30 http://www.evoIndia.com | July 2019
OBITUARYWORDS by TED KR AVITZ PICTURE by ALAMY‘Now computers make F1 cars quicker – in Niki’s era the computer was in his head’
Niki Lauda, 1949-2019
EATH FINALLY CAUGHT UP WITH
Niki Lauda. Having given the Grim
Reaper the slip countless times,
the Austrian succumbed to an illness relating
to his second set of kidneys. He was on
his second set of lungs, too, following a
transplant last autumn.
‘Whatever it takes to make things right.’
This was Lauda’s life philosophy, a time-
efficient route to satisfaction – be it major
organ transplant or perfecting race car set-
ups, it made no difference: something isn’t
right? Fix it. Quickly!
As a driver, Niki was good, but wasn’t
naturally gifted with raw speed in the
style of Clark, Senna, Schumacher or even
Hamilton. Rather, Lauda’s strengths were
in understanding his car’s problems and
knowing, with canny accuracy, how to resolve
them. Riccardo Patrese, one of Lauda’s
successors at Brabham, put it well: ‘Now
computers make Formula 1 cars quicker – in
Niki’s era the computer was in his head. He
understood how to find the compromises to
progress and to have a winning car.’
The human computer worked. Having
bluffed and bought his way into F1, Lauda
won the 1975 and 1977 World Championships
for Ferrari (and again in 1984 with McLaren),
reaping what he’d sown in perfecting his
cars. He would likely have won in 1976, too,
were it not for the fateful accident at the
Nürburgring, the resulting fire from which
burned his face and choked him with noxious
smoke. Doctors at the hospital didn’t rate
Lauda’s chances of survival, so called a local
priest to administer the last rites. But Niki
wasn’t ready to die that day. His injuries were
just a problem he needed to fix.
It was the same for everything else in
Lauda’s life: from cars to airlines to women.
Married twice, Niki fathered five children
and three airlines. Lauda Air, which provided
a focus when he first hung up his racing
boots in 1979, was commercially successful
(it was later bought by Austrian Airlines),
but suffered a tragic crash which killed 223
passengers and crew when a thrust reverser
deployed in flight. Lauda identified the cause
with Boeing and made the company fix it,
ensuring a similar technical problem could
never happen again.
Lauda joked that he was running out of
names after branding subsequent airlines
‘Fly Niki’ and ‘Lauda Motion’. The discipline
of flying appealed to the computer in hisbrain. An accomplished pilot, Niki flew every
aircraft his companies operated – from huge
Boeing 777s to his private Bombardier Global- But motorsport was never far away.
Once Lauda Air had been sold, Niki received
an offer from Ford to help run its Jaguar-
branded F1 team.
His direct style worked wonders with
drivers such as Eddie Irvine, but ruffled the
corporate suits at Ford’s HQ in Dearborn,
Michigan, who quickly dispensed with the
Austrian’s services. He took a job as expert
pundit with German broadcaster RTL, where
he originated the role of paddock insider,
complete with forthright opinions, long
before Eddie Jordan picked up a mic. Niki
frequently upset the thin-skinned, but never
lost anybody’s respect.
The last race Niki Lauda attended was
the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in June- Ironically the team of which he was
chairman, Mercedes, was beaten that day
by Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel, with whom
he shared a natural affinity – the dirty jokes,
the no-bullshit attitude, and the stubborn
refusal to accept an unsatisfactory situation.
That was Lauda’s way, not because he
was a difficult person, but because his
history had taught him to always speak freely
without fear of consequence, aware there
was a good chance the next day might just
be his last. We’ll never see his like again. I can
hear his voice now, that thick accent. ‘That’s
it, I’ve gone. Thanks for everything. Now piss
off! Get on with your lives.’
Ciao, Niki – and danke schön.
D