The 23rd episode of F1 Beyond The Grid has Jo Ramirez speak on time spent with Ayrton Senna/Alain Prost, work with McLare, Tyrrell and more.
Ramirez started the F1 Beyond The Grid podcast talking about the different eras he has seen in his career as he felt the 80s as the best one to be in. The topic quickly shifted to his time at McLaren with Ron Dennis.
He reveals that he initially declined the job but then took it up, while describing the relation with Dennis. From there, they started discussing about the biggest rivalry of F1 – that of Senna and Prost.
He describes how the two drivers of different were pushing for the same goal and how the relationship started to deteriorate over the years. Ramirez talks about certain races where the two had the arguments.
The Mexican reckons Senna always felt that McLaren supported Prost more like in Silverstone, where they were having issues with the engine and while going through the pieces, the one with Prost worked.
This further infuriated Senna. He reveals how Prost used to play mind games and then talked about the 1988 Monaco GP, where Senna lost out despite having a huge lead and locked himself at his home.
They talked about Prost leaving McLaren and the relation between the two slowly on the mend. On the death of Senna, Ramirez revealed that even though he was racing for Williams, the Brazilian asked for a help at Imola.
He wanted a helicopter arranged which Ramirez did as Williams didn’t do as much for drivers like McLaren. He also added that despite the issues, Senna did not wish to retire, even though many suggested it.
Ramirez also explained the reason for him not going to the funeral. Moving on, they discussed about the Mexican’s racing career which also led to his switch to non-racing role when working for Ken Tyrrell with Dan Gurney.
He shared some insights on how Gurney and Tyrrell worked, which helped him become what he is now. They then moved to the current times and discussed about the F1 driver unity through GPDA.
They ended the podcast talking about Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes dominance plus the change within McLaren, which has worked for the better, especially with Carlos Sainz and a surprise Lando Norris.