Nira Juanco, Canarian cat, one day was put on the wheel of Formula 1, that bustle of planes, hotels, exotic destinations, jet lags and also gasoline. Because the show of the cars is wrapped in a cellophane of glitter unique to its protagonists. The great circus fascinates from the outside and much more from within. This is known by this cheeky and smiling reporter who spent six years of her life with her suitcase crawling circuits and drivers, in the crazy seasons of the F1 boom in Spain, with televisions and newspapers sending their special envoys to the end of the world to tell the adventures of Fernando Alonso.

The years of sleeping 150 nights away from home and that the Asturian opened newspapers daily. Now, when in the form of unexpected déjà vu the same Asturian pilot returns to put the races on the family table on Sundays, Nira Juanco publishes -with the publishing house the Sphere of Books- her memoirs from the guts of the paddock, where she was a privileged witness of a universe where money, fame, technological espionage, Envy and vanity coexist in a small nomadic camp that stops every 15 days somewhere on the planet.

Nira presents his first book, The Great Circus of Formula 1, in full resurgence of the show, with Alonso again on the covers and a day before the inauguration in Ifema of the official exhibition of a championship that could have a place in Madrid in a few years. A resident of Valdebebas, this expert and racing fan only needs a Ferrari or a Red Bull to thunder in 2026 under her window. "A dream for me, hopefully," he says with a laugh. "It's great for the city, there is nothing like F1," defends this journalist who started in the Sixth in 2006 covering the celebration in Oviedo of Alonso's second title and who in 2009 began to follow the races as part of the team of Antonio Lobato, the iconic narrator of F1 and also columnist of EL MUNDO.

JAVIER BARBANCHO

"It heats up, you get the same thing," Nira recalls in the book the boss told her before that debut. In one of her first winter tests, at the Jerez circuit, under an unrepentant rain, she and her faithful friend and cameraman, Álvaro García, swallowed curves and tedium in those eternal sessions where there is very little to tell.

"Don't worry, the good will come...", said some reporter with kilometers. And so much that it came. With rhythm and in pages full of anecdotes, Nira Juanco summarizes six seasons of immersion in F1, where reporters who have access to the team's pits arrive, to listen to the radios where orders are given and those who can interview sweaty drivers, with their helmets freshly removed.

Initial biases

Nira, hardworking and charismatic, entered standing in that masculine world, without missing criticism in networks for being the first Spanish woman to take the F1 microphone on our television. "Girl, blonde, tall... Many assumed they would have no idea... I knew that for any mistake they were going to crucify me, that's why I studied the regulations and asked a lot of those who know, "she explains now, still working in the world of F1, as deputy director of the channel that broadcasts the races. Another life from which he longs, in part, for the previous one, despite the fact that with two children at home the situation changes a lot.

"I would like to continue doing some grand prix, it is a very special experience for the journalist, because in few sports do you get so into the competition," he says of those paddock hours where drivers and team bosses compadrean with reporters. It saves (to see if it is encouraged for the next book ...) details of the fun side B of F1: that of the exclusive parties, the boats and the champagne, key all this also in the universe of the races.

She took over a difficult world, where the Spaniard was always looked at as a last-minute guest, in the slipstream of Alonso. So it was, although later the invasion came with Alguersuari, Carlos Sainz, the HRT team... Everything is detailed by Nira from his personal vision, with the becomings of the Asturian pilot as the central axis. He writes the prologue (Carlos Sainz, the epilogue) and defines the author as a "friend", a title that the two-time champion gives to very few people.

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