I have no memory of this episode airing that early on. I remember seeing it in the late 90s so I'm guessing when it aired originally it was meant to be a one off episode but later inspired the Postcards series.
About Villeneuve, at 8.34: ''In Las Vegas, even the other drivers said he was the most gifted of them all''. We could have added: the brightest stars are the ones that leave the most most unbelievable memories. RIP Clive and Gilles. In your respective fields, you will have represented what the human species has produced the best.
My favourite era of F1. The chubby team boss, Carlo Chiti I've met him, bloody good bloke, shame that interview was not longer although I'm told his English was not good, I suspect he selectively spoke English if you know what I mean as it seemed good enough to me.
This video is the only visual document that showed the exact moment (25:18 )when Carlos "Lole" Reutemann lost the well deserved F1 championship of 1981 when in Thursday afternoon, Oct 15th, he collisioned on track with a too slow Nelson Piquet and therefore, his best car chasis 012 resulted permanently damaged . That's partially Lole's blame since by that time he was the polesitter (and his old best time continued to be the best even the following day). He would be forced to move to the spare car for the Saturday race, chasis 017, with serious problems of gearbox and brakes.
And obviously acceleration problems... with his noggin contents... He faulted as soon as the GP began. He blew it. Not the car. Jones was in front of him immediately, and Gilles within mere seconds. There would be zero difference in either his 1st car or his spare car when it comes to accelerating between the start line and the first corner. 'Tis a pity, he should have been able to handle the pressure - he'd been driving Formula One for a whole decade. Someone, something got inside his head.
@@BrettHart27 I think you didn't know that the gearbox was broken when arrived in the williams factory. And his spare car did (chasis 017) not worked as good as it should be for that reasons and for brakes had to be replaced in the warm up session. Williams should have switched Jones' car with Reutemann before race starts. Ligier did that with Laffite-Tambay cars in Las Vegas... but seems Frank Williams and Patrick Head were not too worried to lose a drivers championship and let Bernie Ecclestone to win the first one with Nelson.
@@fersilva2005 There is an adage; "A bad tradesman blames his tools". Wherever the disparaging of the immaculate name of Hewland in your mind came from, well, only you can answer. Rigorously test every pristine product they do and always have. Any, repeat, any fault leaving their factory would have their impeccable reputation tarnished and sales would have plummeted. But... ...let us entertain the assumption that a faulty gearbox left the factory and was fitted in one of Carlos's Williams. How many drivers would drive his cars on the fateful weekend determining the 1981 Formula One World Drivers Championship? Would it be fair to assume 1 (one) ? Would that one soul be a sometimes grumpy, sometimes elated, sometimes quiet, sometimes confident devastatingly handsome journeyman from Argentina with ten seasons under his belt? And if you answered correctly - Carlos Reutemann - then would it also be fair to assume it was his, and only his, responsibility to convey any faulty gearbox to, hmmm... any of his mechanics, or his chief mechanic/engineer or Patrick Head or Frank Williams or even the team 'gopher'? Is it also fair to believe that Team Williams had a number of not only spare DFV's, but also Hewland boxes? So, for this faulty gearbox to have survived in Carlos's FW 07 for who knows how long only to have its gremlins surface at the very moment the lights go out...? It would have to have been an interesting situation, because the mechanics would have had that box apart many times changing ratios. Fancy them, not earning their wages for spotting a fault... The bollocking from Frank & Pat would have been harrowing, to say the least, ending their career, no doubt. As for swapping cars to Alan's...that is one of the most preposterous proposals ever to be uttered; to ask the reigning Formula One World Driving Champion to step aside and drive Carlos's car is laughable beyond words. But, for starters Jones's chassis' were especially built for the burly Australian, as he is wide in the hips, compared to other drivers. Which means Carlos would not have fitted Alan's cars, and vice versa - Reutemann would have been sliding from side to side through the lefts and rights... Jones was instrumental into delivering them to their highest achievements. Although not their first win (though Jones was leading) he did give them the following year their first constructors championship, and, of course, his driving championship. Now, Frank & Pat were desperately wanting Jones to change his mind from retiring. Jones was and is exceedingly blunt with words. His response to such a ludicrous proposal would simply have been priceless. And quite likely to be littered with more than one profanity... Another question which remains; what happened to Carlos that Saturday afternoon? Even one of the most inside motor racing journalist has no answer... www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/january-2012/74/a-gamble-that-didnt-pay-off
@@BrettHart27 Nice article, thanks for that. Reutemann ended that race with sore hands due to difficult to old gear shift level. The point is Williams team did support him enough to win his driver title (no matter Alan was the reign champion and super-number-one hero by written contract) and that's all, that was recognized by Lole's Engineer Neil Oatley (of course after he left Williams) and more subtle by Frank himself when he received Lole's later. If other driver would make it much better in that poor car conditions? Who knows. But Reutemann never tried to "put Piquet in the wall" at Jones' style. And later Lole's confess that Piquet was very careful to overtake him because after the awful experience in Canada 80 with Jones, he was afraid the story happen again. But for Reutemmann, winning like this (as later Schumacher did with Hill and Jacques) would not be "win". Fortunately FIA would disqualify another pilot that do same did Alan in 1980, or Schumacher in 1994 to win title. Have a nice day
in fairness no one else is either my favourite was in the 1986 review when nelson passed keke in germany, and clive said it is a move that piquet calls opening ze legs . . . a little later, someone tries to pass senna, and clive says - senna opens ze legs with great reluctance
@@wayneandrews9298 ; There are as many American pronunciations as there are Americans it just depends where their from. The Spanish pronounce it "Las VaigArse" but in this case it should probably be "Loss Vegas".
About 27:00 min; "Argentinian attacks Brazilian. Civil war in South America." These days you'd say he was an Argentinian politician who's signature is not worth the paper it's on.
Great spot, It's Rosberg wearing Jacques Laffite's helmet. Apparently it was lighter than his own. Track went anti clockwise and caused neck problems not helped by the extreme heat.
