F1 People - Niki Lauda
- Length: 3:53
- Size: 3.6 MB
- File: people9.mp3
- Transcript: people9.pdf
- Torrent: people9.torrent
This is the second episode of the second series of F1 People, a set of shows from Sidepodcast that chronicle the lives of the important people involved in the sport we love. Yesterday we looked at Colin Chapman, and today we’re going to focus on Niki Lauda.
Andreas Nikolaus Lauda was born on 22nd February 1949 in Vienna, Austria. His family were not impressed with his desires to become a racing driver, but despite their disapproval, he took up the career. He started in the very low Formulas, and moved up the ranks to racing Porsche sports cars. Then his career hit a plateau, and to move onwards, Lauda took out a sizeable bank loan to buy an F2 drive with the then-new March team. He drove for them for one year in 1971, was promoted to F1 in 1972, and drove in both formulas that year. Lauda’s skills were heralded by the March team, but they were not very successful at that time within F1. Lauda took out yet another bank loan to get into BRM the next year. Unfortunately, this was another team struggling, but when team mate Clay Regazzoni transferred to Ferrari, he spoke highly enough of Lauda that the red team signed him up as well.
The Ferrari team were on their way back up in 1974, and Lauda fitted in perfectly by taking the second step on the podium on his debut race. His first victory was three races later. 1975 saw his first World Championship, and 1976 appeared to be heading the same way. Lauda had finished either first or second in the first six races, but then it came to the German Grand Prix. The full Nurburgring circuit was used in those days, and on only the second lap of the race, Lauda ran off track, hit an embankment and flew back onto the track into the path of another driver. The Ferrari burst into flames, and Lauda was trapped inside. Four drivers pulled him free from the car, but he had already suffered severe burns and had been inhaling toxic gases. Lauda fell into a coma and even had the last rites read to him.
However, it took Lauda only six weeks to recover from his terrible injuries, and he was back in the car finishing fourth on his return. The championship had closed up by then, and it came down to the last race of the season. In torrential rain, Lauda decided to withdraw from the race after two laps, saying he felt the conditions were too dangerous. He therefore handed the championship to James Hunt.
This decision left his relationship with Ferrari in tatters, and after a troubled season in 1977, Lauda left the team. He raced for Brabham for just over a year, then retired mid season to start up an airline. In 1982, he returned to F1 with McLaren and took his third World Championship in 1984.
He retired again, the next year. The Lauda Air business was taking off, no pun intended, but in 1999 the company was sold to Austrian Airlines. Lauda has kept himself very busy however. When his old friend Luca di Montezemolo took over at Ferrari, he joined them as a consultant. He has also managed the Jaguar Formula 1 team for two years, started a new airline for which he sometimes acts as a pilot, commentated on F1 TV coverage and writes books.
The severe burns Lauda suffered from caused a lot of scarring, and he chose only to have enough surgery to allow his eyelids to function correctly. He has never felt the need to have further reconstructive work done. It makes him a recognisable figure in the world of motorsport, but the respect he commands comes from an entirely different source. He is considered brave, not only for returning to the cockpit so soon after his accident, but for trusting his instincts and withdrawing from a championship-deciding race.
Thanks for listening to today’s F1 People. Share your thoughts in the comments on Sidepodcast.com or leave a voicemail on 0121 28 87225. I’ll be back tomorrow with another VIP in the world of F1.
Theme music: Natives of the New Dawn, People.
July 23rd, 2008 at 9:15 pmScott Woodwiss said:
wow, that show taught me things i didn’t know about his early career and stuff. very good as always, and can’t wait for tomorrow’s next show
Makes me think though - Niki retired midway through 1978 because he felt he had nothing left to achieve, yet he returned because he was bored. Are we going to see the same thing from Kimi if he decides to give it a rest?
July 23rd, 2008 at 9:56 pmSteven Roy said:
Just a couple of minor points to add. He hadn’t recovered from his injuries when he got back in the car at Monza in 1976. I read a description once of someone (probably Nigel Roebuck) watching him very carefully removing his blood soaked balaclava after that race and of all the open wounds on his head. No way he would have been allowed to race today.
The last race of 1976 was at Fuji. Despite that we still ended up back there with a ridiculously wet race again last year.
The troubled season of 1977 ended with him wining the world championship.
His first retirement was 1979 not 78 Scott. He pulled into the pits during practise for the Canadian GP and said he was fed up driving round in circles.
July 23rd, 2008 at 9:59 pmScott Woodwiss said:
i stand corrected
July 23rd, 2008 at 10:07 pmBoy George said:
wow! coming out of a comma and jumping straight back into racing, now thats crazy. Cool post, I enjoyed reading his story.
July 23rd, 2008 at 10:11 pmChristine said:
Take your point, Steven. I see it that if you can get back in an F1 car, then you’re sufficiently out of your coma to be called recovered.
If we’re being very specific about it, I’m sure he wasn’t fully recovered for years, if he even is.
July 24th, 2008 at 12:33 amme said:
fyi, new archive page added today:
http://www.sidepodcast.com/archives/interview-archive/
hopefully we’ll get to do a bunch more interviews in the coming months.
we’ve already got scott and alex lined up for the near future. if anyone else fancies putting their necks on the line for some experimental f1 discussion please comment or mail christine at the usual address
of note, each mp3 on that page has an option to download it as a p2p torrent file. eventually we’ll get round to making that a choice for all content (f1 digest is currently available this way too).
July 24th, 2008 at 8:46 amMattw said:
Niki was so badly burned that he could not blink his eyes for months after the accident.
July 24th, 2008 at 10:15 amStuart Codling said:
I heard that a few years ago – back when Niki was in charge of Jaguar – that his PA would occasionally walk in to his office to find him sitting in front of his laptop with his trousers around his ankles…
July 24th, 2008 at 10:38 amme said:
for what it’s worth, bert won his court case:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7523034.stm
“The High Court ruled the News of the World did breach Mr Mosley’s privacy, awarding him £60,000 in damages.”
July 24th, 2008 at 10:40 amme said:
how did that comment not end up in the moderation queue?!
i’m assuming you’re going to tell us there was a perfectly innocent explanation for said behaviour?
July 24th, 2008 at 11:00 amLe BOL said:
Yeah, Lauda’s insane bloke, his 1984 title was quite “interesting”? Shall I put it this way? Half a point difference between him and Prost, the smallest margin of victory in World Championship history. Cool.
And when he was in charge of Jaguar - that’s even more insane, 2002 was a bit of a disaster but he managed to pull them together. I heard he’d demand more horsepower from Cosworth by breaking into their factory and screaming “Gimme more of the goddamn power!” Very alternative way of motivating your staff. I would’ve preferred to see Irvine race in 2003 but Niki took care of that, destroying Pizzonia’s career in the course. But I like Lauda, mad and bad.
http://www.itv-f1.com/Feature.aspx?Type=Gravel_Trap&id=43457
July 24th, 2008 at 11:09 amLe BOL said:
Funny Renault podcast, aye? Alan Permane says people from other teams were telling after the race they thought Renault had screwed up and not fuelled Piquet till the end “because his pace was so quick” and Alan also added “Nelson did a perfect job”, not much was said about Alonso but he hinted FA’s traction problems may arise from his driving style which is different to NP’s. A bit off-topic I know, but I’m curious as to what will happen next.
July 24th, 2008 at 11:13 amStuart Codling said:
Not a huge surprise, that – the NOTW didn’t have a leg to stand on! The human rights legislation is very specific about covert filming. If you publish such material without a strong public interest argument, you’re always going to be, erm, whipped.
As part of our company insurance we have to go on legal refresher courses every couple of years. One thing they always tell you is, “Never assume that someone won’t sue.”
July 24th, 2008 at 11:36 amLe BOL said:
Autódromo Internacional do Algarve - the new track in the South of Portugal is almost ready, they put the first layer of asphalt and ran a bike around the track to see if it works, it seems to work and they need it to work ’cause WSB will be running there in October I think.
Cool, maybe Portuguese GP will make a comeback, I’m hoping for winter F1 testing or maybe year round testing, there was this vague talk of testing facilities for Honda or something. Damn, I’m so excited I might just blow my top and smash all the furniture in the house.
http://drop.io/sidepodcast/asset/autodalgarve
July 24th, 2008 at 11:50 amLe BOL said:
Hello there! It’s not Maurice Hamilton from the Conserver and CBB video 15 dead, sorry, guys, I’m investigating pics from Jerez testing and it would be nice to have like testing thread where we could discuss all the latest and greatest. Just a suggestion.
So Liuzzi is busy testing while official drivers are nowhere to be seen, suspicious.
Webber is back to Arai after Schuberth brought him bad luck.
And Kimi wrote RF1 on his helmet, is that where he’ll be driving next year?
http://drop.io/sidepodcast/asset/kimirf1
July 24th, 2008 at 12:02 pmStuart Codling said:
A Portuguese GP would be fine by me, BOL. I covered a sportscar race at Estoril once and it was a very pleasant weekend. Not a bad track, but a bit neglected – and this was in 2001. Can’t imagine what it’s like now.
July 24th, 2008 at 12:14 pmLe BOL said:
Still a bit neglected, if you have myspace account you should be able to view all my albums of recent racing events in Estoril. But it hasn’t changed that much, they just painted the whole thing, the grandstands are the same. It was on sale but nobody wanted to buy so… it’s good for MotoGP but WTCC race showed it’s too narrow for racing cars these days. I’m all for Portimão track, should be fun.
July 24th, 2008 at 12:16 pmSteven Roy said:
The RF1 refers to his helmet. It is a Schuberth RF1. Nothing more sinister than that.
The Arai hasn’t exactly brought him the best of luck in the past.
July 24th, 2008 at 12:47 pmme said:
a fine idea, but isn’t the test nearly over now?
did newey tell him off?
July 24th, 2008 at 12:51 pmSteven Roy said:
Now that his name has been cleared Max is guaranteed to be uncontrollable.
July 24th, 2008 at 1:26 pmz-baumgartner said:
I would love that!
Testing continues for today and tommorrow.
Currently it’s Webber, Piquet, Raikkonen then De la Rosa but times are pretty irrelevant at testing
July 24th, 2008 at 1:30 pmsteve said:
To Max Moseley.
Congratulations on winning your case against the News of the World comic. Your private life is just that PRIVATE, and should remain so. I feel that your treatment by some of the holier than thou F1 teamsand personalities was disgusting, and probably a diversion from thier own private lives. My respect for the F1 hierachy has gone, and i hope some of thier privacy is made public, if only to see some of our press prosecuted again. The compensation was no where near enough, but at least thier court expenses will hurt. Congratulations again.
Steve.
July 24th, 2008 at 2:31 pmLe BOL said:
Yep, it’s over. But then again: it’s an idea. Some tests are interesting and some are boring. So it depends.
Webber now says: “Conveniently, I don’t want to know about KERS, as the more I dig the more I get nervous. It is probably better to not learn too much about it.”
The curse of KERS.
July 24th, 2008 at 3:12 pmz-baumgartner said:
I read the test continues tommorrow
July 24th, 2008 at 3:22 pmLynch said:
FYI…
..The Super Aguri Online Auction Catalogue is now up!
http://www.saf1-auction.com/catalogue.pdf
check it out to see what bargains there are to be had!
The are some nice stuff there, I wouldn’t mind bidding on the Lollipop set!
July 24th, 2008 at 3:48 pmJordan I will accept F1, Allen, or Alpha said:
What is wrong with using Estoril again. That track was great!
Oh, wait, in the interests of safety, and making sure that engines last 2 races and gearboxes four, an F1 track has to be the country most boring circuit imaginable so that everybody will think that their Grandmother can race on that track…..
No wonder Donington is going to host the British Grand Prix starting from 2010.
July 24th, 2008 at 7:30 pmme said:
good lord, 47 pages worth of stuff?
July 24th, 2008 at 7:51 pmGaulty (What the hell happens at 1 in the morning) said:
flipping eck, it would be easier just buying the team.
me, christine - do you have any sort of advertisment logo? The reason I ask is that I’m entering a team in an AI league and I was hoping to advertise ya’s.
You don’t have to pay, only looking for a logo. cheers.
Oh btw, it’s called G.A.R the team.
July 24th, 2008 at 8:08 pmScott said:
Wonder what those ‘BIOS password needed’ laptops have on ‘em.
July 24th, 2008 at 8:26 pmme said:
unfortunately not at the moment, sorry. it’s on our list though.
thank you. what’s an ai league?
July 24th, 2008 at 8:55 pmGaulty (What the hell happens at 1 in the morning) said:
A league which is run by the computer, basically on a game (Grand Prix 4) You design cars, helmets. And the computer runs the races. You get other people to have as drivers etc.
But thanks for that.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:02 pmlou said:
Hey everyone. I finally have a constant internet connection, which means I can at last catch up with everything
While looking through images of testing I noticed a few things.
McLaren are testing some BMW style nose wings, and BMW seem not to be testing their nose wings.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:37 pmSteven Roy said:
I have looked though lots of industrial auction catalogues and they all have one thing in common. Compaq computers. Since I first noticed this a few years ago I have never seen a liquidation sale that did not contain some Compaq computers.
July 25th, 2008 at 2:33 amme said:
hmm, used to sponsor williams, right? let’s hope they ditched them all when they rebranded to hp.
July 25th, 2008 at 8:28 amMattw said:
HP merged with Compaq… so maybe not