Carlos Reuteman

gourami · Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2005 12:15 Post subject: Carlos Reuteman

Is it true this clown cost Alan Jones his double WDC in 1981?

Gee Jonesey must be pissed - even to this day!
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Shant F · Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 14:01 Post subject:

Insofar as one can extrapolate likely results over the course of a season (chaos theory notwithstanding), probably not.

AJ gets snooty over this because Carlos didn't obey team orders and move over to let Alan win the 1981 Brazilian GP. In Carlos' view, he was a racer, and racers don't throw away victories. I think AJ hasn't spoken to Carlos since but I doubt Reutemann really cares too much about this. Indeed, he was heftily fined by the team, but to Carlos nothing could matter less. But in fact AJ's season was plagued with what is coloquially known as 'bad luck' - for whatever reason the cards just didn't fall his way that year. On the contrary it was Reutemann who went to the final round leading the title race ahead of Piquet. Unfortunately he had one of 'those' weekends - as Clive James once memorably put it (circa 1982), when Carlos is happy, he goes like the Argentine air force. When he's not, he fades away like the Argentine army...

And that was pretty much exactly what happened. Years later the best explanation I've heard is that Carlos didn't get to grips with the tyres on the Las Vegas layout, went backwards in the race and that was that. A pity, his talent was enough to deserve a world championship.
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Arturo_Pereira · Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 13:24 Post subject: Re: Carlos Reuteman

Arturo_Pereira · Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 13:31 Post subject:

Sean Brian Kirby · Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 17:03 Post subject:

I think Reutemann was a fine racer - a bit shaky at times, but impressive against drivers as great as Villeneuve. To call this driver a clown is a bit funny. He acquited himself very well in an extremely tough era.
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Arturo_Pereira · Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 21:48 Post subject:

Shant F · Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 11:13 Post subject:

D-Type · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 15:26 Post subject:

Reutemann always puzzles me. He was certainly no clown, as people have said, on his day he could run with the best, but he did seem to have his off days. But why the inconsistency?

Was it a character thing? If his morale is high he could perform, but if he's not 100% happy he couldn't.
Was it a lack of flexibility? Some drivers can adapt to a problem? Some can't.

Was it a health problem? Some health aspect that hit him sometimes?

Anybody know?
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Shant F · Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 13:16 Post subject:

I think the character point is probably closest. As I said in my post it depended a lot on his mood. If he was fired up, then he was one of the outright fastest of his contemporaries, untouchable in the same car, as third place at Interlagos in 1979 proved, miles ahead of the first non-Ligier. On the other hand if he was unhappy then that was quite apparent too. But nevertheless, a driver I suspect I would have been a fan of if I'd been around at the time. Huge natural talent and a gentleman with it.

Mind you it's hardly as if he's unique in this respect, it's just noted in his case because his 'bouts' of it, if you like, were more severe than most. In a more contemporary context, Mika is one who definitely had 'off-days' too. When he felt like it, no-one got near him, but conversely, there were some days where you wondered if DC hadn't just nicked his helmet and car... Wink

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Arturo_Pereira · Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2005 13:47 Post subject:

I agree with Shant about this being a matter of character. When the car was 100% he was cappable of getting 101% of it, but when the car was at let's say 80%, then he could not drive it to 90%. Many people here compared him with Fangio, but I think the main difference is that Fangio was quite cappable of fight against odds and to even win with an inferior car. I guess that Reutemann, even if he was a very talented F1 driver, was not blessed with that extra 1/10th one could find in other drivers, many of them less talented than Carlos.
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davhut · Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 00:06 Post subject:

Carlos Reutemann is a class act...from day one until now. He was a racer!
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D-Type · Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 00:16 Post subject:

davhut,
Can you enlarge on that there have been some interesting reasoned posts on this thread. Carlos was definitely no clown. But you have to admit that there were some days when he was not exactly a class act. Have you any idea why the inconsistency?
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masaivan · Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2005 12:02 Post subject:

Politics, Fokland war and so....

And he was driving for a British team Williams,

Out of that he would certnly won a title, but we will never know.
One thing is sure, he was a very fine driver in his time.

davhut · Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 13:16 Post subject:

Class Act and bringing his A game are two different deals. He was always easy to deal with, a gentleman with the media and a hard and fair racer. I wish I had such off days v. good days as he.
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The Sentinel · Kart Champion Joined: 19 Jul 2004 Posts: 86

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