Carlos Reutemann - A true Great, a superb racer, a man of class and dignity and Filmstar looks. He won the most important and demanding GP Germany on the iconic Nürburgring Nordschleife 1975, back than, the original 22,8 km long track. In practice he drove 7:04, Carlos Pace in the second Branham was with 7:00 quicker and second on the grid. It was by far the greatest drive of Reuteman`s career. For me he will for ever sit in this beautiful white Brabham BT 44B, especially at the "Ring", section "Pflanzgarten" - the shot of his "Flight" is showing here - the most famous jump , a blind ultra fast lefthander, round about 280km/h, full throttle..Oh man, you need balls there...no great safety zones, only the man, his car - without any electronic helpers - and the track...that was the sport for man and not boys. Nowadays F1 deserves not the name F1 - By the way: In that Qualifying for the German GP 1975, Niki Lauda drove his historic, incredible 6:58 minutes lap, the only man ever under 7 minutes and the fastest man ever until today on the TRUE "Ring". Stefan Bellof`s 6:11 minutes in a Porsche Group C in 1985 was driven on a 2 (!) km shorter track. RIP Carlos, one of the heroes from my teenage years. Glory days and the last fine decade - the 70s.
So many great drivers - and great men - have been forgotten with the passage of time, Carlos is one of them. He was Stewart to Villeneuve's Peterson; and in those days there was room for both types of driver to find success.
No justice for a massively underrated Reutemann, after his F1 career he made achievements despite inactivity, check his appearances at WRC on his home soil. Goosebumps reading your comment
As someone who is only now getting in to the sport, this channel has been instrumental in helping me learn about the history of f1. I love your commentary and insights as well as your focus on the people that made f1 special. Prior to today I didn’t know much about Reutemann aside from the name, but you painted a wonderful picture of the skilled, intelligent, quick driver as well as the honest and respectable man. As a Canadian I did grow up following hockey as my main sport. I always found myself fascinated by the history and of the legends of the game, the big names as well as the lesser known heroes (similar to what Reutemann was in f1). I am even more fascinated by the people in f1 than I ever was by those in hockey (something I never thought I’d say). As a new f1 fan trying to learn the history through channels such as yours and as a Canadian, I would particularly love to see an episode dedicated to tragic, yet legendary Gilles Villeneuve (who was of course mentioned in this video). Thank you. I look forward to your next video, no matter who or what it focuses on. You have my subscription and my support.
Thank you so much, I'm glad to be helping you on your F1 journey. You're right about the history of F1, drivers came from such diverse backgrounds and arrived in the sport by so many different routes that through the 60s, 70s and 80s there are many more stories to be told. Gilles was one of my heroes - not so much because I believed him to be the best, but that you knew whenever he was out in the car he was giving everything he had. Sometimes too much. I did have an earlier video on the tragic 1982 season, but had to remove it for copyright reasons. So I owe you a GV episode in the future. Salut Gilles!
Fantastic bio of "Lole"....one of the heroes of my youth ... Always the bridesmaid ...never seemed to have any luck ...either leaving or joining teams just before or after their best years .. Drove all the most iconic of 70s and 80s cars too ....Brabham BT44...Ferrari 312Ts ....Lotus 79....Williams FW07 ... On his days absolutely unbeatable .....but as you pointed out psychologically weak...so crumbled under pressure .... RIP Carlos ....will always be remembered ....
At the Las Vegas weekend in 1981, Carlos knew he wasn't going to win and he told his manager so. He knew that after the crash with Piquet in practice he had been given a car with the worst chassis. On the morning of the race, that car had an untested set of brakes and a gearbox that didn't work well (although it's true that they never worked as well as they should have throughout the championship). Even Nigel Mansell said that, when he was behind Carlos, he could see the rear tyres completely out of alignment. It's true that Carlos could be criticised for his reserved and inward-looking nature, but that weekend Williams abandoned him by giving him a wild west cart. Remember how Frank Williams and Patrick Head celebrated the victory with Jones while they didn't pay the slightest attention to Carlos. PS: Sabotage for Brazil... which wasn't disobedience on Carlos' part because to fulfil the 7 second clause, it was Williams who had to first show him the difference between him and Jones, something they never did. They made him run blindly to serve Jones Carlos's position on a silver platter. PS2: Did you hear about the masseur who stole Bernie from Carlos and therefore Carlos ran away with his neck broken? Mmm... there is much, much to tell.
A very noble man which is anathema in F1. Even so his "mistakes" caused inter-team ructions which never helped his cause. That said I do like that he went to Amadeo's parents to apologise for something which wasn't really his fault as Zolder was an absolute nightmare as you said. That race was completely farcical. Evidently we now know due Bernie's slip up that they nabbed Reutemann's personal masseuse to work on Piquet so there's definitely some foul play going on. Still as much as he's walked away from title winning cars, given the Falklands/Malvinas War - I think he possibly made the right decision as I believe he said he'd been facing pressure back in Argentina before the outbreak to cease working for a British team like Williams and I completely understand that. He was part of a dying breed though - the gentleman drivers of the past were being turfed out by a more ruthless variety of racers.
I was not aware Reutemann had such consistency over the years, to finish multiple times in top-3 in season standings; I thought 1981 was the only successful campaign. Achieving a podium also in WRC after his F1 career speaks volumes. Raikkonen tried his hand at WRC for a couple of seasons but never finished in top-3.
These series on various F1 drivers are by far the best documentaries of its kind to be seen anywhere…! 👍😊👋 Alone this last sentence on Carlos Reutemann… 🤗
Thank you so much for your kind words, really makes the effort worth putting in. That's always how I saw Lole, cut from a different cloth from most of his contemporaries
Poor Lole, he lacked that luck needed to be champion, and when he finally was going to be champion, a very unnecessary war started when he was piloting for an English team. Most teams did not really appreciate his very clean driving style, many times Ferrari was distracted with the destroyed cars by Villeneuve instead of focusing on Carlos cars, said by Tomaini himself in an interview. In 1981 Williams abandoned Michelin tires that were important in Carlos achieving many victories, he had a lot of difficult scoring points after that. Best wishes.
All other things being equal, I imagine 1982 was his year, but the problems which Williams had in the second half of the 1981 season (for which tyres were certainly a factor) were a cruel way to lose that year's title too.
I've always felt Reutemann was the greatest driver never to win a World Championship. 10 full seasons. 12 wins and 11 second places. In full season standings, one second place, three thirds and a fourth. On the 1981 season, I read somewhere that in addition to the distress that Carlos was feeling after the Belgium pit lane incident, Williams switched tires from Michelin to Goodyear three races later. The article said the new tire favored Jones much more than Reutemann in driving styles. That closely coincided with Jones making that rush in the last 5 races of the season.
Yes, Reutemann was very vocal about the impact of the Good Year tyres. One of the reasons why I feel that the team didn't really care whether he won or not...
Feel genuinely bad for him. Had he won the 1981 championship, Argentina would be a racing nation, and we don't need to suffer so much because of Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi. Both Juan Manuel Fangio and Carlos Reutemann's legacy are tainted forever because of Maradona and Messi.
They are all on my list, and I'm also hoping to do something special for one of them, if it comes off it will be early next year before it is available though
@@WhenF1WasReal I read Denny's Hulme's biography and I think may be the most Under Appreciated World Champion. 8 victories ( including Monaco, Nurburgring and Monza), one World Title and 2 third place finishes, a controversial 2nd at LeMans, two Can-Am titles and in 4 Indianapolis 500s finished 4th twice.
The only enigmatic thing about Lole was his reserved and introspective character. But what happened in 1981 in Las Vegas was not his character but the black hand of Williams. He himself told his manager that weekend. He knew he was not going to win... and the team seemed very pleased with Jones' victory while they left aside the driver who could have given them a new championship. Did it all start because Lole "disobeyed" orders in Brazil? FALSE, because in order to comply with the clause that he himself had signed at the end of 1980, that of letting Jones pass if he was under 7 seconds, the team first had to give him the difference of how many seconds Jones was behind him (LAP BY LAP)... and that did not happen at any time in Brazil, except when they told him that he had to let the Australian pass. In short, Williams made Lole run blindly, allowing Jones to get close and then claim the position due to the famous clause. Carlos himself said it on a television programme: if they told me how far ahead Jones was, I would step on the accelerator and increase the difference. PS: You can fight against a great rival, you can fight against your teammate... but you can never fight against your team, because they will always find a way to screw up your championship... however and whenever they want. PS2: May you rest in peace, Lole, the true champion of 1981.
Even after the British Grand Prix, when he was so far ahead, I was saying that he didn't feel good about the title - perhaps because of the switch to Good Year, perhaps because he didn't have the backing of the team. The terms of the contract were that if Jones and Reutemann were 20 seconds or more ahead of the next car and leading the race, and Jones was no more than four seconds behind Lole, then they would switch positions. Had he refused to sign the agreement, would he have been dumped by Williams? And what sort of team seeks to impose team orders at the second race of the season anyway?
@@WhenF1WasReal As for the next car, do you mean a car from another team? I didn't understand that well. The only thing I know, and this was always said, and Reutemann himself explained it very well in an Argentine television program at the end of the season in 1981 (there is a video of this but it is in Spanish), is that if he was ahead of Jones by 7 seconds or more, he could continue ahead. If Jones discounted him and came in at a time less than 7 seconds, Reutemann had to slow down and let him pass. The thing is that at that time there was no radio, so lap by lap the team had to give them both information about the difference... but this information was always conspicuous by its absence. As for tires, about halfway through the year, Williams changed from Michelin to Goodyears, making them lose the advantage that Lole had because he was the one who had been developing those tires since the Ferrari era. The funniest thing was that it was Bernie Eclestone who suggested Frank Williams to make the change. Reutemann couldn't believe the change; it left him astonished. Everyone in Argentina criticized Lole's move to Lotus, but the real criticism was the move to Williams. And the explanation is very easy: moving to Lotus after Ferrari didn't consider him for the following year was the right move because Lotus was at the pinnacle of F1. But then they got stuck and the team fell apart. But the move to Williams... that was the worst. A real talent signing as second behind an average fat guy?? Joining Williams was the worst thing he could do. And the end in Las Vegas '81. That was sabotage at its best. Anyway... greetings.
In Argentina they may be called Las Malvinas. Everywhere else in the world they are correctly known as The Falkland Islands, which have been British Sovereign territory, populated by British citizens since before the country of Argentina existed.
There isn't a story is there. They have always been known as the Falkland Islands and this remains. At no point have they ever been known as the Malvinas, which was what you originally stated.
Carlos Reutemann - A true Great, a superb racer, a man of class and dignity and Filmstar looks. He won the most important and demanding GP Germany on the iconic Nürburgring Nordschleife 1975, back than, the original 22,8 km long track. In practice he drove 7:04, Carlos Pace in the second Branham was with 7:00 quicker and second on the grid. It was by far the greatest drive of Reuteman`s career. For me he will for ever sit in this beautiful white Brabham BT 44B, especially at the "Ring", section "Pflanzgarten" - the shot of his "Flight" is showing here - the most famous jump , a blind ultra fast lefthander, round about 280km/h, full throttle..Oh man, you need balls there...no great safety zones, only the man, his car - without any electronic helpers - and the track...that was the sport for man and not boys. Nowadays F1 deserves not the name F1 - By the way: In that Qualifying for the German GP 1975, Niki Lauda drove his historic, incredible 6:58 minutes lap, the only man ever under 7 minutes and the fastest man ever until today on the TRUE "Ring". Stefan Bellof`s 6:11 minutes in a Porsche Group C in 1985 was driven on a 2 (!) km shorter track. RIP Carlos, one of the heroes from my teenage years. Glory days and the last fine decade - the 70s.
So many great drivers - and great men - have been forgotten with the passage of time, Carlos is one of them. He was Stewart to Villeneuve's Peterson; and in those days there was room for both types of driver to find success.
No justice for a massively underrated Reutemann, after his F1 career he made achievements despite inactivity, check his appearances at WRC on his home soil.
Goosebumps reading your comment
As someone who is only now getting in to the sport, this channel has been instrumental in helping me learn about the history of f1. I love your commentary and insights as well as your focus on the people that made f1 special. Prior to today I didn’t know much about Reutemann aside from the name, but you painted a wonderful picture of the skilled, intelligent, quick driver as well as the honest and respectable man.
As a Canadian I did grow up following hockey as my main sport. I always found myself fascinated by the history and of the legends of the game, the big names as well as the lesser known heroes (similar to what Reutemann was in f1). I am even more fascinated by the people in f1 than I ever was by those in hockey (something I never thought I’d say).
As a new f1 fan trying to learn the history through channels such as yours and as a Canadian, I would particularly love to see an episode dedicated to tragic, yet legendary Gilles Villeneuve (who was of course mentioned in this video). Thank you.
I look forward to your next video, no matter who or what it focuses on. You have my subscription and my support.
Thank you so much, I'm glad to be helping you on your F1 journey. You're right about the history of F1, drivers came from such diverse backgrounds and arrived in the sport by so many different routes that through the 60s, 70s and 80s there are many more stories to be told.
Gilles was one of my heroes - not so much because I believed him to be the best, but that you knew whenever he was out in the car he was giving everything he had. Sometimes too much. I did have an earlier video on the tragic 1982 season, but had to remove it for copyright reasons. So I owe you a GV episode in the future.
Salut Gilles!
Fantastic bio of "Lole"....one of the heroes of my youth ...
Always the bridesmaid ...never seemed to have any luck ...either leaving or joining teams just before or after their best years ..
Drove all the most iconic of 70s and 80s cars too ....Brabham BT44...Ferrari 312Ts ....Lotus 79....Williams FW07 ...
On his days absolutely unbeatable .....but as you pointed out psychologically weak...so crumbled under pressure ....
RIP Carlos ....will always be remembered ....
At the Las Vegas weekend in 1981, Carlos knew he wasn't going to win and he told his manager so. He knew that after the crash with Piquet in practice he had been given a car with the worst chassis. On the morning of the race, that car had an untested set of brakes and a gearbox that didn't work well (although it's true that they never worked as well as they should have throughout the championship). Even Nigel Mansell said that, when he was behind Carlos, he could see the rear tyres completely out of alignment.
It's true that Carlos could be criticised for his reserved and inward-looking nature, but that weekend Williams abandoned him by giving him a wild west cart. Remember how Frank Williams and Patrick Head celebrated the victory with Jones while they didn't pay the slightest attention to Carlos.
PS: Sabotage for Brazil... which wasn't disobedience on Carlos' part because to fulfil the 7 second clause, it was Williams who had to first show him the difference between him and Jones, something they never did. They made him run blindly to serve Jones Carlos's position on a silver platter.
PS2: Did you hear about the masseur who stole Bernie from Carlos and therefore Carlos ran away with his neck broken? Mmm... there is much, much to tell.
A very noble man which is anathema in F1. Even so his "mistakes" caused inter-team ructions which never helped his cause. That said I do like that he went to Amadeo's parents to apologise for something which wasn't really his fault as Zolder was an absolute nightmare as you said. That race was completely farcical. Evidently we now know due Bernie's slip up that they nabbed Reutemann's personal masseuse to work on Piquet so there's definitely some foul play going on. Still as much as he's walked away from title winning cars, given the Falklands/Malvinas War - I think he possibly made the right decision as I believe he said he'd been facing pressure back in Argentina before the outbreak to cease working for a British team like Williams and I completely understand that. He was part of a dying breed though - the gentleman drivers of the past were being turfed out by a more ruthless variety of racers.
Wonderful story, great times. Thank you
I was not aware Reutemann had such consistency over the years, to finish multiple times in top-3 in season standings; I thought 1981 was the only successful campaign. Achieving a podium also in WRC after his F1 career speaks volumes. Raikkonen tried his hand at WRC for a couple of seasons but never finished in top-3.
Bravo!
These series on various F1 drivers are by far the best documentaries of its kind to be seen anywhere…! 👍😊👋
Alone this last sentence on Carlos Reutemann… 🤗
Thank you so much for your kind words, really makes the effort worth putting in.
That's always how I saw Lole, cut from a different cloth from most of his contemporaries
@@WhenF1WasReal Your efforts deserve every praise, go on like that… 🙏
Do not forget Jacky Ickx…
The only driver getting podiums both in F1 and WRC. The unique feat.
Lole was one of my favorite drivers. He should have been the World Champion in 1981, but alas, it was not to be. I mourned when he passed.
F1 LEGEND ❤ THANKS ❤
Poor Lole, he lacked that luck needed to be champion, and when he finally was going to be champion, a very unnecessary war started when he was piloting for an English team.
Most teams did not really appreciate his very clean driving style, many times Ferrari was distracted with the destroyed cars by Villeneuve instead of focusing on Carlos cars, said by Tomaini himself in an interview.
In 1981 Williams abandoned Michelin tires that were important in Carlos achieving many victories, he had a lot of difficult scoring points after that.
Best wishes.
All other things being equal, I imagine 1982 was his year, but the problems which Williams had in the second half of the 1981 season (for which tyres were certainly a factor) were a cruel way to lose that year's title too.
I've always felt Reutemann was the greatest driver never to win a World Championship. 10 full seasons. 12 wins and 11 second places. In full season standings, one second place, three thirds and a fourth. On the 1981 season, I read somewhere that in addition to the distress that Carlos was feeling after the Belgium pit lane incident, Williams switched tires from Michelin to Goodyear three races later. The article said the new tire favored Jones much more than Reutemann in driving styles. That closely coincided with Jones making that rush in the last 5 races of the season.
Yes, Reutemann was very vocal about the impact of the Good Year tyres. One of the reasons why I feel that the team didn't really care whether he won or not...
What’s happening with this channel? Brilliant content
Feel genuinely bad for him. Had he won the 1981 championship, Argentina would be a racing nation, and we don't need to suffer so much because of Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi.
Both Juan Manuel Fangio and Carlos Reutemann's legacy are tainted forever because of Maradona and Messi.
Lol what's wrong with Maradona and Messi? They are 2 of the best football players of all time!
Fangio and Reutemann aren't tainted due to two footballers. They have their own legacy and are all the better for it!
As Nelson Piquet said about the Las Vegas race which decided the 1981 championship, “he just opened the legs.”
As Nelson Piquet said a few years ago: if Carlos' car hadn't been sabotaged, I wouldn't have won the championship that year.
Do you plan on doing videos on John Surtees,Denny Hulme,Jody Schekter and Ronnie Peterson?
They are all on my list, and I'm also hoping to do something special for one of them, if it comes off it will be early next year before it is available though
That sounds great!@@WhenF1WasReal
@@WhenF1WasReal I read Denny's Hulme's biography and I think may be the most Under Appreciated World Champion. 8 victories ( including Monaco, Nurburgring and Monza), one World Title and 2 third place finishes, a controversial 2nd at LeMans, two Can-Am titles and in 4 Indianapolis 500s finished 4th twice.
Inmenso el Lole
Did you like the V10 era?
13:16: Reutemann doing his best Be Like Chris Amon imitation here.
The only enigmatic thing about Lole was his reserved and introspective character. But what happened in 1981 in Las Vegas was not his character but the black hand of Williams. He himself told his manager that weekend. He knew he was not going to win... and the team seemed very pleased with Jones' victory while they left aside the driver who could have given them a new championship.
Did it all start because Lole "disobeyed" orders in Brazil?
FALSE, because in order to comply with the clause that he himself had signed at the end of 1980, that of letting Jones pass if he was under 7 seconds, the team first had to give him the difference of how many seconds Jones was behind him (LAP BY LAP)... and that did not happen at any time in Brazil, except when they told him that he had to let the Australian pass. In short, Williams made Lole run blindly, allowing Jones to get close and then claim the position due to the famous clause. Carlos himself said it on a television programme: if they told me how far ahead Jones was, I would step on the accelerator and increase the difference.
PS: You can fight against a great rival, you can fight against your teammate... but you can never fight against your team, because they will always find a way to screw up your championship... however and whenever they want.
PS2: May you rest in peace, Lole, the true champion of 1981.
Even after the British Grand Prix, when he was so far ahead, I was saying that he didn't feel good about the title - perhaps because of the switch to Good Year, perhaps because he didn't have the backing of the team.
The terms of the contract were that if Jones and Reutemann were 20 seconds or more ahead of the next car and leading the race, and Jones was no more than four seconds behind Lole, then they would switch positions. Had he refused to sign the agreement, would he have been dumped by Williams?
And what sort of team seeks to impose team orders at the second race of the season anyway?
@@WhenF1WasReal As for the next car, do you mean a car from another team? I didn't understand that well. The only thing I know, and this was always said, and Reutemann himself explained it very well in an Argentine television program at the end of the season in 1981 (there is a video of this but it is in Spanish), is that if he was ahead of Jones by 7 seconds or more, he could continue ahead. If Jones discounted him and came in at a time less than 7 seconds, Reutemann had to slow down and let him pass.
The thing is that at that time there was no radio, so lap by lap the team had to give them both information about the difference... but this information was always conspicuous by its absence.
As for tires, about halfway through the year, Williams changed from Michelin to Goodyears, making them lose the advantage that Lole had because he was the one who had been developing those tires since the Ferrari era. The funniest thing was that it was Bernie Eclestone who suggested Frank Williams to make the change. Reutemann couldn't believe the change; it left him astonished.
Everyone in Argentina criticized Lole's move to Lotus, but the real criticism was the move to Williams. And the explanation is very easy: moving to Lotus after Ferrari didn't consider him for the following year was the right move because Lotus was at the pinnacle of F1. But then they got stuck and the team fell apart. But the move to Williams... that was the worst. A real talent signing as second behind an average fat guy?? Joining Williams was the worst thing he could do.
And the end in Las Vegas '81. That was sabotage at its best. Anyway... greetings.
✌️🤠💥🌟🌀👍
It's not falklands.... They are called Malvinas.
In Argentina they may be called Las Malvinas. Everywhere else in the world they are correctly known as The Falkland Islands, which have been British Sovereign territory, populated by British citizens since before the country of Argentina existed.
@robertelwell9360 culture yourself, you've no idea of the story here
There isn't a story is there. They have always been known as the Falkland Islands and this remains. At no point have they ever been known as the Malvinas, which was what you originally stated.