Carlos Reutemann, deprived of the champion title in 1981: the scandalous revelation of Bernie Ecclestone that makes Formula 1 tremble

Bernie Ecclestone has made a strong statement that promises to shake up the Formula 1 environment. The former head of category recognized at the premiere of his series ´´Lucky!´´ which he paid Carlos Reuteman was damaged in the last race of the 1981 championshipthat Las Vegas Grand Prix, remembered above all by Argentine F1 lovers because Lole finished first in the positions but could not be crowned.

The man from Santa Fe had a point advantage over the Brahbam of the Brazilian Nelson Piquet, and the place chosen for the definition was the parking lot of the Caesars Park hotel in Las Vegas where Reutemann had obtained the pole position. In other words, his chances of making history were unbeatable.

However, problems off the track weighed heavily. It was always believed that Lole didn’t have the full support of williamshis team at the time because he disobeyed his team’s orders during a race in Brazil and it didn’t go so well.

But now it has also been revealed that it was the category itself that conspired against him. Bernie Ecclestone, who owned rival main team Brahbam, made a stark revelation.

“After the first day of practice it was obvious that the drivers were going to have problems with all the neck pains and Carlos spoke to the masseuse who was in the pits. I went to see that person and after a financial discussionThey decided to favor Nelson,” he said.

The race in which Reutemann could be champion

In the 1981 definition, Carlos Reutemann arrived with two other drivers with mathematical chances of winning the title: Brazilian Nelson Piquet, one point behind, and Frenchman Jacques Laffite. The show was guaranteed, even if the doubts revolved around a new and unusual circuit: a Las Vegas parking lot.

Up until 1980, New York was the home of the United States Grand Prix for two decades. However, Watkins Glen International’s outdated facilities and financial debts to F1 took it off the calendar and led to Las Vegas entry.

It seemed like the ideal destination for a championship game as glamor would be assured at Caesar’s Palace Grand Prix. While far from splendor, there was a layout set up in the parking lot of Sin City’s most iconic hotel (Sin City).

Even if Las Vegas was not yet that of these timesIt was already a regular stronghold for boxing and the legend of Muhammad Ali had passed through. But putting together a ring wasn’t the same as making a track and that was conditioned by the perimeter of Caesar’s Palace, so The original idea that the course measured 4,136 meters and added 16 curves could not materialize.

As a result, the six million dollars invested in its construction resulted in a flat, repetitive design with a crooked “M” shape — like a coiled snake — that did not represent the vigor of the city.

Carlos Reutemann was the championship leader despite the favoritism Williams had publicly displayed for Alan Jonesand had arrived in the United States before the rest of the drivers, although his journey from Cap Ferrat, where he had made up residence during his time in Formula 1, included three planes to connect Nice-Paris, Paris-Chicago and Chicago-Las Vegas.

There were eight days to go until the last Grand Prix of the 1981 season when he got into a Datsun and did two reconnaissance laps around the circuit set up in the parking lot of Caesar’s Palace. “I look back and see that I have been ahead of the championship for six months and now I am entering this race with a single point lead. It’s like having none. If he had at least two, it would be enough to speculate. But with only one I have to think about winning, or starting ahead of Piquet and Laffite, which is the same. Now more than ever I regret not having succeeded in Monaco and Spain, two races that have always been in my favor. With some of those points, the story would have been another“Lole told Clarin.

On 16 October Reutemann set the fastest time in the final Grand Prix of the 1981 Formula 1 season. Although he was not as fast as in the first qualifying session on Thursday, he was left with pole position that Friday.

The day wasn’t going to end well, however. On board the muleto -the Williams with chassis 12, his favourite-, Lole had a collision with Piquet in training. “I was coming out of a very strong corner, I suddenly find myself with the Brabham and without time to swerve, I touched it and the front grille folded. The car was fixed immediately, but when I get out again I notice that this car does not It was the obedient car I had on Thursday. It wasn’t the car that had made me enjoy driving. Contrary to my original idea, I had no choice but to deal with 17, which I didn’t like at all”, acknowledged the man from Santa Fe in the book “Los días de Reutemann” (Alfredo Parga / 1998).

I was not wrong. The day after he lost the title by one point when he finished eighth in the Las Vegas GP, three behind Piquet, Reutemann wrote a column on Clarín entitled “Why I lost the title”. There, he said he had used the 17 frame and that “Personally, I had thought about running with 12, which was the one I set the time on on Thursday.” “But the team people told me it was preferable to do it with the 17 because it was a new frame and the 12 also had a lot of kilometres”accurate.

He also described that “at the start”, he noticed “the first unfavorable symptom: the shifting was quite harsh”. “My start wasn’t good. It wasn’t another start for me. There were high expectations and the stakes were high. I finished third and soon after Prost overtook me. As the next laps went on, the The performance of the car decreased and the problems increased One of the main ones was the gearbox. It was terrible. I was missing three or four gears for each lap. An outrage, which did not allow me to walk as fast as I needed to keep up with the pace of Laffite, Piquet and Andretti,” he said.

But that wasn’t the only problem. “Even the spirals, harder than Jones’ car, caused me a lot of inconvenience,” he admitted, fatal on a circuit like Las Vegas, which has the most important left-hand corners, so there was nothing else to do. I struggled to stay on the track, hoping that Piquet would stay, but that wasn’t the case”.

“I know that many, faced with Jones’ landslide victory, will have doubts about the differences in attention that there were between the two. And well, I want to clarify the matter well. The team obviously worked all year for Jones. I I am not saying this now because of this result, but that I had already stated it previously. The contract was like this: he was number one and I was number two. And that hasn’t changed here. The treatment they gave me was exactly the same as in the season. And for example I cite this example. On Thursday, after setting the best time in qualifying, I spent twenty minutes in the team caravan without anyone asking me anything. I realized then that there was no point in staying there. I took the bag and left,” she said.

Lole didn’t hide her discomfort with Frank Williams either. “Sometimes I had to do the trick with the four of cups. But all this is in the past. The reality is that there was someone who won, Piquet, and another who lost, which was me. nothing else matters. It is the result that remains in history. And that result says Piquet is the champion. It looks fantastic. That little boy who helped me clean my tires in 1974 in Brasilia is now winning the world championship for me. Curious, right?” he mused.

“Personally, I’m calm, because I know that from day one I put all my effort and dedication into winning the title. And although I’ve been in motorsport for 15 years, I don’t feel tired. That world title, which, given that he has never been so close to me, may not have another chance to conquer it.. But nothing is definitive. I’ll talk about my future later, when I’ve thought about it,” she concluded.

Thus, it was only clear to him that if Jones repented and continued at Williams, he would be the one to leave. Finally, with the Australian retired, Reutemann continued, but only until 21 March of the following year, when he announced his retirement after just two races of the 1982 season.

Lole died in July 2021, aged 79, at a Santa Fe clinic after a series of health complications that led to liver cancer. On that day, the world of motorsports took a moment to say goodbye to a motorsport legend who has crossed borders and is part of Argentina’s select group of sporting legends.