All eyes on Lole

Carlos Reutemann took his helmet off to salute the massive crowd that came mostly for him, after passing the finishing line in his Ferrari 312T2, at the 1977 Argentina Grand Prix held at the Autódromo Oscar Alfredo Gálvez, Buenos Aires.

The popular Argentinian, nicknamed “Lole” had joined Ferrari in the second half of the 1976 season, when Enzo Ferrari did not expect Niki Lauda to recover from his terrible crash at the Nürburgring, but the Austrian did come back six weeks later, and the two drivers teamed up in 1977.

It was very hot in Buenos Aires for this first race of the 1977 Formula One season and we saw a race of attrition won (surprisingly) by Jody Scheckter in the Wolf WR1, with Carlos Pace second in his Brabham-Alfa and local hero Carlos Reutemann completing the podium for Ferrari.