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

The 1985 race at Kyalami was held in the height of apartheid🦄 in South Africa during P. W. Botha’s state of emergency, prompting teams such as Rena🎀ult 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 s෴een to condone apartheid.

, Jones reveals 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✃ Ecclestone in his penthouse. Not sure what I had done this time, I fronted up,” Jones wrote.

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

“‘What do you think your chan𝓡ces are of winning the race tomorrow?’ he asked.

“Againꦓ, I felt no need to be subtle: ‘Bernie, 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 money. Go home and꧃ visit Australia.’

“Beatrice car raced in South Africa he was going 𓂃to get all of the black workers - thousands of them - at Beatrice 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 th🎶e 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 because the car didn’t race.’

“The idea was that I would wait unti♑l Saturday morni♓ng when everyone went to the 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 the S𒊎aturday 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.”