It is one of the great traumas of
Argentine sport
.
Due to the “closeness of glory”, due to everything that was said, suspected and speculated about the 1981 Formula 1 season, as close as it was controversial.
And from time to time, amounts of fuel are added to the fire of eternal discussions, which fuel passions and reignite the fiery conjectures of a definition wrapped in cloaks of conspiracies, dark maneuvers and the unfair resolution of an incredible championship.
And in these doses of sparkling controversies in that finale in which the Brazilian Nelson Piquet won the title from "Lole" by just one point, now Bernie Ecclestone, former boss of the highest category, who affirmed in a documentary that he bribed masseurs to harm the Argentine.
Carlos Reutemann and Bernie Ecclestone.
Photo Twitter
As any good history teacher would say,
the facts should be presented in the best possible context
.
Formula 1 of 1981, with an
Argentine
as a candidate for the crown: Carlos Alberto Reutemann.
They were times in which
the national sport shone in the world
, by the hand of Lole in the maximum exhibition of international motorsports;
Guillermo Vilas and another controversial situation for the No. 1 not awarded in the tennis universe;
Argentina that boasted of the world title under the arm of Mario Kempes and with the arrival of the young Diego Maradona, and national boxing extending its dominance with Sergio Víctor Palma, Gustavo Ballas and Santos Laciar, among many other disciplines.
Reutemann's popularity was unimaginable for those who did not live through those glorious times of national sport.
Can anyone imagine that a Superclásico between River and Boca is modified because F1 is run?
That was achieved by Reutemann when Boca had Maradona in its ranks, and River Matador Kempes
.
It happened on September 27, 1981. The great match for the National tournament was played in the morning at La Bombonera, since the Canadian Grand Prix was held in the afternoon, in which "Lole" was 9th and her advantage in the championship against the Brazilian Nelson Piquet (Brabham) was reduced to just one point.
Reutemann was on everyone's lips.
For his leading role in Formula 1, for being the cover of all Argentine magazines (sports, current affairs, gossip, children's...).
And that strange definition, in every sense,
was a slap to the illusion
.
An entire country stopped that Saturday, October 17, 1981 to see the resolution of the contest in the innovative layout of Las Vegas, set up in the parking lot of the Caesar Palace Hotel.
Carlos Reutemann, winner of the 1978 British F1 Grand Prix. Photo Twitter @TheBishF1
Bernie and Reutemann knew each other very well.
In 1972 the driver from Santa Fe raced for the British team in F1.
According to Ecclestone, perhaps
the most adept manager in the history of the sport to handle money
, that weekend in the state of Nevada, recalled: “After the first day of practice it was obvious that the pilots were going to have problems with all the pain of neck.
Carlos spoke with the masseuse who was in the pits.
I went to see this person and after a financial discussion, they decided to favor Nelson”.
The story is known.
Both pilots had a clash in training, and that forced the Argentine to run with the Williams muleto.
Reutemann took pole position, but in the race he fell back to 8th.
Piquet was classified fourth, in the competition he surpassed Lole and with fifth place he was enough to win the world title.
What incidence does what Ecclestone said have in the documentary that can be seen on Star+?
It seems that it is just part of his leading habit of
always being in the center of the scene
with his statements.
It sounds ineffective for a bribery attempt to be executed through a
masseuse
.
Beyond everything that the transcendent Bernie could have done to win the crown in favor of Brabham, the controversy has another protagonist.
The axis was always in the position of
Frank Williams
, owner of the team of the same name, and how much he had an impact on the historic definition of Las Vegas.
The already famous sign omitted by the Argentine in the Brazilian GP, at the beginning of the year, which ordered Reutemann to give way to his teammate,
Alan Jones
, could have been the cause of "revenge" with the car's poor performance of Lole on the last date.
At least that's where all the conspiracy theories in this regard, among others, pointed.
Frank Williams and Carlos Reutemann.
Meanwhile,
Ecclestone contributes his grain of sand
to a story that, despite being over 41 years old, is revived with different content.
The truth is that all of this enlarges the figure of Carlos Reutemann.
The "champion without a crown" who
chose not to resort to a disqualifying maneuver
when Piquet surpassed him in the intricate circuit of Las Vegas (at that time such actions were not sanctioned) and demonstrated his excellent qualities at the highest international level.
Despite so many mixed feelings, Lole always remained in a place from which he did not make accusations or show explosive attitudes.
In silence, he continued the following year at Williams, until prior to the Falklands War, in March 1982, he withdrew from the British team and from Formula 1.
What better than to quote Reutemann himself, in a note to Carburando, to explain what that episode meant to him, which seems like an unclosed wound for Argentine supporters: "You got into Formula 1 and at that time it was a labyrinth , who had success, fame, money and death.
Everything is inside.
The championship, being a paraplegic.
That's where we all go.
Some were killed, others were injured, others were left alive.
I didn't win the championship.
When I crossed the finish line in Las Vegas I thought that I was a lucky guy and that if I had come out champion, it was already too much.
This is so".
Words of a legend.
look also
Carlos Reutemann, deprived of being champion in 1981: the scandalous revelation of Bernie Ecclestone that shakes Formula 1
The pain of Reutemann's daughter after revealing that she was harmed in Formula 1: "She left with that sorrow in her heart"
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