 10 times, retired 10 times, DNQ (Did Not Qualify) once, finished outside the top three 6 times and this result in Spain was his sole 3^rd place of his F1 career.

The year 1955 is considered to be a black year for motorsports. The LeMans Disaster of 1955 was catastrophic and the sport became a lot stricter than it was as a result of this tragedy. Pedralbes was one of the casualties to suffer aftermath of what happened in LeMans. Stringent rules meant Pedralbes was out of the calendar. It never did any significant attempts to win back its place in F1. However, Spain did host and continues to host F1 races albeit it had to wait for another 13 years. 

Now all that remains of Pedralbes is the street and long stretch roads which once, rather twice had some of the fastest road cars on them with drivers accelerating, changing gears and braking at will. Looking at the roads, it was tough for me to visualise the events that took place nearly 60 years ago. There is a tramway on the middle of these roads, a freeway very close by to the road and few corners from the original Pedralbes circuit are still retained. The memories though remain and unfortunately I couldn’t get hold of any elderly gentleman or lady who had witnessed this event. 

Lost Track: Circuits of the Yore X - Montjuïc Spanish Grand Prix

Lella Lombardi, the only female to score points in F1

I recently read the news of the future of Women drivers in F1 and controversy surrounding it. Sir Stirling Moss was quite vocal about women being incapable to handle F1 mentally; though physically he said it didn’t matter. This didn’t go well with many and the F1 world was divided, with many voicing their opinions and few openly disagreeing (mainly Susie Wolff, the Williams test driver) with Moss. According to me - Women are ready to race for F1 teams; it is just a matter of teams having them. Only time will tell as to when.

It isn’t like there were no women F1 drivers before. There were many who test drove but very few women were part of the F1 business. Till date, there have been only five women racers (when compared to thousands of male drivers) to have been part of the Grand Prix circus; the last female took part in a race thirty three years ago. Out of these five drivers, only one managed to score a point, well almost a point (0.5 points to be precise). So clearly, statistics are not the medium through which you can bias and deny opportunity to female drivers. F1 in its current state is a lot safer and hence it eliminates the fear of life or one can say, fear of flying if thing do go awry in a F1 car.

Lella Lombardi (one of the five female drivers) competed in 17 races and her moment of glory in F1 came amidst the chaos and death of few spectators in a race which was stopped midway. The year was 1975 and all this happened at the hilly circuit of Montjuïc, located in Barcelona. It hosted Spanish Grand Prix briefly in late 60’s and early 70’s before facing the wrath from the F1 drivers. In this edition of Lost Track: Circuits of the Yore, I will be featuring the enigmatic street circuit at Montjuïc.

Spanish Grand Prix first became part of the F1 calendar in the year 1951, when Pedralbes hosted the race. It hosted one more time in 1954 and was cancelled the next year as a consequence of the disaster that took place at 24 hours of LeMans disaster in 1955. With authorities calling for regulations governing spectator safety, the scheduled Spanish Grand Prix (like many others) was cancelled and the pedestrian-lined street track at Pedralbes was then never used again for motor racing.

It took some effort on the part of ‘Real Automóvil Club de España’ (RACE) known as Royal Automobile Club of Spain in English to bid for the races in Spain. There were two front runners, one from Madrid (Jarama) and Barcelona (Montjuïc) respectively. After hosting a number of F2 and F3 races in the 1960’s, Spain was ready for F1 action. In 1967, a non-championship race took place at Jarama, which is situated north of Madrid. The race was won by Jim Clark and the F1 fraternity was impressed and came to an agreement to have the Spanish Grand Prix regularly. The two venues - Jarama and Montjuïc were in concord to host the Spanish Grand Prix alternatively. Jarama would host the Spanish Grand Prix in even-numbered years and Montjuïc in the odd-numbered years. 

                                        

Montjuïc, also known as the ‘Jew Mountain’ in Catalan hosted its first F1 championship race in 1969. Located in the hills, the drivers had to drive their machines along the slopes facing the city. It was challenging, it was tricky, but was exciting too. It was the second race of the calendar and the Ford-powered engines of Matra driven by (Sir) Jackie Stewart took the top step of the podium. Bruce McLaren in his McLaren-Ford came second. The race marked the end of the high-wing era. Also, this was the first race where the winner finished the race two laps ahead of the runner-up. This feat was repeated just once since then (Australia GP, 1995).

 The Spanish Grand Prix returned to Montjuïc in 1971, a race which saw the introduction of slick tyres for the first time in F1 by Firestone, who had considerable experience in US Open wheel racing series. Jackie Stewart was once again unstoppable; won the race starting from fourth.

In 1973, Jackie Stewart could not complete the hatrick of victories at Montjuïc. He retired early in the race due to brake problems. Emerson Fittipaldi, the reigning World Champion at that time won the race in his Lotus-Ford.

Two years later, the race at Montjuïc came to be known as one of the horrific and controversial races in the annals of F1 was the last this circuit hosted the Spanish Grand Prix. This is how the drama unfolded.

Before the race started, many drivers expressed their displeasure over the barriers and how recklessly it was bolted. The situation got so heated up that, many of the drivers went on strike and refused to get their cars out for practice sessions, which forced the track workers to spend overtime in fixing the barriers. The strike didn’t cool down; it required a threat by the race organisers which prompted the drivers to call off the strike. The threat was simple – If the race were to be cancelled, all the cars parked in the circuit would have been seized as compensation.

The race finally did take place; few drivers took part hesitantly while one refused to race. Emerson Fittipaldi, then the youngest double World Champion protested the race and did not start this race. There was a big accident and few of the cars at the front were taken out; Wilson Fittipaldi and Arthuro Merzario withdrew from the race after lap one. By the end of three laps, eight out of 26 cars were out of the race. By the end of 25 laps, the number swelled to 18. On lap 25, the tragedy struck as explained by a report – “The rear wing on Rolf Stommelen's Hill-Ford broke, sending him into the barrier. He bounced off it and back into the road, hitting the barrier across the way, and flying over it.”  

While trying to avoid Stommelen as he crossed the track, the Brazilian driver Carlos Pace crashed. Five spectators were killed by Stommelen's flying car with the driver suffering a broken leg, a broken wrist and two cracked ribs. The race continued for four more laps before it was stopped. Jochen Mass won the race and since, only 29 laps out of scheduled 75 were complete, points were reduced to half. The Italian, Lella Lombardi who finished sixth became the first and till date the only female to score points in F1.

 After the tragedy of 1975, F1 never returned to Montjuïc and was deserted completely. Jarama became the sole custodian of the Spanish Grand Prix before the baton was passed on to Jerez, Circuit de Catalunya and Valencia.

With F1 being ruled out, Montjuïc was used extensively to build an Olympic park for the 1992 Summer Olympics. Few parts of the race circuit were included in the Olympic Park plan.

Montjuïc was in the headlines again in October 2007 when the circuit was used for the Martini Legends, to honour the 75th anniversary of the circuit.

With Circuit de Catalunya and the recently built street circuit at Valencia being in the calendar (agreed to host Spanish Grand Prix alternatively), it is unlikely Montjuïc will feature in the F1 calendar in the near future. It hosted the Spanish Grand Prix four times and as they say; you are only as good as your last race. 

SPAIN CREATES HISTORY AND LOOKS GOOD FOR MORE

Three Sundays ago on the night of 10th June, these two teams (Spain and Italy) played out what I called then a boring draw. I was in that mood that day, and I was not taking the defence to show up. But it did and it didn’t surprise me as two of the best goal keepers were on the field. My favourites Iker Casillas and Gianluigi Buffon – it is a treat to watch them defend their territory and fight it out like gladiators; yet at the same time a pain to see one out do the other. Football do needs a winner eventually. Thankfully football isn’t close to any boxing match, but should it go to the penalties, the knockout punch will be felt. And so, after three weeks of entertaining football, I saw these two teams again on a Sunday night, this time it was for the championships. 

It was 1920 at the Belgium city of Antwerp when Spain last won against Italy straight in a high-profile encounter. That was the year of Olympics and if we do not include penalties, you can safely say it has indeed been a long time. I didn’t want this to change and like the previous edition of Euro, I wanted these two teams to settle it out on penalty shootouts. It wasn’t to be as Spain proved to be very strong and too good for the Italians. 

I have not seen a more dominant side in football for a period that involves three major competitions. France had it in them during their run when they won the 1998 World Cup and 2000 Euro and Brazil prior to that. In 21st century, towards the end of the decade, the side more famously known as the “La Roja” showed their initial signs as world beaters. 

So what makes this side so special? You only have to look at the players in the squad and any ardent football fan will tell you, the names do ring a bell in their heads, all the time. The Barcelona players are at the moment in the league of their own. Though Real Madrid showed little signs of a fight back, they are still few miles behind. Collectively, the core of the team that makes Barcelona, the world’s most feared team happens to be the core of this Spanish team. Add Iker Casillas, Xabi Alonso, David Silva, Juan Mata, Fernando Torres and Sergio Ramos, you have a combination that looks deadly. 

In European football among nations, only Germany had come close with respect to the consistency and on their day, they certainly looked like cup favourites. Something was missing, you can call it the X-factor or ‘mojo’, and they couldn’t quite finish the way they start the tournament. 

In my opinion, after France (1998-2000) I see this team to be the most feared and dominant team in the recent years. France had shown what a bunch of individual genius’s could do when they combined talents and gelled together. I saw a similar pattern here with the current Spanish team and if the last three tournaments were anything to go by, they look pretty solid to retain the World Cup as well. 

Credit goes to Del Bosque, the coach of this team to have come with a different tactic in the absence of David Villa, the country’s leading goal scorer. The formation of 4-3-3 did work wonders as the highly skilled mid-fielders and their tiki-taka style of play ensured genuine strikers like Fernando Torres and Pedro Rodriguez coming only as substitutes. 

Strikes from David Silva, Jordi Alba and late strikes from Torres and Juan Mata made sure Iker Casillas lifting his side’s second successive Euro trophy and country’s third overall (they had won in 1964) and thereby joined Germany as the only two countries to be triple European champions. 

It was at Vienna; nearly four years ago this team took a step towards the peak of world football. They still are at the top, with World Cup 2010 in their kitty and the 2012 Euro Championships. The beauty of this game is that it has never allowed a team to be at the pinnacle for long. It has always given other sides to stake a claim for the top prize. With the Euro 2012 win, Spain is looking good to change this trend. We have to go back to Chile 1962 when Brazil successfully defended their World Cup title. It has been 50 years and we are yet to see a back-to-back champion. It has happened in Euro for the first time and time will only tell; as in two years, the attention shifts to Brazil and all the eyes will be on this team to see history being made.