Jo Ramírez

Jo Ramírez
Jo Ramírez (right)
Born	Joaquín Ramírez Fernández (1941-08-20) August 20, 1941 Mexico City, Mexico
Nationality	Mexican
Other names	Jo
Education	UNAM
Occupation	F1 Mechanic, Author
Known for	Team McLaren Coordinator (1984–2001)
Religion	Catholic
Spouse(s)	Bea Ramírez
Children	Ana Vanessa

Joaquín "Jo" Ramírez Fernández (born August 20, 1941, Mexico City) is an author and retired employee of several sports car racing teams. From 1984 to 2001 Ramírez was coordinator of the McLaren Formula One team, including during the infamous Prost / Senna clash of the late-1980s.

Early life

The third of eight children, Ramírez was born in Mexico City and studied mechanical engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Contrary to his father desires he dropped out in 1960 to follow his friend Ricardo Rodríguez to Europe. Ramírez worked as apprentice mechanic for Scuderia Ferrari for two years. When Rodríguez died in a racing crash in the Mexican GP in 1962, Ramírez took a job in Maserati first and later in Lamborghini's as a mechanic of their new line of high performance road cars. In 1964 he moved to England where he worked for Ford on the GT40, before joining Dan Gurney’s All American Racers team in 1966.

Formula One career

During the 1960s and 70s Ramírez worked for several teams, including Dan Gurney's Eagle, Tyrrell, where founder Ken Tyrrell advised him to keep a diary of his time in the sport, and for Wilson and Emerson Fittipaldi in their Fittipaldi Copersucar F1 team.^[1]

In December 1983 Ramírez joined the front-running McLaren Formula One operation as Team Coordinator, becoming close friends with many top drivers including Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna †, Jackie Stewart, François Cevert †, David Coulthard and Mika Häkkinen.

In 2001, after more than 40 years Ramírez retired from the Great Circus and was advised by McLaren team manager Ron Dennis not to write his life story as no one would be interested. Ramírez was left in little doubt that Dennis' true aim was to stop any undesirable details of the team's inner workings from becoming public. As a parting gift from F1 David Coulthard and Mika Häkkinen gave him a Harley-Davidson Road King.

Statistics^[2]

• 479 Grands Prix in which he participated.
• 116 triumphs on F1 Grands Prix.
• 10 F1 Drivers' World Championships: 1973, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1998 and 1999.
• 5 F1 World Champions: Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Mika Häkkinen.
• 7 Constructors' F1 World Championships (McLaren): 1984, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1998.
• 8 F1 teams: Ferrari, AAR Eagle, Tyrrell, Fittipaldi-Copersucar, Shadow, ATS, Theodore and McLaren.
• 1 World Sportscar Championship (JW-Porsche): 1971.
• 1 World Sportscar Championship Drivers': Pedro Rodríguez and Jackie Oliver.
• 4 teams and prototype sports car: Ferrari, Maserati, Ford and JW-Porsche.

After Formula One

In 2005 published his life story, to the interest of many Formula One fans. Jo Ramirez: Memoirs of a racing man.

Ramírez also has written the foreword of some books like: The Brothers Rodríguez,^[3] 2007 and La Carrera Panamericana: "The World's Greatest Road Race!",^[4] 2008.

During F1 seasons Ramírez has a column in the Mexican newspaper Reforma.

Ramírez was a great support and inspiration to Mexicans talents like Adrián Fernández, Salvador Durán, Checo Pérez and Esteban Gutiérrez.

Ramírez is fluent in Spanish, English, Italian and Portuguese.

Carrera Panamericana

After his retirement from F1, Ramírez has participated in the Carrera Panamericana, including the fourth place in the A+ Historic category in 2010 in a Volvo.^[5]

In the 2012 edition Ramírez and his co-driver Alberto "Beto" Cruz got the podium with a third place in the category of A+ Historic 2,000 cc. Ramírez drove his Volvo P-1800 of Scuderia Telmex and concludes on the 50th overall with a time of 5h.55m.3.1s.^{[6][7] [8]}

See also

• Ricardo Rodríguez
• Pedro Rodríguez
• Team McLaren
• Ron Dennis

References

External links

• Jo Ramirez at GrandPrix.com

McLaren Founder Bruce McLaren McLaren Technology Group Ron Dennis (25%) TAG Group (25%) Mumtalakat (50%) Head management Éric Boullier (Racing Director) Ron Dennis (Group CEO & part owner) Jonathan Neale (Interim CEO) Current personnel Tim Goss Neil Oatley Peter Prodromou Former personnel John Barnard Gordon Coppuck Mike Coughlan Pat Fry Steve Hallam Norbert Haug Robin Herd Paddy Lowe Neil Martin Teddy Mayer Sam Michael Gordon Murray Adrian Newey Steve Nichols Jo Ramírez Nicholas Tombazis Martin Whitmarsh 2015 race drivers 14. Fernando Alonso 20. Kevin Magnussen 22. Jenson Button 2015 test and reserve drivers Kevin Magnussen Stoffel Vandoorne Oliver Turvey McLaren young driver programme Stoffel Vandoorne Nyck de Vries Ben Barnicoat World Champions Emerson Fittipaldi Lewis Hamilton James Hunt Mika Häkkinen Niki Lauda Alain Prost Ayrton Senna Former drivers See category Drivers' titles 1974 1976 1984 1985 1986 1988 1989 1990 1991 1998 1999 2008 Constructors' titles 1974 1984 1985 1988 1989 1990 1991 1998 Cars: Formula One M2B M4B M5A M7A M7B M7C M7D M9A M14A M14D M19A M19C M23 M26 M28 M29 M29F M30 MP4 (MP4/1) MP4B (MP4/1B) MP4/1C MP4/1E MP4/2 MP4/2B MP4/2C MP4/3 MP4/4 MP4/5 MP4/5B MP4/6 MP4/6B MP4/7A MP4/8 MP4/9 MP4/10 MP4/10B MP4/10C MP4/11 MP4/11B MP4/12 MP4/13 MP4/14 MP4/15 MP4-16 MP4-17 MP4-17D MP4-18 MP4-19 MP4-19B MP4-20 MP4-21 MP4-22 MP4-23 MP4-24 MP4-25 MP4-26 MP4-27 MP4-28 MP4-29 MP4-30 Formula Two M4A M21 Sports cars Zerex Special M1A M1B M1C M6A M6B M6GT M8A M8B M8C M8D M8E M8F M8FP M12 M20 F1 GTR 12C GT3 650S GT3 P1 GTR USAC/IndyCar M15 M16A M16B M16C M16C/D M16E M24 F5000/Libre M3 M10A M10B M18 M22 M25 Development cars M2A MP4-29H/1X1 Road cars F1 F1 LM SLR (for Mercedes-Benz) MP4-12C P1 X-1 650S 675LT Engines M838T Merged team Project Four Racing Related West Competition