As a Ferrari fan first I remember standing 10 ft. away at Watkins Glen in '78 and seeing him speak with his team members getting ready to qualify in the Brabham/Parmalat Alfa and going to myself WOW (i was 10 yrs old) This guy is ALIVE and RACING and used to race at Ferrari. My father never let me forget that he was World Champion "due volte con Ferrari e poteve essere tre" I have unbelievable photos of that year at the Glen including Niki, Gilles, Andretti, Fittipaldi, Reutemann... I will always remember him as one of the greats regardless of what he may bs. about. He spoke on the track driving his best as far as I'm concerned and I can say I saw it. Now that's what we should remember him for. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, i just may not agree with his.(i don't). Ciao.
Lauda era veramente uno dei piu grande campione mai.... I started following F1 in 1975/76-use to spend my summers in Emilia-Romagna where Ferrari was based, etc. Here in the USA, the only GP reporting I had was Rob Walker's columns in Road & Track; only F1 racing on TV was on Wide World of Sports. Occasionally I would buy the Italian newspaper or Autosprint when I could find it. Bottomline is that Lauda was the man when I first was exposed to it, and the way he composed himself in both victory and defeat was something I could never forget; the "accident' and his pulling out of the Japanese GP were acts of courage seldom seen today in the world of sports. People say that the rain at the Japanese GP cost Lauda the WDC in 1976-but people seldom say that the rain helped him win in 1984. In addition, in his day he was easily the best at developing and setting up a car. His opinion is that; nothing more or less, but in a car he was in another league....
^Good post. I for one welcome Lauda's comments. He and Stewart pop up and occasionaly rub me wrong, but as a whole, they both tend to add a decent amount of insight.
Agreed! I also remember Autosprint as my father we get them every week. I actually started to learn proper Italian by trying to read them as I grew up speaking Sicilian dialect even before english. My first memories of the Glen were at the 6 hour events with Ferrari and Alfa sports cars at about 7-8 yrs old,even before F1. The flat 12's were and still are the most magical sound ever!! I'll try to scan some of the photos from the 78 F1 GP. Best one taken by my father kneeling in front of the 312T3 in pit lane of Gilles as he's looking directly into the lens. SIMPLY PRICELESS!! I hope to scan a few here to share amongst us "old" tifosi and the young guys as well. Sharing the memories is what I love about our passion for Ferrari. We all have some stories to share. E 'na bella cosa!!
Totally agree with Lauda. When Kimi retired from the Monaco gp, he went off to his yacht and had drinks with his friends. You could hardly imagine Schumacher doing that; hed be straight back into the pits to debrief. Kimi is fast, but being fast only gets you so far, whether hell be able to lead Ferrari like Schumacher did is another matter, and one we can only find out with time.
i understand ur point, but put urself in Kimi's shoes...is it really worth it? i bet he knew at that point, the car is useless, and there's no chance of challenging for the WDC/WCC
Oh, I fully appreciate your opinion, macs reliability etc. could be very trying. But I feel he must remember his, and the teams, commercial value is affected by his actions on and off the track. Some have felt he possibly hasnt put the effort in and appears to lack the leadership qualities that might be expected of a potential world champion, and this can have a negative affect on that value. Not to mention the motivational affect on the team. I just feel F1 drivers, in fact nearly all racing drivers, are in a very privilege position and should push themselves to give their best, within reason, in every race, no matter whether theyre aiming for the wdc or 22nd place.
good points Martin. i agree with everything. but what i'm saying is, poor ol' Kimi just had it. he's goin thru lots of frustration. that most likely became a huge factor why he even left mac in the first place.
