The blows continue for the statements of Bernie Ecclestone in his documentary, in which he states that Nelson Piquet was favored in the definition of the 1981 Formula 1 title over Carlos Alberto Reuteman In Las Vegas. in this case again Cora Reutemandaughter of the remembered Lole, referred to what happened and ruled that her father’s team, Williamscelebrated despite having lost the World Drivers Championship.
Reutemann’s brother dispels the versions that Ecclestone harmed Lole in 1981: “He never did it, he came to pay him for an operation of 600 thousand dollars”
Infobae spoke with the brother of the 1981 world runner-up, who referred to the sinuous English sayings in his documentary about that definition in Las Vegas. “Until his last day, Lole wondered why he wasn’t champion”
“I am going to issue an opinion but not as a daughter, but for having read the specialized press. My father was far superior to Alan Jones. Jones was the number 1 driver, but that didn’t change anything. I think my dad had to make an effort for Jones to be number 1,” Cora Reutemann said in an interview with Grand Prix in Spanish.
“There are many things that as a child, at that time, I could not find out. For example, the issue of changing tires from Williams, from Michelin to Goodyear. All of that was handled by Bernie,” she stressed.
The Williams sports director put pressure on Franco Colapinto: “We want him to fight at the top”
Infobae spoke with Sven Smeets, who raised the bar for the Argentine. Good results are exclusive for continuity in the academy of the historic English Formula 1 team. The young man from Pilar must fight for the Formula 3 title
In his documentary series Lucky (Fortunate) that you can see by Star +, in the fourth chapter Ecclestone recalled: “There was a lot of G force because of the way they joined the curves. After the first day of practice it was obvious that the drivers were going to have problems with all the neck pain. Carlos spoke with the masseuse who was in the pits. I went to see this person and after some financial discussion, they decided to favor Nelson. I don’t know if I ever told Carlos.”
“About the masseur, I found out in Formula 1, while I was a photographer. I talked about it with my mother and she also told me that it was true ”. However, Cora did not stress that this had harmed her father: “He had trained a lot for that year. In Las Vegas, he got out of the car like a true champion, and Piquet couldn’t even walk,” she recalled.
The pain of Reutemann’s daughter after Ecclestone’s latest revelation: “It was going to be very difficult for me to let dad win”
Cora defined as “repairing” the comment of the former Formula 1 boss, who implied that he harmed the Argentine driver so that he did not win the 1981 title
Lole had led the championship alone since the third date, but from the eighth date there was a hinge that was the change of tires in Williams who decided to leave the Michelin tires that had fallen so well on their cars to use again the Goodyears, which since the beginning of the year were the ones used by Brabham, whose development was already advanced. Since the premiere of the American tires in France, the issue was a headache for Lole and the performance of his monoposto fell. Until the gala event he had scored 37 points and after it until the end of the calendar only 12. In 2006, Carlos visited the Williams base and without anesthesia asked Sir Frank “why did we change the tire supplier?” The team-manager responded “I think it was a political issue. Bernie (Ecclestone) thought it was better to use Goodyear because Michelin favored Renault…”.
At that time there was an institutional crisis between the International Federation of Automobile Sports (FISA) and the Formula 1 Constructors Association (FOCA for its acronym in English). The teams that were in favor of FISA were Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Renault, Ligier and Osella. The English responded to the FOCA. The conflict was the distribution of money for television broadcasts and in that context Ecclestone made that decision.
However, there were other reasons that hurt Reutemann, such as his team’s bad decisions by not giving him the best engine in Germany or ordering Alan Jones, Lole’s partner, to help him. The man from Santa Fe proved to be superior to the Australian. Of course, the English team and Jones himself did not forgive Carlos for having disobeyed the order to let the Australian pass in Brazil, the day Lole won in a masterful performance.
Reutemann took pole positions (best qualifying time and started first) in Las Vegas, but everything went dark in a later practice in which Piquet did not respect his place and closed it to Lole, they touched and the man from Santa Fe got confused and damaged his front suspension of his Williams FW07 C. The team decided to change cars and when he went out on track to start the race, Carlos realized that he was going to live a nightmare. The problems in the gearbox affected him from the start and he suffered from that competition. He had the nobility to be surpassed by Piquet who finished fifth and the two units he collected reached him to be crowned. The man from Santa Fe finished eighth and could not score.
“Before starting, my dad knew that there had been a cheat and that he was not going to win the championship. Neither the race nor the championship. Bernie was the manager of the Brabham team and the owner of F1. Do you think he was going to let someone else win when he owned everything? ”, Cora shot. “In the photos of the race it is clear. Everyone celebrated Piquet’s championship, even the people of Williams,” said Reutemann.
The images on the podium show how a smiling Jones, winner that day in Las Vegas, congratulates Piquet on the podium. Although that day the oceanic man withdrew from the Maxima for the first time, he was very happy with the success of his teammate’s rival.
“That championship left him wounded. The following year he no longer wanted to run ”, Cora assured. “He fought everyone and even his own team. And quite high he reached him having the whole world against him in that 1981 ″, she concluded.
Keep reading:
