New Motorsport Week article: When a painted cow saved F1 - the South African Grand Prix that wasn’t

Pereira, Fernando / Anefo / neg. stroken, 1945-1989, 2.24.01.
05, item number 930-9907 [CC BY-SA 3.0 nl (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/
3.0/nl/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons

Whatever you think about Formula 1 politics at any given moment in time, you can at least count yourself lucky that they are not the politics of the 'FISA-FOCA war'. And as everyone headed off for the winter at the end of the 1980 season the war was at its most entrenched. Then even sober assessments had F1 - had least F1 as we knew it - as not long for this earth.

As the months passed and 1980 gave way to '81 about the only progress was of even more digging in. That was until a painted cow - no, really - broke the logjam. And gave us eventually the F1 that we would still fully recognise today.

In my latest for Motorsport Week I tell this rather strange tale. You can check it out here: https://www.motorsportweek.com/news/id/21539