Exactly seven years ago, on May 20, 2019, Niki Lauda left us. Remembering him today means celebrating not only a three-time world champion but, above all, a man capable of living two lives. While the first part of his existence had given us a formidable, analytical, and calculating driver, the fire at the Nürburgring forged a true giant of courage and humanity.
Today’s Formula 1 terribly misses his immense technical sensitivity, but even more so, it misses his sharp, uncompromising, and unfiltered sincerity, capable of unmasking the paddock’s hypocrisies with disarming lucidity. A man who left behind a human legacy, even before a motorsport one, that is entirely indelible.
Niki loved the unvarnished truth
Niki Lauda, the man who was born twice: the second time when in the hospital, after the terrible Nürburgring crash, he made a bet with the priest who gave him the last rites. As he recounted himself in a beautiful video.
“I was expecting words of comfort, but instead he was giving me up for dead, and at that point, I made a bet: I will prove you wrong and I will not die.” Forty-two days later, Niki showed up at Monza, displaying his heavy wounds and with a bloody balaclava every time he took off his helmet.
Fifth in qualifying and fourth in the race, despite terrible suffering. Above all, another man returned to the track, much more human, no longer just a great, highly technical driver focused solely on his car. Emotional, less introverted, and always straightforward and direct, always hitting the mark with his words without making excuses, like when he rejected the technical issue on his 312 T (suggested by Mauro Forghieri) as the cause of his retirement in the pouring rain at Fuji.
A similar situation occurred at the 1982 Belgian GP: he won the race, but his McLaren was disqualified for being underweight. In the interview right after the announcement, I expected the usual cliché phrases; instead, calm and direct, he said: “My team big assh…, me made to look like an idiot driving an illegal car.”
My relationship with Niki
A great driver of immense humanity and lucidity, he was the architect behind Hamilton’s arrival at Mercedes, later playing the role of advisor to the two “roosters in the henhouse,” even though his heart always beat for the red car. When Vettel won the opening race following Rosberg’s 2016 world championship, before the brief segment we used to do for RTL on the grid, he pulled me aside and confided:
“Vettel’s victory for Ferrari drew 2 million more viewers in Germany, even though Nico has a German passport and was driving a German car. When Mercedes wins, I am happy too, also because it’s my job and I’m proud of it. But when it’s Ferrari’s turn, my heart beats.”
All this was accompanied by two eloquent gestures with his right hand, immediately followed by an instruction: “You do not write this…“. Now it can be told, to pay tribute to his great humanity. Like these episodes, many others remain in the memory of those who had the luck and the honor of spending time with him. Thank you Niki, with affection and esteem… from the one who, as he playfully defined me in the first part of his life, was “the tall guy with the scar, a bit of an asshe who never says hello first“.
