When Carlos Reutemann was almost champion of Formula 1

40 years after that triumph, most of the followers of the highest automobile category are aware that ignoring that ‘Jones-Reut’ poster, in the last laps in the rain in Jacarepaguá, cost the ‘Lole’ to be “belittled” in the future by his own team.

“There was a strategic decision of the team that made me lose the championship,” said the Argentine later, referring to what happened in October of that year, when he did not enter the scoring positions in the Las Vegas Grand Prix and it served him well. the championship to the Brazilian Nelson Piquet, for just one point.

Precisely, the Rio de Janeiro pilot had set pole on the Rio de Janeiro track, with his Brabham BT49 C. The Santa Fe, with Williams, obtained second place, while the second row was ordered with the Australian Alan Jones, teammate of Reutemann in Williams and world champion for those years, in addition to the Italian Riccardo Patrese (Arrows).

The race

Sunday dawned with rain and the race, scheduled for 78 laps, started with water. Piquet, confident that the rain would stop, started with smooth covers (slicks), while Reutemann overtook him and took the lead with determination.

‘Lole’, who during that season in Formula 1 would also win the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder, held an advantage oscillating between 3 and 8 seconds over his teammate, the Australian Jones.

With seven laps to go, a singular poster was shown from the Williams box: ‘Jones-Reut’. The team decision, then, was clear.

But Reutemann ignored the request and walked away from his escort, thus achieving his second official victory on the same track (the first had been in 1978, at the command of a Ferrari).

“I did not see the poster,” said Reutemann, as soon as he got out of the car, according to the magazine ‘El Gráfico’, which had a special envoy for the competition.

Jones, angry with the position that his teammate had taken, left his Williams in the pits, changed in the motorhome and did not go to the podium of celebrations.

Then, Reutemann, with a grim and worried gesture, only had the company of the Italian Patrese, who had arrived in third place in that Brazilian Grand Prix.

Quarrel from before

The truth is that the ‘fight’ between the two Williams drivers of those years already came from the previous competition, in Long Beach, at the start of the 1981 season.

While trying to get past a laggard (Marc Surer, with Ensign), Reutemann lost his concentration in a maneuver, left a gap and Jones took the opportunity to pass him. Thus, the 1980 world champion began the next edition with triumph.

“In the contract it was written that we could not pass. And (Alan) Jones did,” the Santa Fe complained bitterly. For this reason, the Rio de Janeiro thing seemed like a real ‘bill pass’.

Reutemann never felt regret for what happened that afternoon in the rain. “When I think of that race, I remember when I was a child and had to do 10 kilometers on horseback to go to the first school Number 572, in Manucho, in Santa Fe,” he recalled later in a report.

Miguel Angel Sebastián (for Clarín newspaper) and Raúl Barceló (for Radio Universidad de Córdoba) were two of those sent by their media to that competition in Brazil.

“When I got to Williams’ box, I found Reutemann very serious and unwilling to speak. The only thing he managed to say was that he had not seen the poster, due to the low visibility due to the rain. But his manager, Domingo Cutuli, was very worried, “Sebastian told Télam.

“Underneath,” the Clarín envoy recalled, “Cutuli assured that there was a contract that established that if there was a difference of less than six seconds between ‘Lole’ and Jones, he should let it pass,” he said.

“In the atmosphere floated the slogan that it was going to be very difficult for Reutemann to fight for the title, after that action. The team was not going to give him the same weapons as Jones,” he added.

For his part, Barceló revealed to Télam that as soon as the race was over “I left the transmission booth that I shared with my friend Héctor Acosta (ATC rapporteur) and went to the pits”.

“When we arrived with Héctor (Acosta) we saw Carlos (Reutemann) with a very worried face. The climate in Williams’ box was very tense and we chose not to ask anything,” he described.

“That’s when we realized that ‘Lole’ was going to suffer the consequences. Before taking the bag and leaving for the hotel, Reutemann just whispered to us that he had not seen the poster. Nothing more. And he did not even smile for the photographers when he was leaving the circuit “, concluded Barceló.