9 replies to this topic

[DCapps]

The 21 April 1999 issue of The Atlas F1 Journal carried the first time that the column Rear View Mirror appeared.

 

In reality, it is the real origin of TNF, its appearance leading to the establishment of TNF in November 1999.

 

And, so it goes.

[Rob Miller]

The Rear View Mirror series on the 1961 F1 season was the first good thing I found on the Internet.

Thank you, Don.

Rob

[DCapps]

Something that should have been included in an RVM column under the "Pity the Poor Historian!" Series... Then again, why confuse the Enthusiasts with Inconvenient Facts?

 

Championnat du Monde de Formule Un de la Fédération Internationale l’Automobile (FIA)

FIA Formula One World Championship[1]

 

GENERAL REGULATIONS

 

1. In application of the decisions taken during the FIA Rio Congress of 15th April 1980, the FISA (Federation Internationale du Sport Automobile) is organizing the new FIA Formula 1 World Championship from 1st January 1981. As a result, the old World Championship for Drivers (Championnat du Monde des Conducteurs) is suppressed.[2]

 

2. The new Formula 1 World Championship, which is the property of the FIA, will have two World Championship titles, one for Drivers and one for Constructors.

 

3. The classification of this Championship will be established through the results obtained by the drivers and constructors licensed by the FIA in the Formula 1 Grands Prix which will be part of the Formula 1 Calendar, and for which the ASNs (Autorité Sportive Nationale/ National Sporting Authority) have signed a contractual Agreement which will oblige the parties involved: FISA – ASN – Organisers – Competitors – Circuits, to respect all the World Championship Regulations.

 

4. All the participants in the New Formula 1 World Championship undertake to apply all the new regulations of this Championship. They must hold a FISA Super License which will be issued to the Drivers – Competitors – Officials – and Organisers. 

 

5. The Supplementary Regulations of the events will be replaced by a set of Standard Regulations worded in both French and English valid for all events. 

 

6. The Championship will be made up of 16 Grands Prix maximum which will be selected according to criteria resulting from the qualities of the organisation.

 

7. The task of the Commission made up of the countries organising FIA Formula 1 Grands Prix is to coordinate the interests of all the organisers. It will negotiate a financial agreement of several years with the Constructors according to normal commercial rules the respect of which will be guaranteed by the FISA. It will also negotiate any insurance policy which may be judges necessary to cover the organisers globally who so desire. No contract may be negotiated between the organisers and the competitors or their representatives concerning the organisation of events without the formal agreement of the ASN and the FISA.

 

8. No constructor or Association of Constructors may organize or may be associated with an ASN or a Club affiliated to that ASN for the organisation of a Grand Prix.

 

No competitor or constructor entered for a World championship events may be organiser of this same event.

[1] Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, Annuaire du Sport Automobile / Year Book of Automobile Sport 1981, Règlements des Championnats Internationaux 1981/ International Championship Regulations 1981 (Patrick Stephens, 1981), 19.

[2] The word used in the French wording of the regulations is: supprimé. The Larousse French Dictionary (Larousse, 2011) defines “supprimer” – the root word – with the following: to suppress; to remove; to delete; to abolish; to do away with, to eliminate.

[DCapps]

Recently, I came across a rather robust folder of notes and drafts for RVM columns that never saw the light of day on Atlas F1 Journal, a number of which also were never used for the RVM material that later appeared on Academia.edu.

 

Here is a FISA statement that I noted from an issue of Autosport in 1980 in the wake of the FIA Congress in Rio where on 15 April 1980 the FISA made it clear who was in charge...

 

The World Championship of Drivers and World Championship and World Championship of Manufacturers is a new championship replacing both the old International Challenge for Endurance Drivers and the World Championship of Makes. It will begin on January 1, 1981.

 

Six races have been selected for the championship of Makes, the Le Mans 24 Hours (F), the Daytona 24 Hours (USA), Monza (I), Nurburgring (D), Silverstone (GB), and a second USA race to be chosen in the near future.

 

The candidature of Fuji in Japan and Spa in Belgium will be retain for 1982.

 

For the Drivers Championship, 15 European and American races have been retained.

 

I managed to track down the statement to something that appeared in Pit & Paddock on 24 April 1980, something on the World Endurance Championship, pages 4 & 5.

 

In the same Pit & Paddock page (4), there was this statement from FISA:

 

The Plenary Conference entrusts the President and FISA Executive Committee with the drawing up of a list of measures, and to take all the necessary steps so that, in 1981, the FISA exerts full control over the World Championships belonging to it and which, at the present moment, are the object of a takeover by certain private associations foreign to the FIA.

 

Interestingly, this is one of the few references made by Autosport at the time that FIA/FISA was literally asserting that as of 1981 it owned the World Championships, NEW ones, as noted in the statement on the new endurance championships.

 

As always, it is interesting to look at how the FIASCO War is related in the contemporary press... 

[DCapps]

On 8 September 2004, the RVM column made its final appearance on Atlas F1.

Not that anyone missed it by then, of course. 

But, even had the column had continued, the sale to Haymarket/Autosport would have ended it in the not too-distant future.

It was pretty doomed to end regardless of the situation in other words.

At least it limped and stumbled off into utter oblivion on its own terms, sorta more or less.

At any rate, it was fun while it lasted and you can't ask for more than that.

 

Although Bira was an absolute, almost complete pain in the Alpha $ierra $ierra to work with*, she deservedly earns a Gold Star with Crossed Palms for what she did with Atlas F1. 

The current bunch of knuckleheads at Formula1.com can't even come close to holding a sputtering birthday candle to what Bira did with Atlas F1; if Bira were the editor of the site it would be far more than the lame, inept corporate Papa Oscar Sierra that it is -- it would be crackling, vibrant, full of actual content, and most definitely lively, everything the current site isn't.

You don't have to love or even like someone or even be able to work with them to have the greatest of respect for that person, but without Bira, no RVM and certainly and foremost, no TNF.

Keep that latter point in mind, y'all.

 

###

 

* Okay, that we were both extremely hard-headed, focused, mission-first, take-no-prisoners, stand-my-ground, take-charge sort of people may just have had a little something to do with that...

Edited by DCapps, 08 September 2024 - 16:33.

[Doug Nye]

Well despite the egocentric propensities of more than one of this place's creators I believe that the vast majority of TNF users today would readily join me in offering thanks to them, and especially to you Don, for building the finest general research, information and fun venue for those who are long-term motor sports-minded on the internet, all these years later...

 

Would anyone care to join me in a whole-hearted round of applause?

 

DCN

[Rob Ryder]

  

[John Ginger]

👏👏

[68targa]

              

[Felix Muelas]

I fully endorse your statement, Doug. With thanks!