OneLauda

The years between 1964 and 1974 were dark ones for , but the arrival of Luca di Montezemolo and changed all that and turned the once more into the team to beat. The inspirational Lauda explains how it all came about…

or all the romance and glory that we responsibility for co-ordinating the team to the he is preparing for the fl ight he will be taking to associate with Ferrari today, a glance youthful hands of Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, an Frankfurt the next day as chief offi cer. at the history books reveals that in aristocratic scion of the Fiat/Agnelli group who, at Sitting behind the desk in his offi ce on a sunny Formula 1 competition the Scuderia the age of 26, had only recently completed his law Monday morning in February 2010, Lauda does has not always held the dominant studies in the United States. And leading the not have the appearance of a business tycoon. position against its rivals that is almost revitalised driving team would be Niki Lauda, a Although he turned 60 last year, he still sports the Fautomatically expected of it today. In fact, this is a no-nonsense Austrian whose ambition was jeans and cashmere sweater that he favoured in his team which has utterly lost its way more than once, matched by a sharp intellect and a valuable talent racing days. The face, of course, is unique, and not staggering through some depressingly lean periods for developing racing machinery. just because of the over-bite that brings an image of failure. None of these dark chasms was deeper In 1974, Lauda was just 25 years old. He would of Bart Simpson to mind. The Nürburgring or longer than the ten years which followed John race for Ferrari over a period of just four years, but confl agration left him with disfi guring scars to which Surtees’s world championship in 1964. what years they were to be. His 15 victories he has never paid the slightest attention — he has Analysing the reasons for the blunting of the reversed the team’s descent and brought him the rejected approaches from a dozen plastic surgeons Ferrari sword reveals a variety of weaknesses. fi rst two of his three drivers’ titles. Pushing anxious to make him “normal”. One ear is missing Some of these were practical, for example the Forghieri’s magnifi cent cars to the limit under the and the famous red baseball cap (sponsored, of determination to run F1 and sports car campaigns pragmatic direction of Montezemolo, he inspired course) is the only concession to hiding all that on fi nancial and human resources that were too the race staff to new heights. His courageous damage. Vanity is not a Lauda shortcoming. thinly stretched. Others were emotional, most comeback from near-fatal injuries infl icted in Nevertheless, he is still a good customer for the notably the understandable but ultimately damaging a fi ery crash at the Nürburgring in 1976 attracted medical profession, boasting to us of the two metal decision by in the early Sixties, admiration from all around the world and helped hips which were fi tted in April 2009. Problems with following the death of his beloved son , to to burnish the heroic image which has become his kidneys some years ago forced him to seek a withdraw his presence from race meetings and to synonymous with Ferrari over six decades. donor, and the fi rst volunteer to step forward was rely for information on the second-hand impressions In later years, working under President his second son, Lukas, who donated an organ. of underlings who had their own jobs to protect. Montezemolo as a consultant, Lauda would play an When that kidney in turn started to fail, an offer It would be 1974 before ’s racing essential role in helping to recruit both to replace it came from his companion Birgit fortunes changed, and responsibility for the and to serve Ferrari. Though Wetzinger, whom he had met when she was transformation will always be linked to the skills and no longer retained by his old team, he is still in working as a cabin attendant with NIKI. By a happy fl air of three men. , “father” of the demand today as a television pundit, a job that (and rare) coincidence, Birgit’s tissue sample excellent three-litre fl at-12 engine that had won its takes second place to the NIKI airline which he matched, enabling a successful second transplant fi rst grand prix in 1970, provided the engineering runs from Vienna airport. His commercial pilot’s to take place. With his fi rst marriage long behind savvy. To organise the turnaround, Ferrari entrusted licence is in regular use and on the day of our visit him, in 2008 Lauda took what he describes as the

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