Andreas Nikolaus “Niki” Lauda died on May 20th 2019. In many ways, grand prix racing was forever changed by his time spent behind the wheel. Nicknamed “The Rat” not because of his appearance (although he had more than a passing resemblance to a rodent) but because of his personality. Niki was as tough, focused, and uncompromising off the track as he was on it. He was, in short, a real sonofabitch.
Sorry, scratch that. He was, in short, a real fast sonofabitch.
The Rat: Fast & Furious
If you’ve seen the movie Rush (which, if you haven?t you really should) then you know who Niki is. He’s one of the co-stars in what is (unbelievably) a pretty good movie and a very good racing movie. Austrian by birth and Germanic by temperament, he was, by turns, cold, calculating, scheming, abrasive, abrupt, insulting, pointed, emotionless, shrewd, devious, brusque, terse, insolent, rude, and critical. People did call Niki a number of things, but no one, and I mean no one, ever called him slow. He had a drive and will to succeed that was, upon first exposure, almost vulgar in its presentation and manner. If for some reason, you were faster than him, he would, like a computer, start calculating. He’d talk with engineers, he’d upbraid the mechanics, he would figure out what, if anything, was wrong with his car; imperiously demand it be made just to his liking, and then, when he was faced with the inescapable conclusion that he, Niki “The...