Formula One driver who left the sport after failing to win the world championship in 1981 and entered Argentinian politics
In the years when Carlos Reutemann competed in Formula One, between 1972 and 1982, the pen portrait of the Argentinian driver printed in the programme for the Monaco Grand Prix memorably described him as possessing le physique d’un séducteur du cinema. Reutemann, who has died aged 79, did indeed resemble the popular idea of a South American racing driver: tall, dark-haired, with a strikingly saturnine visage that could open into a charming smile.
But there was an enigmatic side to him, a moodiness that could put a dampener on his performances.