Kyalami drivers' strike

At present Keke declines to confirm he will be driving an AMG Mercedes in the German Saloon Car Championship, but an announcement is shortly expected. As a commentator for German television, he will also attend most of the Grands Prix.

"Back to Kyalami, then," I said, "10 years after the strike..."

"Jesus, you're right!" Rosberg can remember the episode with great clarity. It is not often, after all, that Formula 1 drivers go on strike, lock themselves in a room, sleep on mattresses slung on the floor. Yet that is what happened at Kyalami in 1982.

The story began when Niki Lauda looked closely at his super licence application form, and found a clause he didn't like: / am committed to the above team to drive exclusively for them in the FLA Fl World Championship until the... 19...

By putting their names to this, Lauda figured, the drivers were signing away their rights, putting themselves entirely in the hands of the team owners. "I could imagine," he said, "transfer fees, as in football, and the horse-trading and contract buy-outs there would be. Deals would be struck between teams, leaving the drivers caught in the middle, like idiots."

Kyalami was to be the first race of Lauda's comeback, and he immediately contacted Didier Pironi, then president of the Grand Prix Drivers Association. Once in South Africa, they tackled the powers-that-be, and got nowhere, finding that on this occasion FISA (Jean-Marie Balestre) and FOCA (Bernie Ecclestone) were united. "They teamed up to show us who was in charge," commented Niki. "Accept the conditions, or go to hell..."

Thus it was that on Thursday morning Lauda and Pironi waylaid their colleagues as they arrived for the first day of practice. Niki had organised a coach, and suggested all should board it.

"We went back into Johannesburg for a meeting," Rosberg remembers, "but in fact they'd already decided we were going to have a strike. I very nearly didn't get on that bus, I can tell you, but once you were on, that was it. They'd planned it that way."

At the Sunnyside Park Hotel, the drivers sat around the pool all day, the tense atmosphere camouflaged by nervous laughter. Back at the track, meantime, team owners and circuit officials were seething. Pironi had remained there a while, negotiating, but later arrived with an ultimatum: if we don't go back for practice right now, we're all banned for life.

The threats, not surprisingly, had a greater impact on the younger drivers, but the established stars told them to keep the faith, stay united, and all would be well.

After dinner they considered their next move. Lauda had no doubts that if each driver took a single room, solidarity would collapse. Therefore he organised a small banquet suite, in which a number of mattresses was installed.

There was no loo with the room, of which more later, but there was a piano, and on this de Angelis and Villeneuve kept the troops entertained through the evening, the concert-trained Elio soothing them with Mozart, Gilles hammering out Scott Joplin rags. Bruno Giacomelli weighed in with a lecture on terrorism in Italy - well, who knew where this thing might lead, after all? - and generally prep school high spirits were sustained. Periodically, Pironi would arrive with fresh news from the front, Villeneuve introducing his every announcement with the dramatic opening chords of Beethoven's Fifth...

The piano served another purpose, too. When Jack Oliver arrived with a local heavy, and tried to force his way in, the drivers shoved the instrument against the door, which was thereafter locked.

Time for sleep, it was decided, and here there was further scope for humour, for the mattresses were doubles. Villeneuve and Alain Prost bedded down together, prompting Patrick Tambay to speculate that if any child resulting from this liaison became a racing driver, the rest might as well not bother. Lauda gave a coarse instruction to Andrea de Cesaris, which I had best not repeat here, and then someone finally turned out the light.

There remained the problem of the loo, however, which was across the hallway. The 'bedroom' key was left on a plate in the middle of the room, and each driver was 'on his honour' to relock the door, and replace the key.

"Teo Fabi ran like a chicken," remembers Rosberg. "Went out, didn't come back, and lost all our respect for ever - not because he decided to leave, no, but because he betrayed us all. He went straight to Balestre and Ecclestone, and told them everything that we had discussed..."

After a night of indifferent sleep, the drivers awoke to a call from Pironi, who was up at the track, and told Lauda everyone should leave for Kyalami, that the fight was won.

There was now, of course, but one day of practice remaining, and Ecclestone declined to allow Piquet to drive his Brabham in the untimed session, suggesting Nelson was "too tired". All three Brabham-BMWs bore the number 2 of Riccardo Patrese.

In the afternoon, though, the reigning World Champion was allowed out, qualifying second to Rene Arnoux. And next day, before an immense crowd, Prost led, punctured, then passed everyone again to win.

During the race - during the race - the Stewards issued a statement, declaring the truce over when the chequered flag fell, with all the drivers suspended indefinitely. FISA backed this up with one of its own.

It was all hot air, though, for where were the team owners to find 30 or so alternative drivers capable of handling turbocharged Fl cars? "In fact," Lauda pointed out, "we never heard another word about the super licence clause tying us to one team indefinitely. We won...

Rosberg doesn't disagree, but still he hates the manner in which "victory" was achieved. "Strikes are no way for intelligent people to achieve their aims," he says. "That was my first race with Williams, and Frank was very tough with me. Understandably very disappointed, too, because here was this new driver, getting the big chance, and immediately letting him down.

"On the other hand," Keke laughs, "it worked the other way, too. Two months later, at Imola, there was the FOCA strike - a strike by the team owners.

"That was my championship year, and I had to miss a race, because I happened to be driving for a FOCA team. No one apologised to me.

"It was an odd weekend at Kyalami, wasn't it?" he murmured. "Formula 1 drivers behaving like friends, the whole gang together for once..."