“When after the accident I came out into the world and people looked at me,
they were shocked. It upset me. I thought they were impolite not to hide
their negative emotions about my look. When I saw the movie it let me see
the story from the other side, from the point of view of other people
looking at me. It helped me understand why people were shocked.”
What was it like for him when he first saw the scarring? “My then wife fainted
when she first saw me, so I knew it could not have been good. As I get older
the scars get lost in the lines, and, well,” he shrugs, “you just get used
to it.”
‘I can’t stand plastic surgery’: Niki Lauda today (Getty)
It’s interesting that in the age of cosmetic microsurgery, when
transformations are commonplace, that Lauda refused to have any more work
done after the initial surgery to keep him alive.
“I only had to do surgery to improve my eyesight. Cosmetic surgery, it’s
boring and expensive and the only thing it could do is give me another face.
I had the eye surgery so that my eyes could function, and as long as
everything functions I don’t care about it.” Lauda has few insecurities.
Born to a wealthy Austrian family in Vienna, his parents had expected him to
follow into a comfortable life. He wanted none of it.
He peers out from under his signature red cap that only slightly
disguises the fact that half of one ear is missing. “I was always being
offered cosmetic procedures. See this little thing here,” he gestures to the
side of his face, “this was done by Ivo Pitanguy in Brazil. He was the most
famous plastic surgeon in the world at the time. He wanted to do everything.
He asked me, ‘Are you nuts? Why wouldn’t you want this?’ I just don’t like
the look of it.” He looks up at me, through me, examines my face. “You have
not had work done. What do you think of the stupid women who get work done
all the time?”
I’m not sure, I say. Ask me in 10 years. “I think it’s bad. If you have
something done, people can see right away that you’ve had surgery.” The
point of good surgery is that you don’t notice it. “I see it straight away,”
he says.
Does he automatically find a woman unattractive if she’s had work done? “I
would hate it. It means they can’t stand whoever they are. I’ve had a lot of
incidents in the past where people were wondering how I looked. At least I
can say I had an accident. The idea that people would work on themselves,
who hadn’t had an accident – I can’t stand plastic surgery. You have to have
enough personality to overcome this beauty bull—- and find the strength to
love yourself the way you are.” There’s no point in telling him many people
could never find that strength.
But Lauda’s strength strangely makes him look really good. His eyes seem to
glint even bluer when I tell him this. He says, “I’ve learnt from my life
experience. I think I was much less charismatic before.” Rush portrays the
young Lauda as very determined, practical and pragmatic. His personality was
the opposite of the flamboyant catnip to all women, James Hunt. Actor Daniel
Brühl, who played Lauda, had to have prosthetic teeth. He was known as “The
Rat” for his protruding teeth, which you don’t notice now.
“Marlboro was the sponsor. They put ‘The Rat’ on my visor. A marketing guy
thought of it because of my teeth.” He wasn’t vain before the accident or
diminished by being called The Rat, and he wasn’t diminished afterwards.
He’s never counted on his looks.
His psychological battle to overcome his brush with death and the subsequent
injuries was one that he treated with his usual sportsmanship. He didn’t
falter.
Was he ever afraid? “I’ve had lots of positive and negative experiences. I
don’t really have any fear.” Hunt won the 1976 championship on the last race
of the season. Lauda retired from Formula One three years later but made a
comeback in 1982 with McLaren, hanging up his helmet for the final time in
1985.
Still fascinated with fast and powerful travel, he started airline Lauda Air,
having gained his own commercial pilot’s licence. It did well for a while.
But then, as he explains, “Another terrible thing was the airplane that
crashed, the Boeing 767.” The Lauda Air flight crashed in Thailand in 1991,
killing all 223 people on board. “I’ve been through a lot and I realise the
future can’t be controlled,” he says. “I’m not worried. You can always learn
to overcome difficulties. That said, I’ve always been a stable person.”
Is that why he was attracted to Formula One? He wanted to test that stability?
“No. Formula One is simply about controlling these cars and testing your
limits. This is why people race, to feel the speed, the car and the control.
If in my time you pushed too far, you would have killed yourself. You had to
balance on that thin line to stay alive.”
Much is made of the physical scars that remain from his 1976 crash at
Germany’s Nürburgring, but it also left his lungs weakened and breathing
difficult. Was there never a moment where he felt simply grateful to be
alive and not need to get back in the car? “No, not one moment, because
I knew how things go, I knew about the risks,” he says evenly. “They
questioned me, did I want to continue? But I always thought, yes, I do. I
wanted to see if I could make a comeback. I was not surprised to have an
accident. All these years I saw people getting killed right in front of me.’
Lauda was married at the time to Marlene, and they had two sons
together. Did having children change his desire to race, to take those
risks? “No, I was very focused and continued racing, and now I am married
again and have twins, a little girl and a little boy.”
He talks of his Max and Mia, born in September 2009, with great pride, telling
me that his wife is away, that he’s been looking after them on his own. His
wife, Birgit, 34, used to work for his low-cost airline company FlyNiki,
also now sold. She was a stewardess. Did he meet her on a plane? “I met her
at a party and I fell in love with her. It was one of those things where you
see someone and you just know. I connected with her right away because of
her boots. They were a hippy type, flat boots. The opposite of the high
heels that everyone else was wearing at the party. That was my first
interest.”
He fell in love with her because of her boots? “Yes. Then I found out she
was working for me.”
Is he still in touch with his first wife, whom he divorced in 1991? “Yes, very
much so. She is part of our life. We have a house in Ibiza. She lives there.
My old family and new family often get together. We went to a restaurant the
other day, Marlene, Birgit and myself. She is an outstanding woman. When
everyone is happy she is happy. We got divorced but we are still friends.
Nothing has changed. What is more, Birgit is her friend too.”
Nowadays, Lauda lives a little outside Vienna. “Nothing fancy,” he says,
shrugging. Does he ever get tempted to speed through suburbia? “No, but when
I am stopped by the police if I go a little fast I always tell them I cannot
help it, it’s in my blood. They either laugh or give me a hard time.” He
laughs now; an easy, throaty chuckle.
Daniel Brühl, playing Lauda, with Ron Howard on the set of Rush
In Rush, Lauda and Hunt (played by Chris Hemsworth) are portrayed as extreme
rivals who eventually come together out of mutual respect. “Yes, we were
friends. I knew him before we met at Formula One [at Formula Three]. We
always crossed each other’s lines. He was a very competitive guy and he was
very quick. In many ways we were the same. I had a lot of respect for him on
the circuit. You could drive two centimetres from his wheels and he never
made a stupid move. He was a very solid driver.”
The film depicts Lauda as serious, Hunt as loving to party, womanise and
drink. Is that accurate? “I liked his way of living. I did a little bit of
what he did. I was not as strict as I appeared in the movie, but I was more
disciplined than he was. I would never drink before a race. Certainly after
it; I had to. Every race could have been my last. It’s different today, but
then it was a tougher time. Every race we went out and survived, we
celebrated, had a party. It was a different time. With the others we would
have a beer after the race and then say goodbye. That was not friendship.
With James it was different. James was different.”
Does he think that Britain could ever produce another driver like Hunt? “No.
Today, life is different for the racers. Everything is as safe as possible.
The last driver to be killed was [Ayrton] Senna, 19 years ago, and the
improvements were so big since that. Now nothing ever happens. It’s just not
the same.” And that makes it less exciting? “Maybe. But [Lewis] Hamilton did
well in the race the other day. A little into the race his tyre exploded. He
is a very good guy. A great personality.’”
What quality does he think he shared with Hunt to make them both extraordinary
drivers? “In many ways he was my opposite. We both tried to win. It’s sad
that he’s not here now sitting with me. He had a rough time.
“He was sober and clean for four years and then had a heart attack. He died
too early, too young. I wish he’d been here to see the movie. It would have
been the best.” It’s been said that Lauda is not a very emotional person.
But I’m sure I see his eyes watering as he says this.
Rush is released on September 13