abstract
| - The 1980 Spanish Grand Prix had intended to be the seventh round of the 1980 Formula One World Championship. Following the Monaco race, Nelson Piquet led the championship by one point ahead of René Arnoux with Alan Jones a further three points adrift in third. Williams led the constructor's standings, five points ahead of Ligier. Heading into the event, tensions had begin to brew between Formula One's governing body, the FISA and FOCA, the body representing the Formula One team's on the grid. The only three team's not associated with FOCA were the manufacturer team's, Ferrari, Renault and Alfa Romeo. At the beginning of the season, FISA President Jean-Marie Balestre had announced that their would be a mandatory driver's pre-race briefing which had compulsory attendance for all drivers on the grid. However during the previous two rounds in Belgium and Monaco, the FOCA drivers had been instructed to boycott the driver briefings by FOCA CEO Bernie Ecclestone. FOCA being unhappy with FISA, feeling they were demonstrating bias towards the three manufacturer teams. As a result, heading into the Spanish race Balestre had ordered the suspension of fifteen of the driver's superlicenses, until a fine of approximately $2,000 had been paid by each. In a press conference held on the Thursday before the race weekend, Balestre announced to the race organisers of the Spanish Grand Prix, the Royal Automobile Club of Spain (RACE) that the suspended driver's would not be allowed to take part in Friday practice the following day until their fines had been paid. Despite this, the FOCA driver's continued to refuse to pay their fines despite the threat of expulsion from the event. RACE, worried that the event would not go ahead offered to deposit the fines to the FISA on behalf of the driver's. Balestre refused, stating the fines had to paid in full by the driver's. A FOCA spokesperson then pointed out a failure in this argument as Essex, a sponsor for Mario Andretti had previously paid his fine for him to ensure he did not run into problems with his superlicense ahead of the 1980 Indianapolis 500 that Andretti was competing in. Furthermore, Nelson Piquet had been allowed to compete in an Endurance race at the Nurburgring, despite his superlicense being supposedly suspended. RACE had been instructed by the Spanish King, Juan Carlos that the race must be run regardless of the FISA-FOCA dispute. Due to this the race organisers would allow the FOCA teams to participate in the event, despite the race losing the sanctioning of the FIA if it did. As a result the race would go ahead without the sanctioning of the FIA and therefore losing its status as a 1980 World Championship event.
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