Carlos Reutemann

[Deleted]

Personally, I was a Williams' fan from the first hour, when I still didn't know better, 1978.

The FW06 was a beautiful little car - clearly almost a copy of the Wolf WR1, which Head also helped design before following Frank in his new adventure at WGPE - and I was jumping on my sofa when Jones at Long Beach should have won and was unlucky not to.

The following year Regazzoni was there, the FW07 was this surprise and hopes went high. Clay, wise old head, was taking home the cars with the points, despite he was given little attention by the team (wooden tires, engines lacking power, etc), while Jones with his brash attitude kept on breaking. At a certain point Clay was the one who could challenge the Ferraris, but this was Williams still in honeymoon with Jones, so that was it.

I never understood - at the time - why they took Reutemann and give him the same service they provided Clay the year before. Didn't they realize he was a quicker and more accomplished driver than Jones? Apparently not then.

[charleselan]

Dec 22, 2017 8:17:20 GMT @lucio said:

Personally, I was a Williams' fan from the first hour, when I still didn't know better, 1978.

The FW06 was a beautiful little car - clearly almost a copy of the Wolf WR1, which Head also helped design before following Frank in his new adventure at WGPE - and I was jumping on my sofa when Jones at Long Beach should have won and was unlucky not to.

The following year Regazzoni was there, the FW07 was this surprise and hopes went high. Clay, wise old head, was taking home the cars with the points, despite he was given little attention by the team (wooden tires, engines lacking power, etc), while Jones with his brash attitude kept on breaking. At a certain point Clay was the one who could challenge the Ferraris, but this was Williams still in honeymoon with Jones, so that was it.

I never understood - at the time - why they took Reutemann and give him the same service they provided Clay the year before. Didn't they realize he was a quicker and more accomplished driver than Jones? Apparently not then.

The beauty of all that Lucio, was that Clay won the first GP for the team and that was more than fitting, that was one happy day at Silverstone.

Let us not forget that Jones was not the first choice for that drive in the FW06 for 1978; I believe that he was third in line, so therefore he was lucky. All credit to him however he did drive well that year, but so would a number of others in what was a sound and competent vehicle.

[Deleted]

From: Alfredo Parga – Los dias de Reutemann [The days of Reutemann] – Ediciones Ceac, Barcelona, 1998

It’s Reutemann’s biography (not an autobiography as I erroneously said above), with sections taken from the driver’s interviews or recollections.

Chapter 15, pages 197-202

Las Vegas is a track unknown for everyone. It had been designed to make the most of the little comfort offered by the gigantic esplanade of the Caesar's Palace. A “come and go” twist over just 3650 metres.

On Thursday, with 10 minutes left to the end of qualifying, using the chassis 12 – used in eight GPs, up until the French one - Reutemann set the fastest lap, ahead of Jones by 41 hundredths.

In the morning of Friday, free practice, the cars of Reutemann and Piquet accidentally touched, and the Argentine had to leave the car he preferred to race with.

"My old car (chassis 12) had different leverage and a remarkable acceleration; it climbed immediately to 10600 revs. I had everything under control because the car gave me confidence. I first raced with it in Long Beach and had used it until the French GP; then they renewed it and became my T-car from Montreal. I definitely preferred it to the 17, a machine that I first raced at Zolder and that was more rigid; I didn’t like it.
"Early Friday, before the accident, I told Head that I wanted to race with the 12. He replied that if I raced the old car, I would place it in a compromise. Because the wheel hubs had many kilometers, and that there could problems with the ball joints.
"I realized that my wish was not approved, but I was intimately determined to run with the 12. Then the stupid accident with Piquet happened; exiting a quick curve, I find myself suddenly with the Brabham and without time to avoid it. I touched it and bent a front grill.
"The car was repaired immediately. But when I went back out, I noticed that the car that I had driven before, was no more; it had disappeared. This car was not the obedient machine that I had on Thursday. It wasn’t anymore easy to drive. It cost me a lot of effort to drive it; it had completely changed. Against my original opinion, I had no choice but to take the 17, which I did not like at all.
"Nobody improved my time; Jones was placed at 17 hundredths, Villeneuve was at 24 and Piquet went up to fourth place, at 34 hundredths. "

(He tells me this in the middle of the afternoon of that Friday, under the sun, when I crossed his path halfway between the box and the press room)

One day before the decisive grand prix, that would run on Saturday, October 17, his preferred car had disappeared. From there, like in a serial novel, events happened that are difficult to understand. First it is discovered that the brake discs were cracked; the discs then are replaced but the setup of the system had to be done in the warm-up, few hours before the race. And to these changes there was a third concern. Which tyres to use? The issue of the tyres, he usually preferred to have it solved the day before a race, not at the last minute.

When the Argentine goes out in the warm-up, it feels like he is dragging chains rather than being the happy dominator of practice on Thursday. He had to get the new car set-up and ready in half an hour. Within that same time, bedding in the brakes required exclusively at least 12 to 15 minutes. In addition, the tyres were triple A, brand new and without testing. One thing he had always established on Saturday, the tyres, a decision he never left to the last moment.

Could it be worse? As everyone was on the track as usual in the warm-up, Reutemann did not have the chance to do a decent set-up because the traffic was intense, as it had not been in the previous practice days.

It was too much. Chassis, brakes, tyres ... Something else, yet? Yes, the gearbox (“caja” = box = gearbox). As always, the gearbox was not working as Reutemann wanted. The driver left the car after that half hour without much hope. He was with Williams and Head, who were together. He did not raise his voice, while the two fixed their gaze on Reutemann: "Look," he told them, "the car does not change well." Williams and Head looked at each other. The two looked to each other in total seriousness. What is he talking about?

That wasn’t all. Reutemann will ignore to this day whether the gearbox was changed, if they disarmed it, if it was repaired. He doesn’t know. He had said that the box did not work and at the same time Head was trying to convince him to say that it was fine. The objection was a new slap in the face for the driver. What? Is he making it on purpose? Is the driver crazy?

In the caravan, the usual meeting took place in a tense climate. About precise data and reflections not so exact. But it rather seemed a conversation between people of different languages who couldn’t understand each other. Reutemann, who had never improvised any of his technical reports (he always recalled the lesson Ron Tauranac had taught him a decade earlier), reported to inform about the issues in the car. He said his car did not work the way it should. What else he had to say?

He tells them that the car oversteers in the corners to the left and understeers those corners to the right. For sure, the driver ignores whether the diameter of the tires that they have mounted influences this issue. At the same time, he discusses with Williams trying to solve something, anything. It's late. Painfully late. Reutemann starts the Grand Prix of Las Vegas, where he was going to race for the title, completely disarmed. Ahead of everybody, but technically lost. He did not know what was ahead; he was lost.

[Deleted]

The first curve after the start is to the left. Jones, with Villeneuve behind, moves faster and escapes. The Argentine doesn't lose ground immediately. The gearbox doesn't obey. To drive that car is to drive a disobedient piece of junk, which does what it wants, with the driver losing ground and falling into seventh place. Piquet is behind him, waiting. At 20th lap, Reutemann is ninth, painfully. The Brazilian, without taking risks, seventh.

At lap 30, Reutemann is in a somewhat more decorous position, fifth. Behind Piquet who oscillates between the third and fourth place. Two or three cars ahead. The Brazilian, driving with nausea, has less than two seconds of advantage on Laffte at the end, whom at the last moment seems to overtake the Brabham, but he can’t. Piquet is the new champion. Jones, in his temporary farewell, wins from end to end.

Reutemann, eighth and lapped, leaves the car in silence. When Williams tries to ask, he just says a word.

"Gearbox". ["Caja"] He puts on his jacket under that desert sun and leaves.

"The hardening of the gearbox was frightful, neither second nor third nor fourth; everything sucked. Each lap I missed at least three to four changes. Like in Spain; a complete suffering. I was driving with one hand and with the other I had to hold the lever. A sensation that at 200 km/h, accelerating and braking, was not pleasant ".

(The journalist Mike Doodson was present in Didcot when they disarmed the gearbox. "The dogring of the third is destroyed and the fourth’s is quite ruined. This explains the jumping of the gear changes" remarks Head, with a guilty scowl. Did it matter?)

Ten minutes after 5 o'clock in the afternoon of that Saturday the 17th, next to the suite 5202 of Caesar's Palace, Reutemann did not dismiss the possibility of retirement, asking for a couple of weeks before deciding.

"Something had broken inside of me. As if something had been torn apart. I went back home with Mimicha. Everything was the same but inside of me, something had changed. Things were not the same even though they seemed like it."
"There are many things of Las Vegas that I don’t remember. The car wasn’t going at all, which I realized from the start. I felt that if a miracle wasn’t going to happen, I would have lost the championship. I was restless; without the necessary coldness, but I was not a robot. I was powerless."

The only one who speaks from afar is Jones. He confirms to Williams that he is retiring. When the journalist Ross Waby asks the Australian, wheher he would have preferred Reutemann as champion instead of Piquet, he vomits: "It doesn’t matter to me; it’s like choosing between cancer and tuberculosis." And he mortifies: "To keep running, I would have to ask Frank not to go to Argentina. Not only because it is the country of Reutemann but because its authorities allowed Piquet to race with banned skirts".

After Las Vegas, Reutemann mulls over retiring from racing. He takes his family on holiday to Venice, where he is interviewed by an Italian journalist:

"I don’t know whether the separation will be total. Now I live as a husband, a father ... The championship should have been a matter between Jones and Piquet; I don’t have any doubt. I had to fight them, the first drives. It was a miracle that I was still in contention at the last race."

Giulio Schmidt pays homage on Italian TV: "Carlos's farewell has no controversial points. He left quietly, without shouting, without making scandal. It has to be said: with a lot of class. As a driver of bygone times. He may have lost a title but won his last battle: the farewell of a man who knows how to win."

Gianni Cancellieri writes on Autosprint: "From many pulpits they talk about the emotional fragility of this man. But someone not confident does not fight and stays at the top of the sport for a decade. And a finished man does not lose a title for a point in the last race. It is a shame, because Formula 1 needs characters of its calibre to continue being credible. Carlos is much more than a driver. He is a man who steps back..."

It is complex to make sense of the puzzle. There is other.

Williams, who is negotiating with the Arabs, needs 15 million dollars to complete his budget. He has Rosberg, but it seems he doesn’t rate him. There are tests at Le Castellet. "He's a good driver, but in no way he can be my first driver."

Then there is an intellectual offensive. In Motoring News he declares: "Reutemann must be my first driver". And he sends him his offer, which the Argentine refuses. Then he meets "accidentally" with Reutemann at Nice airport. They travel together to Paris. And as a symbolic testimony of a new agreement, he offers his hand.
Reutemann remembers: "I left him with the extended hand".

[At the beginning of December] the representative and spokesman of Williams, Charles Crichton-Stuart confesses to Auto Hebdo, the French magazine:

"In the ridiculous championship that has just ended, Carlos lost everything. He was not my friend, nor he was of anybody in the team; I should have made the effort to be one. We are as much involved in his situation.
"Responsibility? Essentially the moral support. Carlos has a Latin character; everyone believes him to be infallible, but he needs to feel the confidence from those around him. And we did nothing.
"He has the virtues and the defects of a Latin; we are British. With Jones there are no problems. He is an Australian! For him, there is only black and white, with no place for gray. Carlos needed more than technical assistance and we did not know how to give it, we didn’t do better than Ferrari and Lotus. Reutemann leaves Formula 1 without anyone having managed to extract the best from him. He is one of those seven or eight naturally gifted drivers; of those able to put a car on pole within 5 laps. In 1981 he was classified eleven times ahead of Jones; there is the gift. He doesn’t make mistakes and drives intelligently. All this proves that we made an error.
"Jones, as an Australian, is stubborn and spiteful. He never forgot Brazil! Ten times we advised him to forget; ten times he answered us that he had a number one driver contract. In his turn, Carlos told us: "To give up the win was akin to take off my pants. I am not used to it." Reutemann was right.
"In Las Vegas, Reutemann told his box of the issues in the car. Head denied them. When the journalists pressed for confirmation of the problems in Carlos’ car, Head didn’t know about. Back in the factory, we wanted to know. After dismantling it was noticed that the synchronizer of the third and fourth gear wasn’t in a good state. Driving under those conditions shouldn’t have been great.
"Reutemann is a real sportsman. In eight days he suffered two major setbacks: the failure in the championship and his retirement. His disaffection with the sport can be reversed."

(Crichton-Stuart talks about the 3rd and 4th gear. Head tells Doodson of the 2nd and 3rd. The only one who talks of all three gears as defective is Reutemann).

[Deleted]

Chapter 16, pages 203-206

[…] it is appropriate to add that Reutemann didn’t make a drama when he got out of his car under the roaring sun of the American desert, he just uttered a single word: "Caja".

Reutemann had been defeated by a defective element of the Williams’ car. Later, Head would admit it, but only later. Williams too came clean later. This is the statistical detail that matters: the team had seven gearbox problems in 1980 (Reutemann 5 and Jones 2) and three others in 1981 (Reutemann 2 and Jones 1). Ten Grands Prix with a faulty gearbox, that many. For ten Grands Prix, nothing less. In the definitive moment of explaining, Reutemann did not talk of sabotage or lack of attention from the team. As he always used to do, excuses had no place in his final analysis. His dignified style was different. The one that is recognized today.

As of the announcement of the retirement, in early November, there were infuriating days. Loaded with different versions.
Williams is stubborn; Cutuli [Reutemann’s agent] an inexhaustible administrator of patience in the name of Reutemann. Faced with the doubts of the driver, Williams operates almost in despair. In view of the imminent expire of entries in the FISA register, he enters him as his own driver.

Reutemann ignores what he can feel when he runs in South Africa on January 23, 1982. He asks me: "And if on that day I find out that I’m wrong to retire? Frank gave me all the satisfactions I asked for; I found a different understanding, more humanity from his part. I, in turn, believe that mine cannot be burned in Las Vegas. Above all, because I do not have any fault in that result, which I do not want to talk about anymore. "

On December 17, the announcement is given: "I'll keep racing."

[...]

When he then races in Brazil ... he realizes concerned that for the first time he does not like to race in Brazil. [he had won three times there]

[In short, he realizes that this is it and then retires for good.]

[Deleted]

Few comments:

1. Reutemann sets the pole with chassis 12 on Thursday. Although he had never won and felt comfortable with the 17, it is fair to expect that without the gearbox problems he would have had enough to come home ahead of a debilitated Piquet and clinch the title.

2. Of all the commentators I have read, nobody looked at the track and understood what it meant driving there with defective 2nd, 3rd and 4th gear. Motoring News called it the “Mickeyist Mouse ever”, a series of 180 degrees curves which required to accelerate from the lower gears, right from the 2nd,in particular: curves 1, 3, 8 and 10. No wonder he was lapped by the sister car without the same gearbox issues and seemingly was easily overtaken (according to the ‘emphatic’ chroniclers) by pretty much everybody. If one can’t accelerate properly out of the tight curves, he just doesn’t stand a chance on the successive stretch. Apparently the temptation to make cheap psychanalysis and dismiss the man effectively as an idiot on the day has been too strong, and it is all that most English-speaking followers of the sport have retained through all these years.


3. Reutemann had effectively retired after Las Vegas. He was convinced to carry on, only to realize after two races that it was enough for him. The feeling is that had he won, he would likely have carried out for the whole 1982, with a good chance to double seen how proceedings developed.

4. Jones can’t still be a gentleman and gracious about it all after all these years, as showed in his recently released autobiography and, among others, this interview:



5. As an aside, Williams didn’t rate Rosberg initially. I had already read about this in a couple places.

[chrisb]

very interesting Lucio, thank you, I think I find Charles CS's comments the most telling, and yes lets face it had Carlos felt that motivation to carry on in 1982 - he would have been champ then

[charleselan]

Great work Lucio. How good to see the other side of the picture, and the most telling points made by Charlie C.S.

As I have mentioned before the Williams team back in those times really lacked any kind of understandable man management skills, and this has been exemplified by the material placed before us by Lucio.

Also Alan Jones does not come out of this with anything like dignity or charm; not that he would care. A graceless character if ever there was one.

I like the bit about the team signing Keke, but Frank didn't really rate him as a number one driver, great bit of talent spotting there Frank. Of course as Keke himself always said, they never forgave him for not being Alan Jones. I really would like to know the name of the person in that team that Rosberg Snr could not stand, and was the very reason he left for McLaren.

[René]

Thanks for sharing this Lucio. That was a more than interesting read.
Carlos was very unlucky that weekend in Las Vegas and really should have been champion. The lack of support from the team is still incomprehensible to this day. However, the way Carlos dealt with the whole situation shows what a class act he is.

Luckely Jones never got to drive the Ferrari in '82! He wasn't meant to wear red.
Carlos did look good in red though and his 1978 season was actually very good.

[Deleted]

Yes, he was very much into it in 1978, in his prime. Lauda had left the team, almost removing a weight from Carlos' shoulders, who became the lead driver and stepped up to the plate and drove beautifully all year, winning four times, he never won that much in a season. The T3 wasn't a match for the 79 and Michelin had issues in some tracks. I recall at the French GP, Carlos's race became a tyres' testing session.

Looking at the drivers who never became world champions but would have deserved, Moss stands out with seven times in the top three final standings, then Reutemann with four. Ickx came twice second. Patrese three times, of which two were third place.

[Deleted]

This is where it all started, Jacarepagua', Brazil, 1981.

Reutemann had been itching the whole previous season and felt it was time to turn the tables on Jones, come what may, as a real champion is meant to do.



The pit wall became increasingly desperate as the race was nearing the end:



But Carlos held on. Jones wasn't impressed and, the ultimate sportsman, didn't bother to show up on the podium:



It seems Reutemann after all saw only REUT-JONES...

[René]

You can see that Carlos really didn't give a damn and you can see him thinking "this one is mine and they're not going to take it away". I also don't think Carlos was sorry that Alan didn't turn up for the podium ceremony!

[Carl]

At the beginning of the film interview when the reporter asks what he'd been doing in retirement, it would have been honest for Jones to say he'd been getting fat.

Curiously, Jones claims that Williams management had devised a system wherein he, as number one driver, would be allowed past by Reutemann if both cars were 20 seconds ahead of third place and Jones was within 4 seconds of Reutemann. However, according to the video timer, he crossed the finish line a solid 5 seconds behind, apparently invalidating the arrangement.

I seldom paid attention to extremes of rivalry between drivers within teams.  For many years my opinion of Alan Jones was by and large positive. Now I see him as a bloated blowhard.

[Jamie]

Dec 30, 2017 23:37:42 GMT @lucio said:

This is where it all started, Jacarepagua', Brazil, 1981.

Reutemann had been itching the whole previous season and felt it was time to turn the tables on Jones, come what may, as a real champion is meant to do.



The pit wall became increasingly desperate as the race was nearing the end:



But Carlos held on. Jones wasn't impressed and, the ultimate sportsman, didn't bother to show up on the podium:



It seems Reutemann after all saw only REUT-JONES...

I love this about Carlos.......he deserved the win and he bloody well took it!! 

Thanks for the book quotes Lucio, very interesting. We now have both sides of the story and its obvious that something was very much amiss with the gearbox and it gave Carlos problems which ultimately cost him the title. Head has even conceded that there was a problem although he maintains that the dog rings were fine etc?

Its also quite apparent that Williams management of the whole situation stinks - was it embarrassment that the machinery let Carlos down that lead them to claim everything was alright with the car and that Carlos was at fault or did they really let their adoration of Jones infect the competitive spirit within the team to the point that they didn't care that Piquet won ahead of them, indeed actively revelled in it? Either option beggars belief. I do find it hard to fathom and I'd really love to know the full truth of this unpleasant scenario.......

[Deleted]

Dec 31, 2017 5:10:17 GMT Carl said:

I seldom paid attention to extremes of rivalry between drivers within teams.  For many years my opinion of Alan Jones was by and large positive. Now I see him as a bloated blowhard.

By and large, it was the same for me. He was indeed a very good driver, who had to have all the requirements aligned to finally succeed - outstanding car, team fully supportive, almost symbiotyc relationship with the designer (Head). And despite I was not involved as a fan with either driver, it was always clear to me that Carlos was the superior driver, just because he had really been at the top for a decade, from the beginning, and on several different cars, and looking from outside he seemed indeed the quicker and thinking driver of the two.

It is coming to mind now that also Lauda had an (almost) symbiotic, and very much dialectical, relationship with Forghieri. However, Niki retired, came back on a completely different technology (turbos, much more power, quicker teammate) and still was able to snatch another title. That only shows what the "right stuff" is, in case there are doubts.