What Niki Lauda Still Has to Say about Formula 1 Racing
The late three-time champion driver, interviewed for a book that comes out this summer,
wanted to know, "Why did we change Formula 1 around so stupid?"
By KEVIN A. WILSON and GEORGE LEVY
May 30, 2019
Pete Biro
We haven't heard the last from Niki Lauda, the three-time F1 World Driving Champion who died May 20 at age 70.
A heretofore unpublished interview will appear in F1 Mavericks, a book by Pete Biro and George Levy slated to appear
this summer. The book covers Formula 1 racing from 1960 to 1982, an era that includes Lauda's first two world championships.
Illustrated with photos by ace lensman Biro, the longtime Car and Driver West Coast editor, with text by Levy, our current
advertising columnist, the book includes the Lauda interview as an afterword. The late Biro and Levy previously collaborated
on the award-winning Can Am 50th Anniversary.
As the F1 community pays tribute to Lauda at this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix—a race he won twice among his 25 F1
victories—we bring you this exclusive excerpt from Levy's extended interview, conducted in early 2018 when the Austrian
was still regularly attending F1 races as non-executive chairman of the Mercedes-Benz team. This excerpt from F1 Mavericks
concentrates on Lauda's views about the current era. The afterword also includes much discussion of the 1970s and the
subsequent 1980s turbocharged formula during which Lauda won his third title, in 1984.
Lewis Hamilton, Toto Wolff and Alain Prost among F1 stars in attendance as Niki Lauda is
laid to rest in home city of Vienna
May 30, 2019
(left to right) Alain Prost, Helmut Marko, Lewis Hamilton, Jean Alesi, Nelson Piquet and were among those escorting Niki Lauda's coffin
at his funeral in Vienna
Formula 1 stars of past and present - including Lewis Hamilton - paid their respects to the great Niki Lauda at his funeral
in Vienna on Wednesday.
Hamilton, who raced to victory in the Monaco GP on Sunday in a helmet bearing Lauda's colours and name, escorted the
coffin out of St Stephen's Cathedral, along with Alain Prost and Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas, among others.
Lauda, a triple world F1 champion best remembered for his comeback from a fiery crash in 1976 that left him badly burned
and scarred him for life, died last week at the age of 70.
