Carlos Reuteman

Carlos Alberto Reutemann (Santa Fe, Argentina, April 12, 1942-Ibidem, July 7, 2021) was an Argentine motor racing driver and politician.

Reutemann was a Formula 1 driver from 1972 to 1982, where he competed for the Brabham, Ferrari, Lotus and Williams teams. In his record in the highest category of motorsport, he obtained twelve victories, 45 podiums and six pole positions in 144 scoring races, in addition to two wins and one pole in races out of championship The driver finished third in the 1975, 1978 and 1980 championships. In 1981, having beaten teammate and first Williams driver Alan Jones, he finished second in the Drivers' Championship, just one point behind the champion., Nelson Piquet. Reutemann retired from Formula 1 in 1982.

On the other hand, he finished third in the 1980 and 1985 editions of the Rally Argentina. In 1990 he received the Platinum Konex Award as the best motorist of the decade in Argentina.

In 1991, in parallel to his activities in the private sector as an agricultural producer, Reutemann began his political activity in the Justicialista Party at the hands of President Carlos Menem. That year he was elected as governor of the province of Santa Fe. Later, he served as a national senator (1995-1999) and was elected for a second term as governor (1999-2003). He returned to the National Senate, where he served for three consecutive terms, from 2003 until his death.

Personal life

He was born and raised in the countryside. His grandparents, Jakob Reutemann and Ana Kienast, were Swiss-German immigrants who received a 31-hectare colony in San Carlos, Santa Fe Province. In it, his father Enrique Reutemann and his mother Flora Molina (an Italian immigrant) spent some time time for agricultural and livestock tasks. Shortly after, they moved to Humboldt where they dedicated themselves to dairy farming and raising Argentine-Holland breed cows. In those first years he became fond of animals and from there came the nickname Lole, because he often said that he went to see "lolechone" ("the piglets"). But he was more passionate about work vehicles, arriving, already at the age of 7, to drive an old Ford A model 1929 of the family. By the time she was 11 years old, she and his brother Enrique had built a track in the countryside and they traveled it with a family Rastrojero trying to lower the times. She went on horseback or by bicycle to the Simón de Iriondo rural school, next to a train station and 6 kilometers from his field. At the end of primary education, the two Reutemann brothers entered the Colegio Inmaculada Concepción de Santa Fe, of the Society of Jesus as pupils. He would always value that Jesuit education as the one that gave him the spirit of discipline, sacrifice and austerity that would allow him the best results both in motorsports and in politics. In 1968 he married his teenage sweetheart, María Noemí Claudia Bobbio Orellano, known as Mimicha, daughter of the family that owned Canal 13 in Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz at that time. With her they settled in London to dedicate themselves to Reutemann's automobile career as he had been planning, already with the aim of reaching Formula 1. His first daughter, Cora (mother of his only grandson, Santiago Bautista Diez Reutemann) was born in London.), while in 1973 the second, Mariana, was born.

Sports career

Beginnings

From the moment he finished his secondary studies and returned to work in the fields, he began to participate amateurishly in “picadas” (short-distance drag races, very common in towns in the interior of the Argentine Republic). He had his motorsport debut on May 30, 1965, in an Improved Tourism race in the city of La Cumbre (Córdoba) aboard a Fiat 1500. In that first race he abandoned, but in the second, held on July 11 That same year, in Villa Carlos Paz (Córdoba) aboard the same car, he obtained his first victory. The following year he would be champion of the category and would repeat in 1967

After this promising start, Reutemann set himself the ambitious goal of racing in Formula 1. To develop the driving skills required of single-seaters, he began to compete in Sport Prototypes in his country, and in Argentine Mechanical Formula 1, participating in the international series reserved for Formula 2 cars developed in November-December 1968 in Argentina. But at the same time, he wrote to the five-time champion of Road Tourism (the most popular category in Argentina at the time) Oscar Gálvez, who was also director of the Ford Team. Reutemann self-registered as a pilot for a works Ford Falcon. He would later state that he did it with an eye on Europe. Both Formula 1 and the European Sport Prototype of the time were dominated by Ford engines (Cosworth in the case of F1 and GT 40 in the SP), so he wanted to familiarize himself with engines from that brand. It was at that moment when, pursuing his dream, his dream went with his brand new wife to London. To make this decision he had to renounce his economic claims. In a later interview, he declared that at that time the Turismo Carretera drivers in Argentina earned per month what he earned for a whole year in Europe.

A short time later, his dream was supported by Commodore Ernesto Baca, president of the Argentine Automobile Club. The governing body for motor racing in Argentina launched an entire institutional project that had the strong support of the Secretary of State for Promotion and Assistance to the Community (SEPAC), an organization that had been created under the orbit of the Ministry of Social Welfare of the military government of General Juan Carlos Onganía, at the request of Minister Carlos Consigli. The stated main objective was to have an Argentine driver competing in Formula 1 and for this, as a prior instance, an entirely Argentine team was prepared and financed to participate in the Formula 2 European Championship. Along the way, SEPAC intended to promote Argentine companies such as YPF and, incidentally, promoting Argentina as a tourist destination among European citizens who perhaps had little information about the country. For that, two Brabham chassis were purchased (the Argentine State paid 2,500 pounds sterling for each of them) along with six Ford Cosworth engines used in that category. Some sources protected by copyright also mention "35 Firestone tires and a truck to transport equipment and personnel".) and the mechanics would be two and their names would be Alberto Pilotto and Mario Quaglia, but it is difficult to corroborate this statement by other means not covered by copyright. Yes, there is no doubt that the vehicles were there, they competed, that they wore the colors white and yellow (just like the motorhome) and that the team, called "Misión Argentina" was coordinated by Héctor Staffa, while the cars were driven by Carlos Reutemann and Benedicto Caldarella. Reutemann enjoyed in that first season the fact of competing on an equal footing with some of his idols, such as Jochen Rindt, Emerson Fittipaldi, Clay Regazzoni and Ronnie Peterson.

The following year the Misión Argentina team competed again, now under the name ACA-SEPAC. Caldarella was replaced by Carlos Ruesch, but Reutemann was once again the first driver and finished second behind Ronnie Peterson, having achieved an incredible record: one win and six podiums. he ran 23 races. in 22 of them he reached the finish line and in 15 of those 22, he was among the best 10 positions, in 6 of them he was on the podium (3 best) and in one of them (in the French Pyrenean circuit of Albi) he came out first. This earned him an invitation to participate in the Formula 1 Brands Hatch race at the end of that year (where the Swiss Jo Siffert crashed fatally) without points for the championship, and the hiring for 1972 as second driver for Brabham along with Graham Hill.

World Sports Prototype Championship

In the World Sport Prototype Championship he competed in 1971 in the 1000 km of Buenos Aires, sharing a Porsche 917K with Emerson Fittipaldi and achieving the seventeenth position.

In 1973 he competed for Scuderia Ferrari aboard the Ferrari 312 PB partnering with Tim Schenken. He ran four races that season, taking second place at the 6 Hours of Vallelunga and the 1000 km of Monza, with retirements at the 24 Hours of Le Mans due to a broken connecting rod when the Reutemann-Schenken pairing was in the lead afterwards. 12-hour race, and the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen.

In 1974, he moved to Alfa Romeo and ran the 4 races that his Formula 1 activity allows him to participate, his partner was the German Rolf Stommelen. Aboard an Alfa Romeo T33/TT/12, the Reutemann-Stommelen couple obtained second place that season in the 1000 km Nürburgring and the 6 Hours of Imola competitions, but dropped out in the 1000 km of Zeltweg and the 6 Watkins Glen hours.

Carlos Reutemann is the only driver in history to obtain podiums in the Sport Prototype, Formula 1 and Rally world championships.

Formula 1

In 1971, Reutemann had participated in the non-scoring Formula 1 Argentine Grand Prix, at the Buenos Aires City Autodrome, placing third in command of an Ecurie Bonnier McLaren.

Brabham (1972-1976)

His official debut was at the 1972 Argentine Grand Prix, where he took pole position ahead of champion Jackie Stewart, finishing seventh in said competition. His first victory in F1 took place shortly after in Brazil (non-points competition). In April, a serious accident occurred in practice for the Formula 2 race at the Thruxton circuit, which kept him away from the tracks for two months. At the Canadian Grand Prix he finished fourth, collecting his first points for the Drivers' Championship. Brabham relied on the services of the Argentine for the 1973 season. He obtained two third places in France and the United States, and scored points in six races, finishing seventh in the general table. The pilot obtained his first win in 1974 in Kyalami, which would be followed by those of Austria and the United States with the BT44 model, and finished sixth in the championship. In 1975, he claimed victory at the difficult Nürburgring (Germany) track, and totaled six podium finishes to finish third in the championship. The following year, the low reliability of the Alfa Romeo engine did not allow it to obtain good results, accumulating numerous dropouts. Disappointed, Reutemann began talks with Scuderia Ferrari for the following season.

Ferrari (1976-1978)

Ferrari decided to hire Reutemann to complete the season after Niki Lauda's accident in Germany, but Lauda recovered and rejoined the team for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Reutemann had to be content with driving a third car and then waiting for the start of 1977.

Running his Ferrari 312T3, Reutemann won the U.S. GP on the Watkins Glen circuit.

Ferrari confirmed Lauda and Reutemann as its official drivers, which led to the departure of Swiss midfielder Clay Regazzoni. That year Reutemann obtained a victory in Interlagos (Brazil) and finished fourth in the championship, which his teammate once again wins. In 1978, Lauda moved away from Ferrari and Reutemann was confirmed as the team's first driver, with Canadian Gilles Villeneuve as his partner. That year Reutemann had a victory in Brazil with the old T2 model and three more (Long Beach, Brands Hatch and Watkins Glen) with the new T3 model. Despite those victories. he could do little to challenge the technically superior Lotus of Mario Andretti, that year's champion, and Ronnie Peterson.

Lotus (1979)

After a year of disagreements with Ferrari's technical leadership, Reutemann decided to accept an offer to join Lotus, the previous year's overall winners, and replace the Swede Peterson, who had died in an accident at Monza. Lotus was supposed to extend its technical mastery thanks to the Lotus 80, a revolutionary single-seater designed to replace the already successful Lotus 79. However, the new car showed serious flaws from the start that delayed its debut until after the middle of the championship. and, even so, his performance was barely discreet. Reutemann scored points in six of the first seven races but had no points in the remaining eight.

Williams (1980-1982)

Disappointed with Lotus, Reutemann agreed to join the promising Williams team for the 1980 season. Reutemann's role was to prop up the title bid for his teammate, Australian Alan Jones. However he achieved a creditable victory in the Monaco Grand Prix, under a persistent drizzle and running on dry tires, achieving a one minute thirteen second lead over second placed Jacques Laffitte. He also finished second in Germany and third in Belgium, Great Britain, Austria and Italy, so he placed third in the Drivers' Championship.

In the first race of 1981, held at Long Beach, he lost first place to Jones after performing a botched maneuver. From the pits, the team then instructed him to refrain from attacking his teammate and let him take the victory. The second competition was held in Brazil, in torrential rain. Reutemann took the lead followed several seconds behind by Jones. From the pits they told him again that he had to give up the lead to the Australian, but this time Reutemann disobeyed the team's order and led the competition until the end. He later referred to this fact with the following words: & # 34; Of course I saw the billboards, I saw the signs, I saw everything. But while I was watching all this, I also thought that if I listened to the posters, it would be much more dignified to go back to the box, pack my bag and say goodbye to the races. Dedicate myself to something else. I disobeyed. And he would disobey again if the circumstance were repeated. I have no other answer"..The absence of Jones and all of the Williams mechanics at the race celebrations marked the break in the relationship. Friday of competition tests at the Zolder circuit, he accidentally ran over the mechanic Giovanni Amadeo in the pit lane, who died the Monday after the competition due to a skull fracture.

Reutemann behind Jacques Laffite in 1981.

Although Reutemann won again at the Belgian Grand Prix, his chances were compromised by a lack of team support. Added to this was the spectacular ascent of Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet aboard a Brabham whose active suspension system was suspected of being illegal. Reutemann was also harmed by the FIA's decision to annul the results of the South African Grand Prix, which Reutemann had won comfortably, in order to overcome a conflict that arose between the Federation and some Formula 1 teams such as Ferrari, who refused to participate in said test. His problems continued with Williams' controversial decision to replace Michelin, as the team's tire supplier, with Goodyear: the man from Santa Fe, unlike Jones, felt more comfortable with the French radial tires, which were softer and more efficient than the tires americans. In short, Reutemann, who had obtained 37 points in the first 7 competitions of the championship against 24 for Jones and 22 for Piquet, only obtained 12 points in the following 7 competitions, against 26 for Piquet and 13 for Jones.

The championship was defined at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Reutemann had arrived with a point advantage over the Brazilian Piquet and had set the pole position for the race. But, due to an incident in qualifying with Piquet himself, Reutemann had to use the reserve car in the race, which performed less well than the unit with which he had won the best starting position.

In the start, Reutemann took the lead but immediately began to suffer gearbox problems, being relegated to fifth position. Piquet walked behind him. The Brazilian had a fever and could barely concentrate on driving his car, but he still managed to win the championship by just one point.

Jones had retired and Reutemann was confirmed as driver, joined by Finnish driver Keke Rosberg. After a hard-fought second place finish at the 1982 South African Grand Prix, he retired after the second race of the season, the 1982 Brazilian Grand Prix.

In that season, the Renault experienced engine problems that decisively affected their performance in the second half of the tournament and Ferrari was trapped in a deep crisis caused by the tragic death of Villeneuve and another serious accident that definitively interrupted the career of their another pilot, French Didier Pironi. The irregular 1982 championship was finally in the hands of Keke Rosberg, who was crowned champion after winning a single competition.

Asked if he regretted that decision, Reutemann replied:

"When I think of that I remember that when I was a kid, I had to go to school on horseback... and then I became a Formula 1 pilot. That pleasure nobody's gonna take it from me."

^{[chuckles]required]}

Reutemann at Rally Argentina in 1985.

The Argentine Grand Prix was not held again, from 1982 to 1990. At that time, and as part of the festivities, Reutemann was invited to take a demonstration lap with a Ferrari, receiving a standing ovation from the fans. 60,000 attendees.

Rally

Reutemann contested the 1980 Codasur Rally in a Fiat 131 Abarth, scoring for the World Rally Championship, where he finished third overall. In 1985, the Argentine ran the test again, in this case with a Peugeot 205 Turbo 16, and he finished third again. He was the first driver to score points in the Formula 1 World Championship and the World Rally Championship. The second driver to do so was Kimi Räikkönen in 2010 who achieved a best result of fifth place.

Life after Formula 1

After leaving the competition, he returned to Santa Fe. He had already added more surface area to his old rural establishment, which he had bought with the money earned in Formula 1. He returned to his family, but shortly after he had a separation. His wife and his daughters returned to live in Europe, first in their former residence in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, on the Côte d'Azur, then in Nice and finally in Monaco. Reutemann continued to live alone and always dedicated to sports. He was seen running or doing gymnastics on the Santa Fe waterfront and he also liked sailing and windsurfing. He was romantically linked to different women until in 2006 he married Verónica Ghio.

Political career

Governor of Santa Fe (1991-1995, 1999-2003)

He began his political activity in the Justicialista Party, at the invitation of his friend, the then President of the Nation Carlos Saúl Menem. At his insistence, in 1990 he joined the Justicialista Party in Anillaco, the town of the then president. Reutemann signed the affiliation form with the pen that Perón had given him after the 1974 Argentine Grand Prix. He was elected governor of the province of Santa Fe for the period 1991–1995.

In 1994 he was elected as a constituent convention for the reform of the National Constitution.

At the end of his term in the province's chief magistracy, he was elected senator of the Nation for the first time, for the period 1995–2001, but in 1999 he left his seat in the National Congress after having triumphed in the provincial elections for governor of Santa Fe, where he fulfilled his second constitutional term between 1999 and 2003. Before the term expired, in 2002, the then president Eduardo Duhalde, who had already given up running for a new term, proposed him as a candidate for the presidency, based on in surveys that gave him a high percentage of positive image. Reutemann was in a meeting but refused. He later referred to it with an enigmatic phrase: “ I saw something that I didn't like and that maybe I will never say” . He actually never referred to that moment again.

Senator of the Nation (2003-2021)

On September 7, 2003, he was again elected to occupy a seat in the Upper House, which he assumed on December 10 of that same year with a mandate until December 10, 2009. On July 17, 2008, when the project of mobile agrarian withholdings was voted, which was broken by the vice-president of the Nation, Julio Cobos, Senator Reutemann presented an alternative project with a minority opinion of the Agriculture and Livestock Commission. His project was not discussed, but his vote was against the project presented by the government of the President of the Nation, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. From that "rebellion", Reutemann was identified as one of the key figures of what was called "Federal Peronism", a group of senior Justicialist leaders who, without denying Peronism, tried from the same party to oppose the Kirchner governments. After the triumph of the federal Peronist Francisco De Narváez over Néstor Kirchner in the 2009 midterm legislative elections, the possibility began to appear in the media that Reutemann was a candidate for that sector for the presidency of the Republic in 2011. in 2003, Reutemann declined the proposal without giving further explanations (journalist Jorge Asís would go so far as to insinuate, without citing other sources, that Reutemann had been the object of extortion to force him to drop the candidacy).

In the legislative elections of June 28, 2009, he was re-elected as National Senator for the province of Santa Fe, with a mandate until 2015. At the beginning of 2015, he formed an alliance with Proposal Republicana, supporting the candidacy of Mauricio Macri in the presidential elections of that year. That same year he was re-elected senator for Cambiemos with a mandate until 2021.

Since 2015, Reutemann continued to form the Santa Fe Federal block, generally accompanying Cambiemos in the votes. In 2016 she was diagnosed with liver cancer for which she underwent extensive surgery in New York. From there, post-operative complications and a gallbladder condition kept him away from his duties as a senator. He did want to be present in 2018, when he voted against the Voluntary Termination of Pregnancy bill. As he had anticipated to the Infobae news portal, he voted against, stating: & # 34; I always had the same decision, I did not vary one millimeter. I have a very Catholic background and for me life is from conception". His daughter Cora de él, at that time, had an active participation in social networks as a pro-life militant.

Complaints

As is common in Argentine politics, Reutemann's career also gave rise to various complaints.

Patricia Isasa, formerly kidnapped in three concentration camps in Santa Fe, filed a complaint against Reutemann in 2010 for a January 1992 decree ordering the destruction of the records of the former General Directorate of Information, which They gave an account of the behavior of the Armed and Security Forces during the last dictatorship. She asked that Reutemann be investigated for trying to eliminate public information leading to the clarification of crimes against humanity. The complaint was promptly archived and was not sentenced.

In April 2003, a huge flood covered the city of Santa Fe, causing 23 deaths recognized by the government (neighbors reported 114), and more than 130,000 homeless. In August 1997, Reutemann, Governor Jorge Obeid and Mayor Horacio Rosatti had participated in the inaugural act of the western defense of the city. Many Santa Fe residents understood that, had it been completed, this work could have prevented the Salado River from swallowing a third of the city of Santa Fe. during floods. The accusation included the crimes of havoc and homicide by catastrophic means.Reutemann submitted to the process, soon being disassociated from the case because the prosecutor understood that there were no elements that would allow him to presume his participation in the crimes investigated.

At the same time, a provincial deputy named Marcelo Brignoni also denounced Reutemann and various officials of his government for the alleged diversion of funds sent by the Nation (150 million Argentine pesos) to alleviate the effects of the flood. In this case there were no defendants, since the prosecutor ordered it to be archived after the former Minister of Government Carranza declared and explained how the funds and the technical accounting adjustments that were made to modify the accusations were imputed. Following this decision by the Court, in May 2005, the same complainant Brignoni declared before journalistic media that he would denounce the Minister of Justice of the Nation, Horacio Rosatti, for allegedly putting pressure on the Anti-Corruption Office, which depended on his portfolio, to file the investigation against the one who had been his boss in the provincial government, Carlos Reutemann. There is no record that this complaint has ever been filed, and Rossatti was never charged for this alleged fact.

Death

Carlos Reutemann passed away on July 7, 2021, after spending several weeks in the hospital. He was admitted to the hospital on May 30 and had been in the intensive care unit since June 21. He had previously been hospitalized for 17 days due to anemia and dehydration, but his condition deteriorated due to digestive bleeding and impaired kidney function.

Career Summary

Results

Formula 1

(Key) (bold indicates pole position) (italics indicates fastest lap)

24 Hours of Le Mans

Year	Equipment	Copilots	Automobile	Class	Returns	Pos.	Pos. Class
1973	SpA Ferrari SEFAC	Tim Schenken	Ferrari 312 PB	S 3.0	182	DNF
Source:

World Rally Championship