“That would drive Niki Lauda crazy”

We were constantly just kidding each other,” he said in the APA interview. His ex-team Mercedes, on the other hand, could currently use Lauda's other, analytical side. “It would drive my father crazy that they don’t understand their own car.”

The name Niki Lauda is still omnipresent in Formula 1, says the ServusTV expert. “At every race you are confronted with statistics where my father appears. Whenever I'm there at a race, no matter who I talk to, I'm asked about him. Old history is being unearthed, what people experienced with him.” “It would drive my father crazy that they don’t understand their own car.” Son Mathias Lauda about Mercedes Lauda established his fame in the premier motorsport class and achieved the status of a national icon as a survivor of a dramatic accident at the Nürburgring in 1976 and ultimately a three-time world champion. Later jobs took him to Ferrari and Jaguar as a team boss or consultant.

Gap at Mercedes and in Formula 1 His last home was the Mercedes factory team, where he started as chairman of the supervisory board at the end of 2012. With team boss Toto Wolff (52), another Viennese, the grumpy man with the cap formed the most successful Formula 1 team in history - measured in world championship titles and victories over a period of almost a decade. But in the second season after Lauda's death, the image of invincibility that had been cultivated over the years slowly began to crumble. In 2021, 2022 and 2023, Max Verstappen became world champion in the Red Bull, and Mercedes is currently a long way from podium places. “If my father were still there, he would get on the nerves of the people at Mercedes until he understood why the car wasn’t running.” Mathias lauda Mathias Lauda did not want to speculate about whether things would have come to this if his father were still alive. What is clear to him, however, is that with his style he would be enormously important for the team at the moment. “My father was someone who always asked questions when he didn’t get the answers,” says the 43-year-old. “I'm sure if my dad were still there, he would be annoying the people there until he understood why the car wasn't running. He built the team with Toto and brought in the right people, which is why the team was in such a great position.”

Trying to determine in retrospect “what he could do now is of course difficult,” explains Lauda. He also “didn’t want to offend Toto Wolff because Toto does a very good job. But of course my father had a lot more Formula 1 experience.” Both were responsible for the successes. Lauda knows that the Lauda-Wolff pairing didn't work right from the start. “My father comes from a completely different generation and had a completely different way of thinking. But they took the best from both sides and were then able to grow together. My father learned a lot from Toto and became a little more flexible, not just this 'my way or no way'." Close connection to Hamilton His son was unable to answer whether Niki Lauda could have talked Lewis Hamilton out of switching to Ferrari from 2025. But he would have tried anyway. “As I know my father, he thinks about his own team first. He would have done anything to make him stay there and would have tried to convince him. But he would certainly have understood it too, because he has done exactly the same thing in the past,” he recalls of Lauda’s time at Ferrari in the 1970s.

As is well known, Lauda's relationship with Hamilton was very close and intimate. Lauda once persuaded Hamilton to switch from McLaren to Mercedes when subsequent success was not yet nearly foreseeable. “Lewis needed my father there in the team, as an anchor. Not just when it comes to Formula 1, but also for life. Lewis, like everyone, has his concerns and his insecurities, even if we don't get much of them. And my father is extremely good with his wisdom, so he influenced me too,” says Mathias Lauda.

Niki Lauda is missing. Especially his family. “I would like to go out in the evening and have fun together,” says Mathias Lauda, remembering the good times with his greatest role model. “We basically just joked around. I really miss just spending time. The insults, the laughter, the making fun of each other,” says Lauda wistfully. “My father was actually a rascal until the end.”

Football

Italy

International leagues

International

Hockey

Tennis

Winter sports

Learn More

Motorsport

Cycling

Watersports

Favorites

“That would drive Niki Lauda crazy”

On May 20, 2019, Niki Lauda died in Zurich at the age of 70. “It’s hard for me to process the fact that it’s been five years,” revealed his son Mathias Lauda, who particularly misses the abuse of the Formula 1 legend.

Comments (0)

Football

Italy

International leagues

International

Hockey

Tennis

Winter sports

Learn More

Motorsport

Cycling

Watersports

Favorites

“That would drive Niki Lauda crazy”

On May 20, 2019, Niki Lauda died in Zurich at the age of 70. “It’s hard for me to process the fact that it’s been five years,” revealed his son Mathias Lauda, ​​who particularly misses the abuse of the Formula 1 legend.

Comments (0)

On May 20, 2019, Niki Lauda died in Zurich at the age of 70. “It’s hard for me to process the fact that it’s been five years,” revealed his son Mathias Lauda, who particularly misses the abuse of the Formula 1 legend.