Niki Lauda RIP

[Antonov]

Bottom post of the previous page:

[Everso Biggyballies]

Im truly shocked and very sad that we will never see him, or hear his dry and direct humour again.
He was a great inspiration to so many, including myself. Im not ashamed to say I shed a tear when I heard the news.

RIP Niki Lauda, and thanks for all the wonderful memories. You will never be forgotten and will remain part of motorsport history for ever

[Antonov]

his greatest race(s)?

[JBT]

RIP Niki. One of the few people to get the grim reaper to go back into the waiting room for a while longer. About the most straight talking person I've ever seen on television, too!

I didn't see it myself live, but the Dutch GP 1985 would be one of his best, I think.

[Everso Biggyballies]

I didn't see it myself live, but the Dutch GP 1985 would be one of his best, I think.

I know I watched it live in Australia at silly o'clock in the morning... and thoroughly enjoyed it.

His greatest (certainly the bravest) race he ever did in my mind was at Monza 1976, the scene of his courageous return just 42 days after his Nurb crash. He raced with his head still bandaged using an oversize crash helmet, which had to be removed post race, showing his bloodstained bandages.

F1.com recently wrote an article of that day

F1’s Best Drives – Lauda’s barely believable Monza comeback



The upcoming Chinese Grand Prix will be the 1,000th race in the world championship’s glorious history, and in celebration we’re counting down the 10 best performances of all-time, from virtuoso drives to brilliant comebacks. And who better to curate our list than Hall of Fame journalist David Tremayne, who has been on the ground at more than half of all of the F1 races run to date. Here, he looks back at Niki Lauda’s courageous return to the cockpit at Monza just six weeks after his fiery crash at the Nurburgring in 1976.

Who:
Niki Lauda

Where:
Monza, Italy

When:
1976

Race number:
27

Niki Lauda should never really have been at the Autodromo di Monza in September 1976.

Forty two days earlier, he had crashed heavily at the Nurburgring and been dragged from his burning Ferrari in a heroic rescue effected by Arturo Merzario, Guy Edwards, Harald Ertl and Brett Lunger.

Such were his injuries, which included facial burns and flame inhalation, that he was given the last rites. At one stage he was not expected to survive. But by his own admission, he began an incredible fight back to life when he heard the priest administering those rites.

His problems at Monza were manifold. Enzo Ferrari, never the most sentimental of team owners, was one of those who did not expect his 1975 world champion to return to racing. Ever the pragmatist, he had lost no time employing Carlos Reutemann as Clay Regazzoni’s new partner. But there was Lauda, calm but firm. He had a contract and he would be back racing at Monza. He had a world title to defend. Far from admiring his driver, Ferrari was unamused.

And it seemed that his reservations about his driver’s mental state were justified on the first day of practice. It was wet and Lauda, his facial burns still raw and aggravated every time he donned or removed his helmet, felt just as tender psychologically. He was angered when he had to take a second medical, considering that even being there was testament to his fitness, and when he felt the Ferrari sliding beneath him, he admitted that he – Lauda, the computer, the man who always drove with his head rather than with his heart - was scared.

“It was like a pilot reacting to every air pocket,” he said. “Not the way you should feel.”

After examining every aspect of After examining every aspect of his psyche, Lauda regrouped. The computer had processed everything, and a different man sat in his Ferrari’s cockpit the next day

That evening, he struggled in his hotel room, but after examining every aspect of his psyche, he regrouped. The computer had processed everything, and a different man sat in his Ferrari’s cockpit the next day. Lauda was back.

Jacques Laffite qualified his Ligier-Matra fastest from Jody Scheckter’s six-wheel Tyrrell, Carlos Pace’s Brabham-Alfa Romeo and Patrick Depailler’s Tyrrell, but Lauda was fifth, with Reutemann seventh and Regazzoni ninth. Point proven.

He made a gentle start and took things easy to begin with, content to let both Reutemann and Regazzoni pass. But as Ronnie Peterson triumphed for March, ahead of Regazzoni and Laffite, Lauda overtook Reutemann and the two Tyrrells to take fourth, 19.4s down – but 38.1s ahead of the Argentine, for whom he felt nothing but antipathy. Point proven again, and with incredible courage.

Later that year, his burned eyelids still sore, Lauda withdrew from the wet Japanese GP, thus enabling rival and friend James Hunt to beat him to the title by a point. In South Africa the following year, Lauda destroyed Reutemann to win, before going on to claim a second title, after the most remarkable recovery in F1 history. Then he promptly turned his back on Ferrari to join Bernie Ecclestone’s Brabham team.

As ever, the remarkable Austrian who came back from the dead was always his own man.

[Jesper Hvid]

his greatest race(s)?

Good question, and Everso came up with the right answer.

[Jesper Hvid]

And Niki Lauda was greater than Ayrton Senna.

[PTRACER]

Everso nailed it...1976 Monza. I'm devastated by this news.

[Everso Biggyballies]

They showed this as a tribute to Niki on our Sports channel tonight.

Legends of F1 - Niki Lauda

It was an interview with Niki, held at Monaco, and aired a couple of years ago. Plenty of banter from Niki and although I have seen it before I happily watched it again. It goes into his comeback race and his return to F1 very well, including his tale of telling Enzo his first Ferrari he drove was shit. Also his tractor accident where he broke several ribs and raced, finishing the race with a collapsed rib cage!(Niki does pretty much all the talking in the whole tribute, with plenty of race footage, including telling what broke causing his big accident!) He also talks of his friendship with James in 1976.

Found it on youtube and thought I would post it for others to enjoy.

[manny]

I also woke up with this news today, and i couldn't believe it. 2019 in general was so far nothing else, then a sad year.

R.I.P. Niki

[hollie3sa]

[hollie3sa]

Can anyone confirm that?

[Everso Biggyballies]

Can anyone confirm that?

Im sure it was likely to be true. I remember at the time of his reappearance after his accident him saying how it upset him if people looked at him like he was a freak, and would be happy if they looked at him like a normal person. I was lucky enough to see him the year after, having breakfast at the Saxon Hotel in Northampton, where the top guys would stay if at Silverstone. (I stayed there a few times when I used to work for Corgi Toys whose marketing was based in Northampton).
I made a point of acknowledging him, without saying anything, as I walked past.... but very much looking at him like he was a normal human being as I had read. He smiled at me as I walked past his table.

For those who could not read the full tweet (I could not,) here is the full quote from aan article on F1.com .

Later, he was asked questions by a journalist he thought he recognised.

“I know you, don’t I?” he asked. “I don’t think so,” the journalist replied.

But Lauda the computer read his memory bank, and recalled how cruel the man had been when he was vulnerable during the first press conference he made after his accident, when people saw for the first time the ravaged and scarred image he would forever present to the world.

“I remember,” Lauda said. “You’re the guy who asked me what my wife would do now that I was ugly.”

Raising his fresh-won trophy, he pointed it at the miscreant and said, “Well, you can shove this up your ass.”

That was such a typical Lauda story. Blunt, to the point.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... r0wEz.html

[Mawerick]

There was a small anecdote of Lauda in this Jay Leno's Garage video about the Ford GT:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef-diAKgRSs&t=13m

[Everso Biggyballies]

Niki Lauda - His Remarkable Career Story

from F1.com

Forever carried in our hearts, forever immortalised in our history. Here is a look back at Niki Lauda's incredible Formula 1 story...

[Circuitmaster]

RIP indeed. Not sure, but I think this might be the 1984th topic in the F1 discussion group. Pretty fitting, if I'm right in thinking that