OT: RIP Niki Lauda

[Bruce K]

F1 LEGEND

Can’t say much more

BK

[XXtwindad]

His niece was my first girlfriend. Fond memories forever of living in Italy in the early 90s. Never met him but heard lots of stories ...

[bicycletricycle]

Rip

[peanutgallery]

Legend, RIP

[ultraman6970]

Dude was a legend, enough to be part of the anime world aswell...

"Arrow Emblem Grand Prix no Taka"... where he was the "masked man", later was revealed that his name was nikki LANDA... This anime was from back 79 or 82, cant remember but was a cool story.

[bikingshearer]

On the very short list of the very best if F1, and one hell of an example of refusing to give up.

[oliver1850]

Sorry to read this. Last report I read on his health sounded positive.

[tony_mm]

Wow ! Sad.
He was a true legend!

[Gsinill]

Sad news.

Talking about ups and downs and comebacks in life.
Gifted and successful F1 driver, horrible accident, back in the car 42 days later.
Wins the WC in 1984.

Builds his own successful airline from the ground, then a devastating crash due to a technical error.

Transplant for both kidneys, then for his lung.

RIP Niki Lauda

[zap]

Sad news indeed.

Didn't realize he passed until I came to Paceline.

A legend.

RIP.

[BdaGhisallo]

Originally Posted by Gsinill

Sad news.

Talking about ups and downs and comebacks in life.
Gifted and successful F1 driver, horrible accident, back in the car 42 days later.
Wins the WC in 1984.

Builds his own successful airline from the ground, then a devastating crash due to a technical error.

Transplant for both kidneys, then for his lung.

RIP Niki Lauda

And recall that he fought tooth and nail to show that the crash wasn't due to the fault of his pilots but due to a faulty thrust reverser on one of the 767's engines. After much effort and a threat to fly another 767 plane himself to recreate the conditions that lead to the crash, Boeing finally backed down and admitted their fault and changed the design.

A very principled man with a true conviction in his beliefs.

[el cheapo]

If you have not seen Ron Howard's movie...RUSH...make the effort. According to Lauda it was pretty accurate.

[goonster]

One of my first heroes.

In an era when the sport was defined by the drivers' machismo and the ever-present shadows of the departed, he focused on technical feedback in development and minimizing any unnecessary risk.

The image that pre-dominates in the English-speaking world, i.e. that of an inscrutable, dispassionate, tee-totaling nerd is far from the truth. He was a man of uncompromising principles, a true independent thinker, someone who valued substance over vanity and hype, and always a source of first-rate wit.

Trophies aside, he is known among the cognoscenti as one of the very few to stand up directly to Enzo Ferrari. ("The car is s**t.")

During a second season with an uncompetitive Brabham (Lotus dominated with the first ground-effects cars), he walked away in the middle of the season with the immortal words, "why should I drive around in circles, like an idiot?"

There is an anecdote (that's not as funny as he thought it was, but nevertheless provides insight into his character) wherein he visits the fateful turn at the entry to Bergwerk with a crew of journalists, tosses his breakfast croissant into the grass while everyone is looking the other way, and then calls out, "hey, there's my ear."

[GregL]

My father had a good friend who was one of the key shareholders of McLaren in the 1970s and 1980s. When Lauda came out of retirement and returned to F1 in 1982, I was given a large amount of McLaren promotional material. A poster of Lauda driving the MP4 was in a place of honor in my bedroom as a teenager. Lauda and Mark Donohue were my childhood racing heroes. RIP Mr. Lauda!

Greg

[XXtwindad]

Originally Posted by goonster

One of my first heroes.

In an era when the sport was defined by the drivers' machismo and the ever-present shadows of the departed, he focused on technical feedback in development and minimizing any unnecessary risk.

The image that pre-dominates in the English-speaking world, i.e. that of an inscrutable, dispassionate, tee-totaling nerd is far from the truth. He was a man of uncompromising principles, a true independent thinker, someone who valued substance over vanity and hype, and always a source of first-rate wit.

Trophies aside, he is known among the cognoscenti as one of the very few to stand up directly to Enzo Ferrari. ("The car is s**t.")

During a second season with an uncompetitive Brabham (Lotus dominated with the first ground-effects cars), he walked away in the middle of the season with the immortal words, "why should I drive around in circles, like an idiot?"

There is an anecdote (that's not as funny as he thought it was, but nevertheless provides insight into his character) wherein he visits the fateful turn at the entry to Bergwerk with a crew of journalists, tosses his breakfast croissant into the grass while everyone is looking the other way, and then calls out, "hey, there's my ear."

That was well-written.