Nigel Roebuck על אלן ג'ונס וקרלוס רוייטמן

[דובי מילר]

בהמשך לפעם הקודמת בה התייחס המאסטר לז'יל ווילנייב , הפעם אנו מדברים על שניים אחרים מאותו הדור .

כאשר נתקלתי לראשונה באופן רציני בפורמולה-1 , זה היה אי שם במגזין "טורבו" מספר-1 והפורמולה-1 אז נשלטה בידי המלחמה בין מנועי הטורבו והקוזוורט .

אלן ג'ונס , אלוף העולם ב-80 , יצג משהו טוב מבחינתי כנהג של סעודיה-וויליאמס , כך הם נקראו אז .

מנגד , האיש הרע , כמו שהיה נראה לי אז וככל שחלף הזמן הבנתי עד כמה טעיתי (או שלא..) היה הארגנטיני קרלוס רוייטמן .

 

והנה איך שהמאסטר , Nigel Roebuck מתייחס אליהם השבוע -

זו השאלה -

 

Dear Nigel,

With Alan Jones having recently turned 60, I just wonder what your opinion is of Australia's last World Champion. I never considered him to be as 'naturally gifted' as say Carlos Reutemann, but I know which of the two I'd rather have fighting in my corner.

 

 

והנה התשובה שהוא עונה -

 

Dear Mike,

I'd agree with you that Alan Jones wasn't as 'naturally gifted' as Carlos Reutemann - very few drivers were - but I also know, like you, which one I would prefer to have in my corner.

 

Put it this way: if I had to choose one to get pole position, to put in the perfect lap, I'd go for Carlos - so long, that was, as he was in the mood. But if it were a matter of picking one to win a race - particularly if involved passing people - I'd unhesitatingly go with Alan.

 

Reutemann was a great driver, and Jones a great racer, that's the point. When all was right with Carlos, he could beat anyone - but all did have to be right, whereas Alan would make the best of what he had, and simply get on with it. His driving style was far less elegant, but he was a no-nonsense Grand Prix driver if ever I have seen one, and he relished a fight like Carlos never did.

 

In every way, Jones was bullish. Out of the car, he delighted in being about as politically incorrect as it was possible to be (which, of course, made him splendid company), saying exactly what he thought of everything and everybody.

 

Prima donnas were emphatically not to his taste, and it was no surprise that the rival he rated and admired more than any other was Gilles Villeneuve, like himself an out-and-out racer, a man who never gave up.

 

For Nelson Piquet he had little respect, and it was the same with Reutemann: although Alan freely acknowledged the blinding pace of which Carlos was capable, he had little sympathy for the brooding self-doubt which blighted many of his races.

 

They were team mates at Williams for two years, and you could never say the atmosphere in the motorhome was restful. In 1980 Alan dominated the season, and won the World Championship, but the following year Carlos began superbly, and by half-season had a comfortable points lead. Jones, by contrast, was not finishing many races.

 

When I remember those two in the 1981 season, two races come back to me particularly. At Monza Reutemann put in the greatest single lap of the season, qualifying second at this ultra-quick track in his Williams-Cosworth, and splitting the much more powerful, turbocharged, Renaults in the process. Jones, fifth quickest, was 1.2 seconds from his team mate's time.

 

True enough, Alan wasn't in the greatest shape. Earlier in the week, he had got into a (motoring-related) contretemps with some yobs in the Chiswick High Road, 'some time after midnight'. In the ensuing fracas (in which he was well out-numbered), he sustained a broken finger.

 

Frank Williams wasn't too thrilled about that - and even less thrilled when Jones informed him that, oh, by the way, he was going to retire at the end of the season. This being September, FW was only too aware that every other top driver was already committed for 1982...

 

When he went to the grid, therefore, Alan wasn't exactly flavour of the month at Williams. Rain looked imminent shortly before the start, and when the race started Reutemann - the championship leader - went swiftly backwards: third on lap three, fourth on lap four, fifth on lap five... Before long Jones was ahead of him, and they duly finished second and third, half a minute apart.

 

Come the last race of the race, in Las Vegas, and it was Reutemann against Piquet for the world championship. On the first day of qualifying Carlos produced one of his stupefying laps, and it would remain unbeaten. Piquet's Brabham was back in fourth, and, given that the temperature was extremely high, and that Nelson's level of fitness poor, Reutemann was a heavy favourite to win the title.

 

Until the race got underway, that was. At the end of the first lap, a Williams was in the lead, but it was the car of Jones. Reutemann, with the World Championship beckoning, was back in fifth place; on the second lap he was sixth, on the third seventh...

 

In the end he finished a distant eighth, lapped. All he had had to do was finish ahead of Piquet, and he was World Champion, but Nelson, in a state of complete exhaustion, finished fifth, and got the two points he needed. Carlos muttered something about gearbox and handling problems, and disappeared into his own private sorrow. It was as poignant - and as unfathomable - as anything I have seen in motor racing.

 

And Jones? In what was supposedly his final race, he led from flag to flag. Definitely, as you said, the man to have in your corner. I wouldn't put him in the absolute pantheon of drivers, but I'm hard pressed to think of many better racers.

 

 

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