I was born on September 7th and I have a cousin who came into the world on August 1st... And who cares, some might say. Well, the day of my first birthday coincided with the tenth anniversary of the first world title of Lauda. So it's no coincidence that I was born in 1984, the year of Niki's last World Cup.
From the edition of forty years ago it is easy to think of the advent of Ayrton Senna and the gap of half a point between the winner and the runner-up of the same team, but I don't want to forget the embrace between Marlene and Prost, when the then Mrs. Lauda consoled Alain by telling him: “Don't regret it, you will have many other opportunities”…
Prophetic… From a professor… to the 'Professor', considering that in an issue of 'Classic Wheels' dedicated to the seventy years of Ferrari the Austrian was defined as 'The human calculator'. Has the student surpassed the teacher? Perhaps. Niki was now an expert in this regard, because it was Clay Regazzoni who reported it to Drake.
It's not difficult to think about the relationship with Enzo Ferrari: almost all of us thought it had deteriorated, but in a 2017 Autosprint special Leo Turrini told of a congratulatory telegram from the Austrian sent to Drake. In that issue Lauda himself spoke about his farewell to Maranello and the 'Great Old Man': <'At the beginning he was very angry with me.
<He said I had left for a 'cured meat broker' (Tanzi from Parmalat). But then I met him again in Imola in '82, in the pits of the San Marino GP. He greeted me and we hugged. Enzo Ferrari was like that. The most incredible man I have ever met>>.
And just remembering the fortieth anniversary of Lauda's first World Cup, Pino Allievi wrote in the Gazzetta di un "affection that both Ferrari and Lauda have always hidden as something intimate, not to be shared with anyone." Because, at least in this, the two were sensationally identical”. Niki, the Drake and that 1984: call them, if you want, emotions.
Crediti foto: F1