49 replies to this topic

[Otaku]

Now it's been confirmed by his daughter: https://twitter.com/...817852839628801

 

RIP, uncrowned champion

 

 

Edited by Otaku, 07 July 2021 - 17:00.

[SophieB]

Sad to read that, and to read about the confusion of the earlier announcements which must have caused extra distress to his family. It’s a lovely tribute from his daughter.

[Francesc]

Such a talented man and cool name. Deserved to be 1981 WDC. Drive in Peace Carlos.

[Marklar]

His daughter shared this picture earlier today of him holding his two daughters hands in bed. Man was fighting till the end like the brave man he was. Rest in Peace, Lole

Spoiler

[cpbell]

I think we knew if we were honest, but it's still so sad, and, as was said, the fact that the media had previously make mistakes in reporting his condition means that at least it was his family who reported his passing.

[FullOppositeLock]

His daughter shared this picture earlier today of him holding his two daughters hands in bed. Man was fighting till the end like the brave man he was. Rest in Peace, Lole

Spoiler

That’s a beautiful and very touching picture.

Rest in peace Carlos

[mstar]

Such a great man.  Rest in peace champ.  

 

Hope they do a tribute to Carlos on the silverstone weekend, as the UK fans are probably the most knowledgeable and respectable fans in the world.  

[milestone 11]

Very sad, R.I.P. Carlos.

[Vitesse2]

Vale, Lole.

[tweiss]

RIP

[pacificquay]

Sad news.

 

Before my time as a driver but a key part of the sport through the 70s and early 80s.

[Widefoot2]

Unfortunate that there was the earlier confusion, but not as much as his illness and passing.

 

RIP...

[eibyyz]

Requiescat en pace.    

[H0R]

Reutemann in the amazing Brabham BT44 is one of my favourite memories of 1970ies Formula 1. Not surprising that he passed away, but very sad nonetheless.

[Ivanhoe]

One of my favorites, RIP Carlos 

[jonpollak]

Adios Lole.
I was at that 1981 LostWages CarPark race where He started on pole.. Thought he was gonna win the championship.

Jp

[SophieB]

@JeanTodt

So sad to hear the loss of one of my heroes, Carlos Reutemann. He was a great @F1 champion, a true gentleman and a real friend. All my thoughts are with his family.

[mclarensmps]

RIP Carlos 

[messy]

That’s really sad. Before my time but have read so much about that era and know how important and talented he was. RIP.

[Spillage]

Very sad news. A very good driver. RIP

[thefinalapex]

Little piece by Mark Hughes on carlos:
https://the-race.com...ed-79-obituary/

Edited by thefinalapex, 07 July 2021 - 20:34.

[Coral]

Awww sad news. RIP Carlos.

[allaboard70]

R.I.P. Great driver. <3 

[noikeee]

His daughter shared this picture earlier today of him holding his two daughters hands in bed. Man was fighting till the end like the brave man he was. Rest in Peace, Lole

Spoiler

That's quite moving. Life sucks sometimes. Rest in peace Carlos.

[JacnGille]

Sad news

[RogerStone]

RIP Carlos

[404KF2]

yes, sad indeed.

[Nobody]

so I hear Alan Jones hated him...

 

musta been a good bloke then

 

RIP

[absinthedude]

Adios, Carlos.

 

I remember watching that Las Vegas race on TV, hoping he'd win the title. Not that I was specifically against Piquet but I figured correctly that Nelson had plenty future chances. Years later I found myself at Caesars Palace and gave a few thoughts to that race as I walked through the car park. 

 

Not unexpected but very upsetting for his family and friends with the recent confusion and him being in and out of intensive care. That's never easy. Hoping they find peace now. 

[absinthedude]

so I hear Alan Jones hated him...

 

musta been a good bloke then

 

RIP

 

I don't think Lauda was all that fond of him either. An enigma on the track, could blow the doors off everyone or be totally anonymous depending on which way the wind was blowing. Probably why I liked him.

[jjcale]

A little bit before my time as a fan ... but everything I ever learned about him reflected well on him. 

 

RIP

[Rediscoveryx]

Sad to hear this. He was certainly an intriguing character (in a positive way, at least from a fan's perspective).

 

I was too young to be interested in the sport while he was active, but he's definitely one of the names that made the 70's one of the more memorable decades in F1 history.

[teejay]

Vale Carlos.

[Nobody]

I don't think Lauda was all that fond of him either. An enigma on the track, could blow the doors off everyone or be totally anonymous depending on which way the wind was blowing. Probably why I liked him.

 

I never met Lauda, but I have met Jones, enough said

[Claudio Navonne]

The hero of my youth has died, but heroes never die.
R.I.P. Carlos

[Nemo1965]

I don't think Lauda was all that fond of him either. An enigma on the track, could blow the doors off everyone or be totally anonymous depending on which way the wind was blowing. Probably why I liked him.

 

Lauda famously said, after a reporter asked him: 'Is Carlos your rival or your teammate?', in his gruff way: 'Neither.' In his first autobiography he was very critical of him, as a person and as a driver.

 

However. Two years later, when Carlos drove for Lotus and Niki for Brabham, Heinz Pruller described how Niki and Carlos sometimes would perform a little sketch with each other, one of them playing Foghieri and the other Enzo Ferrari, having an absurd conversation like how a loss in a GP was actually a win for Ferrari. Or something like that. A Grande Casino-conversation. They had a lot of giggles doing that.

 

For the rest: Carlos was my childhood hero, next to Niki Lauda and my mother had a crush on him. I've could have met him, if my mother would have dared to accept an invitation from him to meet him... 

 

RIP, Carlos.

Edited by Nemo1965, 08 July 2021 - 09:51.

[DeKnyff]

Very saddened for the loss of one of my favourite drivers in the seventies.

 

I’ll post some interesting Reutemann stuff on the weekend.

[Risil]

Sad to hear this, Reutemann led a fascinating life and judging by the obituaries, made himself a by-word for the artistic side of Grand Prix racing where speed is achieved through something more mysterious and god-given than the smooth application of car-knowledge.

 

Little piece by Mark Hughes on carlos:
https://the-race.com...ed-79-obituary/

 

I did wonder about one of Hughes' reminiscences though -- when he points out that Carlos set a time in the Ferrari 412 that would've put him 12th on the grid in Argentina in 1995, it should also be said that both qualifying sessions were washouts and the pole time was more than 22 seconds off Michael Schumacher's fastest lap on Sunday. I've seen several Youtube clips of Reutemann's demo laps, and some appeared to take place in the dry, and some in the wet. Would be interested to know when he set the 12th-on-the-grid laptime. My Spanish is nowhere near up to the task of translating.

 

 

 

 

No big deal obviously as he wasn't entered in the race, and besides a 1994 Ferrari wouldn't have been anywhere near legal for a Grand Prix in 1995!

[Bleu]

The last lap in the uppermost video looks very much comparable to the qualifying times.

[OvDrone]

A Legend, always remembered.

[absinthedude]

Lauda famously said, after a reporter asked him: 'Is Carlos your rival or your teammate?', in his gruff way: 'Neither.' In his first autobiography he was very critical of him, as a person and as a driver.

 

However. Two years later, when Carlos drove for Lotus and Niki for Brabham, Heinz Pruller described how Niki and Carlos sometimes would perform a little sketch with each other, one of them playing Foghieri and the other Enzo Ferrari, having an absurd conversation like how a loss in a GP was actually a win for Ferrari. Or something like that. A Grande Casino-conversation. They had a lot of giggles doing that.

 

For the rest: Carlos was my childhood hero, next to Niki Lauda and my mother had a crush on him. I've could have met him, if my mother would have dared to accept an invitation from him to meet him... 

 

RIP, Carlos.

 

 

Good to know that Lauda and Reutemann buried the hatchet. Probably what I remember is Lauda being a bit miffed at old man Ferrari bringing Carlos into the team after lauda's Nurburgring crash....showing lack of faith in Niki. 

[Alan Lewis]

Good to know that Lauda and Reutemann buried the hatchet. Probably what I remember is Lauda being a bit miffed at old man Ferrari bringing Carlos into the team after lauda's Nurburgring crash....showing lack of faith in Niki.

This was certainly part of it. Carlos got the job but anyone else would probably have triggered much the same response from Niki.

[eibyyz]

Good to know that Lauda and Reutemann buried the hatchet. Probably what I remember is Lauda being a bit miffed at old man Ferrari bringing Carlos into the team after lauda's Nurburgring crash....showing lack of faith in Niki. 

 

That's neat.  

 

Mario also Twitted yesterday, very nice.  I remember reading Autosport in the winter of 79-80 where Carlos was quoted "Mario wanted me out", not ever confirmed by Mario, though.  CR certainly had options, though--witness Williams headhunting him.  And I heard this week that Chapman offered to jettison Mario to keep Carlos, which I can't wrap my head around...

[Claymore25]

I met him once in the beach as a kid. His wives' family were friends with my grandmother family.

 

I remembered him as a quite but likeable man.

 

As a driver, He was a very talented. A shame about his death but here in ARgentina pretty much everyone knew that he was very ill.

 

R.I.P Carlos.

[Nemo1965]

Good to know that Lauda and Reutemann buried the hatchet. Probably what I remember is Lauda being a bit miffed at old man Ferrari bringing Carlos into the team after lauda's Nurburgring crash....showing lack of faith in Niki. 

 

I don't think that was it, at all. Lauda was a supreme rationalist (as we all know), in 1976 after the accident at the Ring nobody expected Lauda to be out in public for years because of the severe burns, let alone DRIVE a F1 car that season. So any F1- driver being willing to replace him, would not have irked him at all.

 

My perception of the antipathy between them - which always intrigued me, because Niki and Carlos were both my idols when I was young - was Carlos' enigmatic and VERY silent behavior. He was not called 'The Indian' in F1 just because of his looks. He could be silent to the point of dourness and if he talked often refrained to monosyllabic sentences. Keith Botsford once recalled playing a rather comic game of tennis doubles with Carlos, which resulted that if Carlos and he met, the Argentinian would say: 'Ah. Botsford. The feet. Very difficult.'

 

Carlos silence even drove Lauda crazy. He was on record saying to several journalists in 1977: 'If only we could get Carlos to talk.' Lauda put considerable effort into getting closer to Carlos. He and his wife Marlene even befriended Carlos wife, who was called Mimicha, I believe. But it did not help. There was one incident in Brazil or Argentina, where Ferrari's car was suddenly much slower than it had been in tests. Everyone was mystified... and then Lauda discovered Carlos had taken the solo decision to raise the ride-height 11 mm, so more than a centimeter. Lauda was mad as hell. 

 

Most damning in Lauda's mind (and I am almost sure it was a misunderstanding) was in Spain, when Lauda snapped a tendon of one of his ribs and had to forfeit his participance in the race. Lauda tells in his autobiography that Carlos came to the caravan or transporter, where Lauda was waiting, in pain. 'Lole', according to Lauda, stuck his head in the caravan, smiled broadly and then walked away. Lauda's interpretation (translation from German): 'His face, his movements, everything apparently expressed joy: "One of the list, that one I can forget." I don't blame him, nobody expects a demonstration of pity, and when I hear before an important race that Andretti can't drive because appendicitis, I won't start crying. But still, then you don't have to be so blunt as Reutemann and put some extra venom in the situation. Reutemann as teammate: that was never pleasant, not one second.'

 

I am convinced that Lauda totally misinterpreted the situation. I think in his mind, in that year, he started to hate Ferrari, the team, as a whole, and he was too much under pressure, with all his intelligence, to understand that Carlos was just a human being, during that year, at moment, and often when humans don't know how to react to misfortune of others, they smile. 

Edited by Nemo1965, 09 July 2021 - 08:10.

[absinthedude]

Carlos's smile at Lauda might even have been in sympathy....as a man of few words that smile may have been his way of expressing some empathy with Lauda's misfortune. 

[Henri Greuter]

I never could make up my mind about him very well, I rated him as `kind of OK` but was never a big fan of him. 

Probably didn't help that I preferred both his team mates at Ferrari!

 

But I had much respect for him in Brazil '81 when he exposed the stupidity of contractual #2 obligations that could cause extreme situations difficult to understand. (One year later we saw another such case turning bad)

But Brazil '81 likely contributed to the conclusion of the season and I still rate it as one of the most disrespectful acts of the duo Frank&Patrick to celebrate a race victory and at the same time ignoring the fact that the WDC (and thus the double) was lost. One of the first occasions of the duo showing their true colors.

How Carlos was dealt with during '81 is one of the reasons that started back then, and I still have that to this day: that I had and still have not the sightest sympathy for Williams GPE anymore.

 

About Carlos: was very much surprised about his results in the rally of Argentina! he was obviously way more allround than many realized.

But it looks as if he ever so often was at the wrong place at the wrong time within F1.

 

 

R I P Carlos, you had deserved better than what you got.

[Nemo1965]

Peter Windsor about his friendship with the man.

 

 

https://youtu.be/0Rutrx5yLjA

[DeKnyff]

My little tribute to Carlos Alberto Reutemann, one of my all-time driver heroes.

 

All along his racing life, Lole was always considered as a rather isolated and uncommunicative guy, and that was probably right. However, later in his live, he became way chattier and he spoke a lot about his past F1 career. Maybe it was his involvement in politics which obliged him to seek for popularity, or a new generation of Argentinians who became interested in that politician’s early life and wanted to know more about him or simply that he wasn’t uncommunicative at all, but F1 was an alien world to him.

 

Whatever the reason, there is plenty of in-deep Reutemann interviews in YouTube, most of them from the 21^st century. Possibly, a thorough research on Argentinian written media would reveal even more information. Because another characteristic of this material is that it’s strictly Argentinian and in Spanish and that’s probably the reason why it hasn’t made it into the internet motorracing fan community.

 

I’ve tried to extract the most interesting quotes I’ve found. All of them are told by Reutemann himself.

 

One interesting thing is that, while he keeps a very gentlemanly stance, never saying bad things about anyone, he doesn’t mention Lauda or Jones at all, even when asked for it. Neither he talks about his sudden retirement from F1 in 1982.

 

First video is from late 1980, after the end of the F1 season. Reutemann appears tenser and uneasier than thirty years later in all other videos.

 

https://www.youtube....UEipKyGzhE&t=2s

 

Q: Have you ever, inside or outside the car, been scared of racing?

A: Yes, when something breaks in the car and you have no control of it. You just can’t do anything and you see the fence approaching. You don’t know what’s going to happen.

Q: Do you think Long Beach and Monaco should remain in the calendar? (the question is asked following Regazzoni’s crash at long Beach)

A: Yes, I think slow circuits are safer than very fast ones. For example, the Austrian track (the original Östeirrichring, nowadays Red Bull Ring) is truly dangerous.

 

 

Next video is from Peugeot Argentina, remembering Reutemann’s podium at the 1985 Rally de Argentina. We are already in modern times, I think 2014.

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=Xry17Q1d9ZE

 

“I had met Jean Todt in 1980, when he came as a navigator of one the Peugeot cars to Rally Tucumán. When they came in 1985 to prepare the Argentinian Rally, I asked him if, after Vatanen and Salonen had finished their reconnaissance with the spare car they had brought, they could let me that car to practice a bit and take part in the rally. He accepted.”

“I was struck by the 205 T16. It was always sideways. The cars were always pointing the cliff or the wall. It was a cute car to see, very short, very small”.

“I was invited by Todt to ride a section with both Vatanen and Salonen. Vatanen took me one way, Salonen took me back. It was impressive, I had always the cliff in front of me. Both had an awesome control of the car”.

“Vatanen told me: if ever you are in a difficult situation, never stop accelerating. The car has such traction that if you are falling off a cliff, a wheel will touch a stone and it will take you out”.

 

Next video is at the beginning about his debut years in Argentinian motorsport scene, which is funny and full of anecdotes, but I don’t think most forumers are familiarized with it.  Then, they turn to international motorsports.

 

https://www.youtube....70oVHZiREg&t=6s

 

“Cars are much safer today. There is no fire today. Back then, cars burned very often, which caused many deaths. It was very dangerous”.

Q: Which was your best car in F1?

A: Most of them were good. The weakest was probably the Lotus. They had just won the Championship and then, hey had fell asleep. The Brabham BT44, the Ferrari I drove and the Williams were great.

Q: Did you ever thought you would arrive to F1?

A: No, arriving to F1 is extremely difficult. I don’t want to say impossible, but nearly. Now and then. Only a few arrive. To stay was already difficult. There were plenty of fatalities. Many of my rivals died at it: Rindt, Courage, Peterson, Cevert, Koinig, Donohue, Williamson, Siffert… also Villeneuve shortly after I left.

Q: You were good friends with Villeneuve. It’s believed he asked you for advice.

A: Yes, we were good friends. I saw him grow. He had an unfortunate crash.

Q: How was the relationship among the drivers in F1 back then? Was there any kind of companionship among them?

Well, they all do what they can on their own. Everybody is centerd on what he does and puts his blinders and only look at their interests. Just like they do nowadays. They work for a team and there were two drivers per team, all setup (engine, dampers, wing angles, springs) was written on a notepad and both drivers knew eachother’s setup and there were no secrets about it.

Q: Who was your best teammate?

A: They were all competitive. Villeneuve was a great teammate, but they were all professional and there was a logical rivalry. You are there to beat them, not to dance a Waltz with them.

Q: Were the seventies the golden years of F1? Is F1 boring today?

A: All periods have been goods and I like them all. Today, it’s much technical with a lot of electronics, but the winner never finds it boring (laughing)

Q: What about 1981? We all thought you would win the Championship at Las Vegas.

A: Really, Williams started losing the Championship and it went all down after we changed from Michelin to Goodyear. A change like that has never been done in F1. We got a lot of points with Michelin in the first half of the season. Williams was very slow in adapting to the Goodyear tyres. We lost plenty of points due to that and it cost us the Championship. It wasn’t at Las Vegas that we lost.

Q: The Jones-Reut panel?

A: I didn’t see it! I was looking somewhere else! (laughing)

 

Radio interview, around 2013: https://www.youtube....h?v=Ws8AtaYgFIk

 

On the tragic 1971 Victory Race:

“In 1971, I raced at Brands Hatch with a Brabham. My teammate was Graham Hill, Damon’s dad. It was a wonderful track, with natural slopes. Exiting a corner at a downhill slope, I see the track is blocked and a lot of terrifying smoke from the middle of a corner. The track was completely blocked. I got out of the car and walked to Graham’s car, who was sitting in his car. I sat on his from right tyre and stared at him. He looked at me through his helmet, I remember it as if it was now, and he told me: Welcome to Formula 1. And Siffert had died in his burning BRM.”

 

On running out of fuel two laps before the end of the 1974 Argentinian GP, when he was comfortably leading:

“We couldn’t take out the rear right wheel to put new tyres before the race because the nut had seized (note: similar to Bottas at the 2021 Monaco GP), so we had to disassembly the whole suspension, which cost a lot of time. They decided to hurry up the process by not emptying and precisely refueling the tank, but they simply added the extra fuel they believed was necessary. It was half a liter less than required.

 

Series of three videos by the YouTube Channel Autocorsa2000

https://www.youtube....h?v=hkAMFGRFbPw

https://www.youtube....TylEU8ByQ&t=66s

https://www.youtube....1yiwPTIYH8&t=1s

 

On driving techniques:

“Driving a single seater is a way more precise exercice dan driving a touring car, since you can see where you put your wheels.”

 

On his teammate Graham Hill:

“I had a friendly relationship with Graham Hill. I was several times at his home, kid Damon was playing there. He had a plane, he took me in it to several races, like Austria. For me, it was a novelty, like a person who comes to a big city and sees all lights for the first time.”

 

On his Nordschleife win in 1975:

“The Brabhams were ok for that race, but others had a better setup. At the race I started losing ground and I was running third or fourth, but the guys in front of me hit trouble and I won. That said, I’m very happy with it, because it was a very difficult track with more than 160 corners of all kind. You can only drive at 100% at every corner after years of training. A great natural track of 22 km.”

 

On his teammate Gilles Villeneuve:

“He had a great race at the 1977 British GP and Ferrari hired him. Enzo Ferrari loved him. We shared at Ferrari the end of the 1977 season and 1978. I had always a good relationship with him. He was very quick and also a good person as a teammate. We also had a good relationship between our families, his kid Jacques was among us. Then I left Ferrari and he died in 1982. There was some media talk about me coming back to Ferrari, but it was never real.”

 

On his signing with Ferrari:

“Ferrari had approached me in 1976 before the Lauda crash at Nürburgring. There is no reason to link the talks with the crash. It has all started before, for the 1977 season. Afterwards, there were news that I had been contacted as a Lauda replacement, but it was not the case.”

 

On the 1978 change to Michelin tyres:

“For 1978, Ferrari choose the then new Michelin radial tyres. We had to test a lot in the winter. We were successful at some races, while others were extremely difficult for us. We lacked experience and learned through the year. The tyre was completely different.”

 

On his British GP win at Brands Hatch in 1978:

“Just like in Nürburgring in 1975, I was running third, fourth or fifth when the leading guys experienced trouble. Then, with five or six laps to go, I was behind Lauda and we were lapping Giacomelli. Lauda overtook him on the exterior, I overtook him on the interior. I don’t know if Giacomelli obstructs Lauda or not. I didn’t play too much attention at what they were doing, I saw a gap in front of me and I went for it. I struggled, but I managed to arrive to the end and won.”

 

On his 1981 South African GP win:

“On the lap to the starting grid, I felt the car was unstable on wet tyres. So, I asked the team to put me on slicks, when everybody else was on wets. The track started to dry after the start and soon we had a dry lane.  All my rivals had to pit for dry tyres and I won the race. It was my decision, not the team’s, to start on dry tyres”.

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=RdE9p5vPbUQ

 

On his origins:

 

I was born in Santa Fe, but soon we went to live to a nearby place in the countryside, called Manucho. I had to come to school everyday on horse, 5 or 6 km. I remember how we were taught to write at primary school and we had never orthograph mistakes, which are so common nowadays. My childhood wasn’t easy. The kids from the countryside are really independent and work on the fields, drive the tractors… I learned to driver a 1929 Ford A when I was 7.”

“I did my high school at a Jesuit’s boarding school for 6 years. Discipline was strict, but I don’t complain. I’m truly satisfied with the education I was given.”

“I used to take my dad’s car when it rained, so I could slide on the mud. I drove on public roads at 11.”

 

On his relationship with Jones:

There are always frictions between teammates, because they are they only reference for your performance. It happens at both leading teams and backmarker teams. If you follow modern day F1, you see the same frictions between teammates. Anytime, any discipline.

 

On his learning at Ferrari:

I made a lot of testing kilometers at Fiorano in November and December. Up to 60.000 or 70.000 km. That extremely useful for developing a sensitivity for setup. You immediately realize if you lack three pounds of rubber on a tyre. How the car veers to the left or to the right. And there is your own life at the stake.”

 

On how he entered politics:

“I was driving home from Buenos Aires in 1990. I stopped at a place near home to buy some oranges. The lady at the shop knew me and she told me he had heard some customers say I would be the candidate to the province governor (note: equivalent to US state governor). I had no idea of what she was talking about. But I next week, got the phone call from a minister.”

 

On his refusal to the candidacy of Argentinian Presidency (which he would have most likely won)

I felt that what I was asked to do as the province governor of Santa Fe was something within my possibilities. However, what I didn’t want was to reach the Presidency without a plan and then try to imagine how I’d manage to solve the problems. I had heard some advising me to become President and then what you do doesn’t matter. But for me, it should be the opposite”.

[Ivanhoe]

Thanks for that DeKnyff, that was a very nice read