By Rosa Elena Torres | Jo Ramírez is a living legend in racing with a long history in Formula One with teams such as Ferrari, Tyrrell and AAR. His longest tenure was at McLaren Formula One as a team coordinator, working with drivers such as Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Pedro de la Rosa, Mika Häkkinen, Gerhard Berger, and many others. After he retired, he wrote his autobiography: “Jo Ramírez: Memoirs of a Racing Man”.
Just before the interview, Ramírez said: “This is an easy question because the 1988 McLaren Formula One Team is my dream team. I was already there, I lived it, and my fantasy team exists! [smiles]
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DRIVERS
Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. Senna because he was the best (driver) in the world, no doubt. I’ve never seen any other driver in a qualifying lap that can extract that much from a car, from the engine, from everything…
Prost because it’s very easy to get on with him; he never brought his manager to the circuit or things like that. It’s extremely easy to work with Prost, a driver who was completely unable to make mistakes, and he’s as fast enough to be in the first row or clinch pole. That’s why he won so many races, and he would have been the world champion more times, but the rules betrayed him in some years.
DESIGNER
I choose Adrian Newey. He’s an exceptionally good designer. Each year the rules change, and he finds something where you can get more out of it. He always gets there. He’s a brilliant chap, a very serious character. However, he’s a man that you can talk with, you can suggest something, and he listens to you. If your suggestion is good, he will adopt it and uses it for car development.
If you look at his cars, you can see that all parts of them were very thoroughly designed. You don’t see something that was an afterthought. All was done to make the car balanced and make it fast in every aspect. Collaborating with Adrian was satisfying because you always know that you’ll get good results with him.
TEAM OWNER
Back then, Ron Dennis was the best, no doubt. I’ve learned a lot from him. He gave me the best advice (never accept a no as an answer). He would achieve whatever his goal was. He was eager to have the best people in the team, which is why he was so successful for many years. Also, he was incredibly good at getting sponsors. He could sell freezers to the Eskimos.
Dennis was a trendsetter. In McLaren, we were the first to paint the…
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