Drivers

Carlos Reutemann

On his day, Reutemann was simply inspirational. He originally turned up on the European scene in 1970 as a member of the Automovil Club Argentino-backed F2 team and nearly pipped Ronnie Peterson for the following year's European Championship. In 1972 he qualified his Brabham BT34 on pole position for his first GP outing in front of his home crowd at Buenos Aires and seemed set for a high flying future. Disappointingly, he never won in Argentina. He should have done in '74 but the Brabham team had apparently made a mistake fueling his car and left one churn out prior to the start. Carlos' Brabham BT44 ran out of juice with just over a lap to go while running away from the pack. He switched from Brabham to Ferrari from late 1976-78, then to Lotus and finally to Williams in 1980. In 1981 he stood poised on the verge of the title crown, only to inexplicably relinquish his chance to Nelson Piquet in the final race at Las Vegas. After retiring from the sport he went into politics and became one of the leading politicians in Argentina as governor of the Sante Fe province and later as a senator.