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07 July 2021 Carlos Reutemann, former Ferrari team driver, died in his Santa Fe at the age of 79. He had been operated on two years ago for liver cancer.



Carlos, nicknamed "Lole" since childhood for his passion for animals, and especially for pigs - "los lechones", which he crippled in "Lole-chones" at the age of three - crossed his path for the first time Enzo Ferrari and his Scuderia in 1973, when he was able to work alongside Tim Schenken in some endurance races with the 312 P, while he was in Formula 1 with Brabham.



Reutemann knew Ferrari well because his mother was Italian and his relatives had told him about the exploits of the strongest of the Argentine drivers, Juan Manuel Fangio, who had won the 1956 World Championship with the Prancing Horse.



In 1976 - we read in the memory of Ferrari - after the terrible accident of Niki Lauda at the Nürburgring, the Scuderia called Reutemann to replace the Austrian starting from Monza, even if in the end Carlos found himself working as a companion to Niki, given the his recovery in record time. At the Italian Grand Prix the Scuderia thus raced with three cars for the first time since 1972, and Carlos' one wore an unprecedented number 35 on the bodywork.



Kept in the team also for 1977, the Argentine with the 312 T2 was able to establish himself in Brazil, in the third race in Ferrari, and helped the Scuderia to win the fifth Constructors' title showing that he had the qualities to be a first driver.



The team entrusted him with this role in 1978, when the young Gilles Villeneuve was placed next to him, and Carlos was able to honor himself by winning four Grand Prix (Brazil at Jacarepaguà; United States West in Long Beach; Great Britain at Brands Hatch, and United States East at Watkins Glen) and finishing third in the standings behind the Lotus of Mario Andretti and the unfortunate Ronnie Peterson. At the end of 1979 the decision to leave Ferrari for Lotus.



Reutemann played 34 races with Scuderia Ferrari, winning five, numbers that make him the most successful Argentine driver in the history of the Maranello company. Not even Fangio, in fact, won as much as he, having stopped at three wins. Two were those of José Froilán González, although the first remains of unparalleled value given that it is the Scuderia's inaugural victory in Formula 1, obtained on 14 July 1951 at Silverstone in the 375 F1.



Over the years the Argentine had returned to Maranello more than once, in 1991 as well as four years later, when he had himself photographed aboard Jean Alesi's 412 T1. In December 2004 he also had the opportunity to get back behind the wheel of a Formula 1 Ferrari, when in a very special test he dropped into the cockpit of Rubens Barrichello's F2004, covering about twenty laps at Fiorano.



Enzo Ferrari highly esteemed Reutemann, who after his years as a driver had built a brilliant political career in Argentina (he was governor of his province), but in his book "Piloti, che gente ..." he did not spare him a severe judgment: "Atletico , a driver of excellent abilities, conditioned by a tormented and tormenting temperament. Able to solve difficult situations, making up for occasional mechanical deficiencies, but weak to waste, due to congenital emotionality, results that can be acquired at the start ".



Carlos Reutemann played in Formula 1 from 1972 to 1982 racing for four prestigious manufacturers - Brabham, Ferrari, Williams and Lotus -, competing in a total of 146 Grands Prix. He won 12, and in the World Cup he finished second in 1981 and three times third (1975, 1978 and 1980).