Carlos Alberto Menditeguy (10 August 1914 – 27 April 1973) was a racing driver and polo player from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
He entered 11 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, achieving one podium, and scoring a total of nine championship points.
In polo he reached the highest possible handicap of 10. He was an all round sportsman and became a scratch golfplayer in under two years as the result of a bet with some friends.
Menditeguy was buried in La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born in Buenos Aires on the 10th of August 1914, Carlos Menditeguy was an all round sportsman and one of the top polo players in the world. He entered eleven Grands Prix (starting in ten, with rumours of a dalliance with Brigitte Bardot at Monaco one year), being a regular in the Argentine GP between 1953 and 1960 and he and Stirling Moss won 1956’s 1000 km of Buenos Aires. Unfortunately, he sustained severe injuries at Sebring in 1957, which hospitalised him for three months and Juan Manuel Fangio stayed by his bedside for several days.
He was a keen footballer and while attending the Colegio Martin in San Isidro, Buenos Aires, Carlos was the centre forward in the team which won 1932’s intercollegiate High Schools Championship. He also won the national shooting championship and was listed as the sixth best tennis player in the Argentinian rankings in 1934 plus competed with the best players in squash, ‘pelota a paleta’ and billiards and was an exceptional swimmer and golfer. On one occasion, he made a bet with Juan Segura, the best amateur golfer in the country, that in just three months he would be a scratch player (generally defined as someone who has a 0.0 handicap). A notable golfer, Roberto De Vicenzo, later said “I knew about that bet and I said ‘not even a fool can do it.’ But he did it and it is a world record.” He was also a top polo player and reached the highest possible handicap of 10 goal rating, becoming the first Argentine player to do so. In 1940 he and his elder brother Julio joined the legendary team ‘El Trébol’, who won the top polo inter-club competition worldwide four times between 1940 and 1943. Both their grandfather and father were members of the Jockey Club and owned a stud farm.
His motor racing debut came in 1950, in his mid-thirties, where he retired a Maserati 4CLT in a Gran Premio del Presidente Alessandri Temporada race at the Pedro de Valdivia Norte circuit though he took victory in a sportscar race held at the Circuito del Torreon in Mar del Plata with a 2 litre Ferrari 166 MM.
In 1951 he entered the Temporada Internacional de Automovilismo, a two-race series held at the Costanera Norte street circuit in Buenos Aires. Also entered were the Mercedes-Benz three-car factory team and two ACA Ferrari 166 F1 cars raced by José Froilan González (who won both races) and Juan Manuel Fangio. Giuseppe Farina was originally entered alongside Karl Kling and Hermann Lang with Mercedes-Benz but was replaced by Fangio at the insistence of the race organisers. Oscar Galvez took over the second Ferrari and Carlos took the wheel of Galvez’s 3.8-litre Alfa Romeo 308. During the second round, the ‘Gran Premio Extraordinario de Eva Duarte Perón’ he held second place ahead of more powerful cars, including three Mercedes-Benz W154/163s and Galvez’s Ferrari 166 FL but after closely following Gonzalez, he suffered mechanical failure and his race came to an end in the final laps.
He contested a Turismo Carretera touring car road race in February 1952, organised by the Coronel Pringles Auto Moto Club and finished thirteenth of the forty four cars that started. In consecutive Temporada Argentina races the following month he was sixth with a Maserati 4CLT 1500 in the Gran Premio Ciudad de Buenos Aires, which saw Fangio and Froilan Gonzalez first and second. Fangio won again at Buenos Aires, with Carlos finishing second in a Ferrari 125 but he retired his Ferrari 166 Berlinetta Vignale in a sportscar race at the same meeting. This was followed by the Gran Premio de Uruguay, which was Fangio’s third victory with the Ferrari and Carlos came home fourth in an Alfa Romeo 308.
Carlos made his World Championship debut in January 1953, racing a Simca-Gordini 16, but after qualifying tenth he retired on lap twenty four due to gearbox trouble and retired the car after one lap in the following month’s non championship Gran Premio Ciudad de Buenos Aires (engine). In early December, he contested the Turismo Carretera Gran Premio Argentino, a two-day competition over a circuit 1633.1 kms long on public roads from Buenos Aires to Cordoba and back. He was battling for the lead in the first stage, 770.6kms from Buenos Aires-Cordoba through Lujan, San Andres de Giles, Pergamino, Venado Tuerto, Canals, La Carlota and Villa Maria but retired in the second stage from Cordoba to Buenos Aires, which ran for 862.5 kms through La Francia, Santa Fe, Maciel, Rosario, San Nicolás, Arrecifes and Pilar.
Engine trouble with a Maserati A6GCM caused a failure to start in the following year’s Argentine GP while two Ferrari 625 TF outings with Roberto Bonomi ended in retirement from a Temporada race and the Buenos Aires 1000kms (ninety one laps, gearbox). He returned to the Temporada series and in September was second, in 4 hours 12 mins 23 seconds, in the Vuelta de Tres Arroyos and recorded the fastest lap at 188.718 km/h. Carlos led the Mil Millas Argentinas before retiring and in December was once again second at Mar del Plata.
He competed in his third Argentine GP the following year, one of a number of drivers in Maserati 250Fs including Jean Behra, Luigi Musso, Sergio Mantovani, Harry Schell, Roberto Mieres and Clemar Bucci. Run in extremely hot conditions, it caused many drivers to stop for relief, which resulted in drivers sharing different cars. However, after qualifying thirteenth, on the first lap of the race Carlos collided with Pablo Birger (who had started ninth but spun just in front of him, and both cars were out of the race. Two weeks later, at the end of January he was sixth in a non championship Gran Premio Ciudad de Buenos Aires with the 250F. Then in early March he took his first Turismo Carretera victory, racing a Ford V8 Coupe in the Vuelta de Olavarría. His third outing with the 250F came in September’s Italian GP at Monza, where the twenty cars lined up in rows of three-two-three, with Carlos in sixteenth position. During the race, after Behra’s streamlined 250F lapped him he tucked in behind and followed closely, with the tow helping him to take a place ahead of Mieres’ Maserati. There were only nine cars left running in the final ten laps, with Fangio, Taruffi, Castellotti and Behra all on the same lap, and Carlos, Maglioli, Mieres, Trintignant and Fitch at varying distances behind. Mercedes-Benz had two cars left out of the four they entered, Maserati four cars out of seven and Ferrari three out of four. Fangio took the victory, very tired and bruised from the heavy strain imposed by the new circuit, while Carlos came home fifth behind Behra.
§His next start with the works 250F was 1956’s Argentine GP at Buenos Aires, where he qualified an impressive sixth but after running in the leading group in the race he broke the car’s half-shaft and crashed into a fence on lap forty two. There were consecutive races in the following two weeks and he and Stirling Moss were victorious when sharing a Maserati 300S in the World Sportscar Championship’s 1000 km of Buenos Aires. He followed this with a fourth place finish with the 250F, behind Fangio, Moss and Behra, in a non-championship Gran Premio Ciudad de Buenos Aires. His next outing came at Sebring for the second round of the World Sportscar Championship, sharing a Maserati 300S with Cesare Perdisa in the 12 Hours. Carlos was fluent in English and French and before the race acted as a translator for Jean Behra in an audio recording, ‘Sounds of Sebring’, in which the interviewer says of him, “the very nice Carlos Menditeguy, with a mischievous moustache and receding hair, is wearing straw soled sandals-probably made by some Indian in Argentina who has never seen a car-and he offers himself as a translator for this interview with Jean Behra.” The recording can be heard on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWm47MOP6GA, with the interview around 10 minutes 42 seconds in the recording. Unfortunately, he suffered serious injuries during the race after an accident when his Maserati hit a hay bale and overturned. Carlos was thrown from the car and lay face down, motionless, on the ground and officials thought he was dead until a nurse realised he was still alive. He was transported to a local hospital, where it was discovered he had two skull fractures. After winning the race with Eugenio Castellotti, Fangio travelled to the hospital and refused to leave, despite telegram demands from Ferrari that he return, and stayed with Carlos until family members arrived from Buenos Aires a few days later. He was later transferred to a hospital in West Palm Beach which was better equipped to treat his injuries, where he spent three months in intensive care and was in a coma for a long time and eventually returned home for rehabilitation. A year later, he returned the gesture while playing polo in England. He was informed that Juan Manuel Bordeau had had a serious accident at Silverstone and, in the middle of the game, he spoke with one of the rivals, the Duke of Edinburgh, who gave the order to transfer Bordeau and treat him in the best English hospital.
1957 started with his best finish in F1, taking an impressive third place in the Argentine GP, after starting eighth. The first four cars home were 250Fs, with Carlos taking the flag behind Fangio and Behra and ahead of team mate Schell. Consecutive races followed through January and he was second in the 1000 Km of Buenos Aires alongside Behra and Moss in a Maserati 300S then sixth in the non championship Gran Premio Ciudad de Buenos Aires, sharing a 250F with Moss. In his second World Championship GP in early May he qualified seventh at Monaco but did not finish the race as he spun off on the fifty first lap when he was running in third place. In the following week he retired Scuderia Madunina’s Alfa Romeo Giulietta SV from the Nrburgring 1000kms alongside Isabelle Haskell then was third with a Maserati 300S in June’s Gran Premio de Portugal sportscar race at Monsanto. He also retired from both the French GP in Rouen due to engine failure on the thirtieth lap and the British round at Aintree because of transmission issues on lap thirty five plus from the 12 Hours Reims with a Mercedes 300SL alongside Georges Houel. Back in Argentina, he contested the Gran Premio Argentino de Turismo de Carretera (the Gran Premio de la Republica), which ran from the twenty ninth of November to the tenth of December. Despite the front right wheel coming loose during the last stage he managed to bring the Ford home third, crossing the finish line on three wheels.
After qualifying sixth with the 250F in the next year’s Argentine GP he finished seventh, four laps behind Moss’ Cooper T43 and, back in the car for the following month’s non championship Gran Premio Ciudad de Buenos Aires, he was third behind Fangio and Musso. Back in Turismo Carretera races in March, he was third at the Vuelta de Olavarría, close behind the first two cars and later in the year retired during the first stage of the the Gran Premio Argentino de Turismo de Carretera.
Carlos focused on the Turismo Carretera series in 1959 and took victories in his first two events, at the Vuelta de Olavarría in February and the Vuelta de Arrecifes in May. In the second race he had a tough battle with Rodolfo de Alzaga, where he led for three consecutive laps, then Alzaga set a new record but Carlos finished eleven seconds ahead of his opponent. In September’s Vuelta de Tres Arroyos, despite leading on the first lap he suffered engine failure in the second. Contesting the Gran Premio Argentino de Turismo de Carretera, which ran for a week in November, he ended up in a ditch but was able to repair the car and restarted very late. In a spirited drive in the second stage he overtook twenty four cars but mechanical trouble during the third stage ended his race.
His first two races in 1960 came in February at Buenos Aires, where he first drove Scuderia Centro-Sud’s Cooper T51-Maserati in the Argentine GP and, after starting twelfth, an impressive drive saw him finish fourth. In the following week’s non-championship Gran Premio Ciudad de Buenos Aires, he was running third though gearbox trouble meant he was eventually classed sixth. He was second in March with a Ford in the Turismo Carretera’s Vuelta de Santa Fe race then in December, he was leading the Gran Premio Argentino de Turismo de Carretera, having won the first three stages, but crashed while on the fifth stage.
Contesting 1961’s Turismo Carretera series he was second in the Vuelta de Necochea race in April then in August took victory with a Volvo in the Circuito Onofre Marimón, a Turismo Mejorado race which was on a public roads course in Cordoba. In October, Carlos entered the Gran Premio Internacional Standard with the Mercedes-Benz works team but after winning the first stage his race ended when he had mechanical issues during the next stage.
1962 was his best season in the championship, takin his first win in mid-January in the Vuelta de Villa Carlos Paz, won the Premio Mar y Sierras in May and there was a third victory in August at the Vuelta de Junín Turismo Standard race in Córdoba, ahead of Roberto Miéres. At the end of October he entered the Gran Premio Internacional Standard, once again as a member of the Mercedes-Benz factory team, who had four cars entered. The race had six stages and he was in second place when he crossed the finish line at the end of the first stage, from Buenos Aires to Villa Carlos Paz, with Mercedes team mate Ewy Rosqvist 300 metres behind him. The officials said there was only a one second difference between them and Carlos protested and was supported by his fans, who stopped his car. However, it was too late when he finally arrived to check in and he was disqualified for 1 minute and ten seconds and eventually Ewy Rosqvist and Ursula Wirth (the only two women team among the 257 drivers), went on to win the eleven day race. His final drive that year came in November where he was fifth with a Ford in the 500 Millas Mercedinas.
Despite leading the Vuelta de Santa Fe in the following May, he went off the road at full speed after losing control and was eventually classified third and several months later was second in the 500 Millas Mercedinas in September. In November he was teamed with Agustín Linares (a veteran racer who had been Alberto Logulo’s co-driver when he was killed during a race in 1960 and suffered serious injuries himself) for the Gran Premio Argentino de Turismo de Carretera, a five-stage competition which ran from the 29th of November to the 8th of December over a 3,814 kms public road course. During the 764.7 km fifth and final stage, despite having his Ford’s distributor changed three times, he was first on aggregate and sixteen minutes ahead of the next car but suffered another ignition failure and had to retire 17 kms from the finish line. It was said that after getting out of the Ford he told Linares “¡Quémelo Linares, quémelo!” (“Burn it, Linares. Burn it!”). At the finish, he praised the winner, Carlos Pairetti, declaring “¡Pibe, ganaste bien!” (“Kid, you won well!”) and in a televised interview Pairetti was quoted as saying: “Aquel Gran Premio no lo gané yo. Lo perdió Charlie Menditeguy” (“I did not win that Gran Premio. Menditeguy lost it”).
Then, at the age of 49, Carlos returned to single-seater racing in 1964, taking part in the Temporada Argentina de Formula Junior. Racing an old Lotus 22-Ford he qualified sixth but after stopping he removed his helmet and said he would not start the race, decrying its engine as ‘falling asleep round the corners’. Nasif Estéfano took over the 22 but before starting a mechanic had to cover a hole in its fuel tank with chewing gum and while running at full speed on the eighth lap, the self-starter came loose and he had to walk back to the pits. He was third in the 500 Millas Mercedinas and Ford Motors Argentina hired him to drive an ex Alan Mann Holman-Moody powered 4.4 litre V8 Ford Falcon Sprint in the Gran Premio Internacional de Turismo Standard, which ran from the 28th October till the 7th November. Carlos was battling for the lead during the first stage until the cylinder head gasket broke and in the following week he was second with his old Ford Coupé in the Vuelta de Tandil.
His focus was away from racing in 1965 and he only contested two Turismo Carretera events, the La Dos Océanos in March and the Gran Premio Argentino de Turismo de Carretera in November, but he retired from both. He also enjoyed the Buenos Aires nightlife with friends and was a regular in several popular bars while his main focus was the administration of the Haras El Turf stud farm (which he had inherited from his father) and his famous horses Uruguayo, Indian Chief and Practicante took many victories, including the Jockey Club Trophy twice and the Nacional three times.
Carlos contested the Turismo Carretera for several more seasons and in 1966 he was second in the Vuelta de Firmat, the Premio de Villa Carlos Paz, the Vuelta de Pergamino and the Vuelta de Pehuajó. He was fourth in the Vuelta de Huhges and took a win in October’s Vuelta de Tres Arroyos then was third in the following week’s Vuelta de Junín. In his final race, the Gran Premio Argentino de Turismo de Carretera, in December, numerous problems with his car saw him only classed as sixty third at the end of the first stage though he had climbed to seventh place in the second before retiring from the third stage and eventually finished fourth in the championship’s final standings. Racing a Ford Falcon F-100 in 1967 he was second in the VI Vuelta de Salto and fourth in the Vuelta de Tres Arroyos but was involved in a fatal accident during the Vuelta de Rosario race in October. While running fifth on a narrow stretch of road he collided at speed with Marcelo Ocampo, who lost control on the wet asphalt, flipped and crashed into the timekeepers and journalists’ stands. Many people, including Ocampo and his co-driver, suffered injuries but three spectators were killed. The race was suspended and Carlos was classified sixth. He was named President of the ACTC (Asociación Corredores de Turismo de Carretera) in 1967 and in the following year participated (along with drivers such as Fangio, Gálvez, Bordeu and Pairetti) in a film ‘Road Tourism’, which also featured Oscar Alfredo Gálvez, Juan Manuel Bordeu, Juan Manuel Fangio, Carmelo Galbato and Carlos Pairettii.
In 1969 he raced a revolutionary Baufer-Ford Turismo Carretera model that looked much more like a sportscar or sport prototype, than a typical TC car. He retired due to mechanical failure in his debut race in the Vuelta de Santa Fe in March and his car was later nicknamed the ‘Limousine Presidencial’ and was put on display in the Museo Juan Manuel Fangio in Balcarce, Argentina. Regarding this form of racing he said that “sportingly, Road Tourism was what I wanted most in life. And yet it was what bothered me the most.”
He retired from racing in 1969 and following this became a famous horse trainer. Carlos passed away at the age of 58, on the 27th of April 1973, after undergoing emergency surgery though he also suffered from diabetes and Parkinson’s. He was buried at La Recoleta Cemetery and Fangio later said of him, “Menditeguy no fue campeón del mundo, posiblemente porque no quiso” (“Menditeguy did not become World Champion, possibly because he did not desire it”). In 1994 his daughter Isabel married Mauricio Macri who later served as the President of Argentina from 2015 to 2019.
Louis Galanos – info and photo
I present to you a story about World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio of Argentina who raced and won at Sebring in 1956 driving a factory Ferrari 860 Monza. His good friend and fellow countryman Carlos Menditeguy (photo #1) was also entered in the race driving a Maserati 300S. Just after the start of the third hour of the race Carlos went off the track at the Esses and hit a hay bale causing the car to roll (photos 2 & 3).
He was thrown out of the car landing on the tarmac with serious head and facial injuries (photos 4 & 5). In photo #6 it looks like a group of officials are debating what to do with the bleeding Menditeguy while the race continued. From across the track many spectators thought Carlos was dead. Please note no waving yellow flags at this point, just hand gestures to the drivers. It would take about a minute or so before the first yellow was displayed further up the track.
Photo #7 shows a nurse checking out Carlos and #8 shows Carlos on a gurney and people moving the wrecked Maserati further off the circuit. Carlos was transported by ambulance to the American Red Cross mobile hospital unit brought up from Miami for the race. There they stabilized him before he was transported to Weems Hospital in Sebring. Carlos would be diagnosed with multiple skull fractures plus deep lacerations to his face and arm.
After his win on Saturday (photo #9) Fangio was able to contact Weems Hospital to check on his friend and fellow countryman. The next day, Sunday, Fangio went to the hospital, but Carlos was in bad shape and by today’s standards his condition might be considered critical. A message had been sent to his family members in Argentina about his condition and prognosis, which wasn’t good. Back at the track many of the factory race teams and drivers were getting ready for the trip back to Europe for the Mille Miglia in late April. Fangio however stayed at the bedside of Carlos Menditeguy from Sunday until the following Tuesday when Menditeguy’s brother and sister arrived from Buenos Aires. Later Menditeguy would be transported to St. Mary’s Hospital in West Palm Beach which was better equipped to treat this kind of trauma.
All during those trying days at the hospital in Sebring Fangio received numerous and sometimes angry telegrams from Enzo Ferrari in Modena requesting his presence to prepare for the next race. It was during this time that the relationship between Fangio and Ferrari began to change and might have been one of the reasons that Fangio decided to drive for Maserati at Sebring in 1957. He would win that race and it would be his last appearance as a competitor at Sebring. Sebring promoter Alec Ulmann was well aware of what Fangio was risking with Ferrari by staying with his friend at Weems Hospital in Sebring and not returning to Europe. Ulmann referred to Fangio’s actions as, “a remarkable act of sportsmanship.” Carlos Menditeguy eventually recovered from his injuries and raced for several more years.
He retired from racing after competing in the Argentine Grand Prix in 1960.
