The Wizard of Oz: interview with Ron Walker

Walking through the Melbourne paddock on Wednesday afternoon, the scene and atmosphere are markedly different from previous years.

The pitlane is busier than normal and more work is being done behind the garages trying to get things in order before the official action kicks off. The presence of the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne meant the Formula One cargo was not released from the local airport until Monday - one day later than usual.

It has left teams with 24 hours less to get things ready. Not a major headache, but enough to require a bit of extra effort in readiness. Hence the presence of plenty forklift trucks and awnings still needing to be put up.

Mood wise, things are different too. There is not a single person who works in the pitlane who does not relish being at this event, but the buzz that always surrounds the opening race of the season has been replaced with a more muted sense of excitement over the events about to unfold at the Australian Grand Prix.

While the paddock ahead of the season-opener is usually awash with gossip, predictions and fervent anticipation about the form guide for the season ahead, the opening two races of the season have already delivered many of the answers that people are usually so keen to get resolved.

That is why the paddock is quieter. There are a few team personnel around, technical directors Ross Brawn and Sam Michael chatting on tables behind their pits, but most of the drivers have opted to stay in town for some extra rest and relaxation.

In fact, Melbourne is loved so much by everyone in F1 that many paddock regulars opted to spent Wednesday in restaurants, bars or hotel rooms - until the mass descent into the Albert Park paddock on Thursday morning.

But while the build-up to Melbourne feels more relaxed than it has in the past, it has actually been one of the most fraught and challenging for the race organisers.

Melbourne's hosting of the Commonwealth Games proved logistically challenging for the city - but it also prompted talk of locals getting 'sported-out' and ticket sales for the GP suffering.

There has also been fresh speculation in the Australian media about the future of the Grand Prix itself, on the back of issues relating to the Grand Prix's tobacco advertising exemption coming to an end after this year's race.

The man who has had to sort all this out is Ron Walker, the chairman of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation who also acted as Chairman of the Commonwealth Games.

He is a major player in Formula One circles, as a regular on the Formula One Commission, and was only too happy to clear up the rumours surrounding the Australian Grand Prix when approached by autosport.com.

Dealing with the Commonwealth Blues

It is fair to say that the Commonwealth Games have been the focus for much of the Australian public for the past few weeks.

But although the event proved a huge success - and perhaps went some way to making up for Melbourne's failure to land the Olympics in 1996 - almost every adult in the world knows that after a great night comes a hangover the next morning.

For Melbourne, this has been labelled 'the post Games blues'. The city is taking the matter pretty seriously - and psychologists have even been brought in to help deal with the situation.

The obvious fear for Walker was that the more successful the Games were, the more of a negative impact that could have on the Grand Prix. Fans may have been too 'sported out' to want to go to another major event so soon after the Games, while others may have decided to fork out for tickets to the Games rather than spend it on the F1 race.

Walker remains upbeat, however. He insists that talks of a ticket crisis are well wide of the mark - and claims getting the event and the spectators on track have not been difficult at all.

"It has actually been seamless in getting this all together," he says, relaxing on a sofa in his office in the Grand Prix building at Albert Park. "We have brought in 60,000 tonnes of equipment, most of which was here before the Commonwealth Games started, and all we had to do was take the grandstands down from the back of the swimming centre and reclaim that area.

"Everything was all ready to go. All the cleaning staff have been working for 24 hours and it is amazing when you think we had the Australian Open tennis in January, the Commonwealth Games, the biggest multi-sport event in the world this year, leaving aside the World Cup soccer, and now we have got the Grand Prix.

"This has now become the largest corporate event in the world. Eighty thousand corporate tickets have been sold and they will sit down to a silver service lunch.

"The only problem is that, over the four days, I have 2,500 grandstand seats unsold, which is nothing when you come to think about it. I think we will probably end up with 1,000 unsold but we will get 380,000 people here over the four days, so there is an insatiable appetite for the Grand Prix."

Walker says that the Grand Prix has not been forced to take a backseat to the Games - and claims the interest remains high purely because of the good job that Melbourne does every year.

"I think the people have saved up to come here," he adds. "When you look at the per-capita figures, there are 90,000 visitors here at the moment, 40,000 from overseas. These people are staying for the Grand Prix as well, so all the hotels are still full.

"There is an amazing economic benefit value, but the Grand Prix has got its own clientele and they will be here every year. Why? Because we entertain them. There is no other Grand Prix in the world that treats its customers the way we do. Motorsport is pure in one sense, but people also need to be entertained. That is our secret."

Smoking out the truth

The issue of tobacco sponsorship in Formula One remains a major topic these days, even though only three teams continue having cigarette makers as title sponsors.

The newspapers in Australia in the week building up to the race have been dominated by talk that the tobacco issue has cast a cloud over the event's future - and could even jeopardise its place on the calendar.

Tobacco advertising is banned in Australia, but the government had agreed several years ago to allow an exemption for major events like the Grand Prix. That exemption runs out later this year, meaning the 2007 race in Melbourne must run without any cigarette logos.

Walker is adamant that the government have done the right thing in ending the exemption.

"[FIA president] Max Mosley in 2000 approached the Australian government to cancel the exemption in late 2006 to encourage teams to seek sponsorship other than tobacco, which most of the teams have done," he explains. "He used that as a platform in his bid with the EU to abolish the use of cigarette advertising after 2006. That is common knowledge.

"The three exemptions in this country were motorcycle racing with the MotoGP, golf and F1. And it all ends in October. In this country, like in many other countries, you cannot smoke in restaurants any more, you cannot smoke on public transport any more, and there is just no way in the world that this government would turn around and change it now."

The understanding in the media was that the tobacco issue would result in the Australian GP organisers being forced to pay out compensation to F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone for not continuing with cigarette money.

The status of the race was also called into question earlier this week when Ecclestone told local newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald that he was 'worried' about the future of the event.

"We've always relied on the fact that in Australia we can run with tobacco branding, but I understand now that there may be some problems with that," Ecclestone said.

"If there's something in the contract that refers to tobacco advertising, obviously it's something to be worried about. We've got a contract with Australia and we'll have a look and see exactly what's what."

Walker plays down the tobacco fears, though - and drops a hint that Ecclestone may be being slightly mischievous in his comments. After all, it puts Ecclestone in a good bargaining position for promoter deals if he can cast doubts over the future of an established event like Australia.

"Bernie knows exactly what is in the contract," says Walker when asked about the Briton's comments. "Mr. Ecclestone has got the sharpest mind in the world. He knows how every contract reads."

Walker says that Australia is in no different a situation to any other country that does not allow tobacco advertising.

"Our contract has been adjusted to cope with the exemption in 2006, as I am sure all other contracts are," he says.

When asked whether there was an issue with compensation, Walker responds: "But China does not allow [tobacco] branding, Turkey does not allow branding. If that sort of thing happened to Melbourne then 70 percent of the other promoters would go as well. The world has woken up to the World Health Organisation that cigarette smoking is injurious to health, so it is as simple as that."

In fact, Walker insists that there is no doubt about the future of the Australian Grand Prix.

"I have a contract until 2010, and the race will not be leaving here," he says. "And I know that for sure.

"This is without doubt the best race in the world. People know this throughout the world. It is not as modern at Malaysia, it is not as modern as China, but then this is a temporary circuit. And you go and ask the teams.

"Just look at what we do for people and how we look after people here. I would love to spend 300 million US dollars and recreate a new track but it is not necessary here. The track is the track. It is different. I would like to air-condition the garages like they have done in many other places but we don't need it here."

Fighting to be first

Australia has traditionally been the season-opener but the arrival of the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne forced a change of scenario this year.

A deal agreed between Walker and Ecclestone meant the event moved back to a week after the Games and took a slot as the third race in the calendar after Malaysia and Bahrain.

It had been widely believed that the switching of Melbourne's position on the calendar would be a temporary measure for 2006, but Ecclestone has since served to fuel speculation that Australia may have a fight on its hands to get the opening slot back.

He suggested in a newspaper interview that the number of television viewers the sport could get for the season opener may have an impact on his future calendar plans. Bahrain's lunchtime slot on a Sunday afternoon for European viewers was obviously going to get more figures than Australia's night-time position.

Ecclestone said: "We got very, very good television ratings (for the Bahrain GP), whereas from Australia, we get lousy (early morning) television ratings in Europe."

Walker is confident, however, that there is no problem with Australia returning to its slot as the season-opener in 2007.

"This is a one off," he says in relation to Melbourne's position as the third race on the calendar. "Mr. Ecclestone and I had an agreement to move the race for the first time in more than a decade to number three and I am assured it will go back to number one next year."

When asked directly about Ecclestone's comments, Walker again suggests the mischief may be a key factor behind them - in a bid once again to secure himself a good bargaining position.

"Well, I saw that (the quotes), and Mr. Ecclestone loves to stir me up," smiles Walker. "From 20,000km away he gets his feather out and stirs me up. Eventually it is up to the FIA I suppose. Bernie is my closest friend in life and I have such fun being with him because he inspires me."

Formula One back on track

Despite being 'stirred up' by Ecclestone, Walker has been one of the F1 supremo's closest allies and confidants.

Last year he launched a campaign among his fellow race promoters to unify behind Ecclestone in the fight to prevent the sport's manufacturers forging their plans for the breakaway.

Walker has made no secret of the fact that he believed the breakaway plans to be damaging for the sport, and now that the manufacturers have this week signed up their future entries to F1 in a bid to sort out the sport's future, he is once again keen to sing Ecclestone's praises.

"As I have always said, and I sit on the F1 Commission and I am privileged to do that, I have always believed that the breakaway unit would never go ahead," he explains. "But it had to go through all the pain and the anguish of people who were chief executives of those auto companies strutting their stuff and now most of them have left.

"Jac Nasser, who was a great component of breaking away, he is gone. Our friend from Renault gone. Our friend from Mercedes-Benz, gone. Look at the list. They have all gone.

"They know that Bernie is without doubt the best sports promoter in the world. People used to say to me about Mark McCormack (legendary sports agent) but Bernie Ecclestone has built the greatest business in sport in the globe, and at his age he works harder than anyone else."

Even harder than Walker, who has had plenty of his plate in recent weeks but looks set once again to pull off one of the best organised Grands Prix of the year.

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- The Autosport.com Team

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