Argentina 82

[KekeTheKing]

Hopefully someone here can shed some light on this one.

I remember hearing somewhere that the political climate, and impending Falklands Conflict was the reason that the Argentine GP scheduled for March 7, 1982 was called off. There doesn't seem to be a lot of info out there on the web about this, so I ask the collective wisdom of Clip The Apex, "Why exactly was Argentina 82 cancelled."

edit - The March 1982 MotorSport mentions the cancellation in passing, saying the "fracas in South Africa and the argy-bargy in Paris has frightened the South Americans into cancelling the Argentine Grand Prix".

 

[Speshal]

The only reasons I can find cited are "The Argentinian Grand Prix was cancelled for political and financial reasons. As a result the teams had the possibility to squeeze in some additional testing sessions at Le Castellet." and "the Falkland’s War broke out and with the Argentine economy struggling to stand on its own, sponsorship deals were curtailed without warning."

 

[tooncheese]

New york Times - 10 Feb 1982

PARIS, Feb. 9— The Argentine Grand Prix, the second race of the Formula One season, was canceled today by the International Auto Sport Federation. The federation said that the race, which was to have been held March 7 in Buenos Aires, was being withdrawn from the calendar, indicating rejection of an Argentine request that it be rescheduled for later in the year.Spain has applied for a Grand Prix at the Jarama circuit, near Madrid, on June 27, during the World Cup soccer tournament, but the federation did not say whether a Spanish race would replace the Argentine event.
The federation said the Argentine organizers had been plagued by uncertainty caused by the licensing dispute between the federation and Grand Prix drivers, a disagreement that resulted in a one-day strike by 29 drivers during practice for the season's first race, in South Africa.
The uneasy situation had led to the withdrawal of sponsors and a potentially heavy financial loss for the Argentine group, the federation said.

The next Formula One race is now the Brazilian Grand Prix, scheduled for March 21.

 

[KekeTheKing]

edit - deleted useless post.

So according to the New York Times, it was internal F1 politics alone that forced the cancellation. International politics did not play any part whatsoever?

Thanks for that article tooncheese

 

[Speshal]

The Argentinians may well have requested a delay as they were off to war 3 weeks later