• Formula 1: a hero and a miracle in the flames of Jarama

April 19, 1970 is a date that marked my life. I have always loved car racing, and at the age of 13, one of my uncles invited my mother and me to go to Jarama to see the Spanish Formula 1 GP. My dream come true! It was going to be my first live race. When I arrived at the circuit on Sunday, logically, he knew by heart the life and miracles of the drivers and the cars that were going to race.

They were other times, but from the point of view of the sports spectacle, surely they were better than today. And I will explain why. Only 16 cars took the start, and of these, five were driven by world champions: Jackie Stewart , Denny Hulme , Graham Hill , Jack Brabham and John Surtees , and two other drivers were going to be too: Jochen Rindt , that same year, and Mario Andretti , who had won the Indianapolis 500 Miles the year before, was to be eight years later.

Imagine the level of competitiveness of a sports event among 16 athletes, of whom seven have been or were going to be world champions of that specialty. At present, the difference in performance between the cars makes it impossible for something like this to happen again, because now, winning the World Cup has become something not too complicated, but almost inexorable when you are the first driver of the best team. But this was not the reason that that Sunday afternoon made such an impression on me.

In the first round of the Grand Prix, the BRM of Jackie Oliver lost control under braking for the Bugatti curve and crashed into the Ferrari 312 B of Jacky Ickx . The blow was not important, but there was a violent fire, with the two cars stopped and 350 or more liters of gasoline burning on the track.

At almost 1,000 ºC

We saw Oliver come out of the fireball, but Ickx couldn't get out of his car. The seconds passed and the anguish was real, this was not a movie. Suddenly, an officer from that post, dressed in white pants and a navy blue shirt, went into the fire, full-length, without any fire-retardant equipment, only with the help of a hand-held fire extinguisher and his courage, the latter of major size than the extinguisher-, because the gasoline burns at around 1,000 ºC, and I assure you that it is not easy to be there.

This officer reached the Ferrari driver, and there he met another brave man, a Civil Guard who had also reached the driver on the other side of the car, and between them they took him out. When we saw the three of them go out, burning their clothes and shoes, scorched but alive, I can assure you that I sat on the ground, and breathed deeply, because I had spent the greatest anguish of my life watching a human being burn alive. . That officer was called Andrés Mas Martín , and for me, that impact received was so intense, that I could never abandon motor racing.

Over the years, I had the honor of being appointed by the International Automobile Federation as chairman of the newly created Commission of Volunteers and Officers. There, I promoted the creation of annual awards and recognitions for the best motoring officers worldwide, and as that year was to be the first, we considered that the best officer of all time should be awarded for an act of singular heroism. , and not only in the 2011 season.

"You don't need to know my name"

Andrés Mas, for his performance in the 1970 Spanish GP, was chosen as the best motorsport official of all time, but sadly he passed away a few days before the award ceremony, and I had the honor of receiving him on his behalf.

But I can't finish the story here, because the other hero, the Civil Guard who collaborated with Andrés, could never be identified because he didn't want to. Ickx told me that he had tried to thank him at the hospital where the two of them were taken, and that he had asked for a message to be transferred to him, but the agent's response was clear: "Tell Mr. Ickx that you don't need to know my name, that the Civil Guard has saved you ".

Today is the date, and 50 years have passed, that we could never know who was the guard of those on duty that day, an anonymous hero, who risked his life to save Ickx. Thanks to both of you.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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