Australian Formula 1 legend Alan Jones has revealed in a new autobiography that he was paid to ꦕfeign illness and miss the controversial 1985 South African Grand Prix in order to avoid sparkiᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚng outrage with a team backer.

The 1985 race at Kyalami waꦦs held in the height of apartheid in South Africa during P. W. Botha’sꦡ state of emergency, prompting teams such as Renault and Ligier to withdraw in boycott.

Jones raced for the Haas-Lola team that was partly bankrolled by💛 Beatrice Foods, a large American company that could not be seen to condone apartheid.

, Jones reve🌳als the plan that was formulated with F1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone in order to avoid sparking controversy.

“During the Friday I was summoned to see Bernie Eccl♒estone in his penthouse. Not sure wha꧟t I had done this time, I fronted up,” Jones wrote.

“As I w🃏ent in the door Bernie said, ‘How do you feel?’ Standard greeting, although he had a look in his eye, I gave🦂 him a standard reply, ‘Pretty good, thanks.’

“‘What do you th🍌ink your chances are of winning the rac🐼e tomorrow?’ he asked.

“Again, I felt no need to be subtle: ‘Bernie𒅌, I think you know the answer to that question. If I start now, probably pretty good.’

“‘Well, I’ve got a bit of an idea. If you pull up sick and can’t run again this weekend, we’ll give you first-place prize ꩵmoney. Go home and visit Australia.’

“Beatrice car raced in South Africa he was going to get all of the black workers - thousands of the🏅m - at Be🦄atrice around the US to go on strike. Beatrice couldn’t be seen to be backing down to an individual like him, but if they didn’t back down there was a chance of the strike.

“So Bernie came up with an idea. ‘If the driver falls crook and can’t drive, then the Beatrice car doesn’t race. It’s a force majeure. Jesse Jackson can’t get on his soapbox and ☂say, ‘I forced that company to withdraw,’ and he also couldn’t call a strike becau𝓡se the car didn’t race.’

“The idea was that I would wait until Saturday morning wh🐻en everyone went to t🏅he circuit. I would quietly check out, and jump on a plane to Harare to get home (because Qantas wouldn’t fly to South Africa).

“And so, on t❀he Saturday morning I was gone. I just didn’t turn up. They had the car out ready to go, when they were told, ‘AJ’s been struck down by a virus and we are not racing.’

“I made a miraculous recovery for the Australian Grand Prix, which was just🀅 as well.”