Page 35 - Ferrari in F1

He totaled 68 points, three more than his rival James Hunt with
McLaren. The drivers took the start in a torrential downpour, and
after two laps, Lauda stopped at the pit, abandoning the race and
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on a circuit.”. Ecclestone, exceptionally, remained silent. Lauda
stopped racing immediately. Over the next few years, he founded
his own company, Lauda Air, but when he ran into financial
his championship ambitions. “Driving in these conditions is madness,”
he declared to the team’s technical director, Mauro Forghieri, prior
to getting out of his car. “We’ll say you had an engine problem,”
suggested Forghieri. “No,” retorted Lauda, “we’ll say I refused to
drive in these circumstances. I don’t need any excuses.”
When Ferrari insisted in 1977 that Reutemann should replace
Regazzoni on a permanent basis, the relationship between Lauda
and the team became even more cool. The Austrian driver’s
animosity was obvious. Asked during the season if he considered
Reutemann a teammate or a rival, Lauda replied icily: “Neither.”
Relationships became even more strained as the season
progressed, but at the same time, Lauda was driving better than
ever. He won for the first time since his accident in the third
round, the South African Grand Prix on the Kyalami, and this was
followed by two more victories, in Germany and the Netherlands,
as well as a number of second places. Now that the championship
title seemed assured, Lauda terminated his contract, deciding
not to drive for Ferrari in 1978. Enzo Ferrari was furious, and
stumbled across Lauda, who had come to Maranello to train for
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problems, he renewed his interest in Formula 1. He returned to
McLaren in 1982 with the highest salary in the history of the
discipline, won the 1984 World Championship, then retired for
good at the end of the 1985 season.
After Enzo Ferrari’s death, Lauda returned to Maranello and
in the early 1990s, took on the role of advisor for the Scuderia. He
moved to Ford, who placed him at the head of its Jaguar Formula
1 team in 2001-2002. In 2012, he became non-executive director
of the Mercedes team, and played an essential role in the many
FERRARI WORLD CHAMPIONS
championships won by Lewis Hamilton.
Niki Lauda died in 2019, aged 70.
one of the last races of the season, the US Grand Prix, and the
meeting turned into a full-blown fight. “The old man was so furious
that he began shouting, so I started too. Finally, he shouted at me that
he didn’t want to see me in Maranello, unless it was to work. I cut him
off during his anger, took his hand and said arrivederci, and left. I felt
sorry for him – he just stood there, almost destitute, his mouth foaming.
He was simply too old. He no longer understood what was going on but
felt unfairly attacked.”
A few days later, Lauda secured the title of World Champion
with a fourth-place finish in the United States. Ferrari had already
found a successor for him, in the person of the young Canadian
Gilles Villeneuve, whom the team planned to present, in a third car,
for the last two races of the season, in Canada and Japan. Lauda,
tired, returned to Europe, and did not participate in these races.
It was clear that Enzo Ferrari felt betrayed by Lauda. On the
one hand, he knew that Lauda played a decisive role in his team’s
impressive comeback during the 1970s, but he also believed he
was the one who gave the Austrian driver the opportunity to win
the World Championship. “It did not take him long to become a great,
intelligent driver, there’s no doubt about that. He could have gone even
further with Ferrari. As for his character, I don’t pass judgment on men…”.
When Jody Scheckter became the champion in 1979, Lauda
© DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS
BORN February 22, 1949 in Austria, died 2019
FORMULA 1 START Austrian Grand Prix 1971
TOTAL FORMULA 1 RACES 171
YEARS RACING FOR FERRARI 1974-1977
NUMBER OF RACES FOR FERRARI 57
POLE POSITIONS 24
sent a congratulatory telegram to his old boss. Enzo Ferrari replied:
“Dear Niki, thank you for your telex, which suggested a bitter thought:
BEST LAP 24
if you had stayed with Ferrari, you could have equaled Fangio’s record.”
In 1978 and 1979, Lauda drove for Brabham. He won two
Grand Prix in 1978, but he gradually felt his passion for Formula
1 leaving him. During practice for the 1979 Canadian Grand Prix,
he returned to the pits, got out of the car and informed his boss,
Bernie Ecclestone that he was “fed up with going round in circles
© DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS
POLE POSITIONS FOR FERRARI 23
BEST LAP FOR FERRARI 12
GRAND PRIX VICTORIES 25
GRAND PRIX VICTORIES FOR FERRARI 15
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE(S) 1975, 1977 (Ferrari), 1984
(McLaren)
TEAMS Mars, BRM, Brabham, McLaren
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