Anniversary of death

Mercedes? That would “drive Niki Lauda crazy”

Niki Lauda (left) and Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff.

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

Today, May 20, 2019, Niki Lauda died in Zurich at the age of 70. "It's hard for me to come to terms with the fact that it's already been five years," revealed his son Mathias Lauda, who particularly misses the Formula 1 legend's banter. "We were always taking the piss," he said in an interview with APA. His ex-team Mercedes, on the other hand, could currently make good use of Lauda's other, analytical side. "It would drive my father crazy that they don't understand their own car."

The name Niki Lauda is still omnipresent in Formula 1, says the ServusTV expert. "At every race, you are confronted with statistics where my father is mentioned. Whenever I'm at a race, no matter who I talk to, I'm always asked about him. Old stories are dug up about what people experienced with him." Lauda established his fame in motorsport's premier class and achieved the status of a national icon as the survivor of a dramatic accident at the Nürburgring in 1976 and ultimately three-time world champion. Later, jobs as team boss or consultant led him to Ferrari and Jaguar.

Matthias Lauda

(Bild: GEPA )

I'm sure that if my father was still there, he would get on people's nerves until he understood why the car wasn't running. He built up the team with Toto and brought in the right people, which is why the team was doing so well.

Matthias Lauda über Mercedes

His last home was the Mercedes works team, where he started as Chairman of the Supervisory Board at the end of 2012. With team boss Toto Wolff (52), another Viennese, the grumpy man with the cap formed the most successful Formula 1 team in history - measured in terms of world championship titles and victories over a period of almost a decade. However, in the second season after Lauda's death, the image of invincibility cultivated over the years slowly began to crumble. Max Verstappen became world champion in the Red Bull in 2021, 2022 and 2023, and Mercedes is currently a long way from podium finishes.

Mathias Lauda did not want to speculate on whether it would have come to this if his father were still alive. However, he is certain that his father would be enormously important for the team at the moment. "My father was someone who always asked questions when he didn't get the answers," says the 43-year-old. "I'm sure that if my father was still there, he would get on people's nerves until he understood why the car wasn't running. He built up the team with Toto and brought in the right people, which is why the team was in such a great position."

"Completely different way of thinking"
Looking back and trying to determine "what he could do now is of course difficult," explains Lauda. He also "doesn't want to offend Toto Wolff, because Toto is doing a very good job. But my father obviously had much more Formula 1 experience." Both were responsible for the successes. The Lauda-Wolff pairing did not work from the outset, Lauda knows. "My father comes from a completely different generation and had a completely different way of thinking. But they took the best from both sides and were then able to grow together. My father learned a lot from Toto and became a bit more flexible, not just this 'my way or no way'."

Niki Lauda

(Bild: ORF/First Look)

His son was unable to answer whether Niki Lauda could have talked Lewis Hamilton out of switching to Ferrari from 2025. But he certainly would have tried. "If I know my father, he thinks about his own team first. He would have done everything he could to keep him there and would have tried to convince him. But I'm sure he would have understood, because he did exactly the same thing in the past," he recalls Lauda's time at Ferrari in the 1970s.

Lauda's relationship with Hamilton was known to be very close and intimate. Lauda once persuaded Hamilton to switch from McLaren to Mercedes at a time when his later success was nowhere near foreseeable. "Lewis needed my father there in the team, as an anchor. Not just in terms of Formula 1, but also in life. Like everyone, Lewis has his doubts, his insecurities, even if we don't notice them that much. And my father is extremely good with his wisdom, which has also shaped me," says Mathias Lauda.

"My father was actually a rascal to the end"
Niki Lauda is missed. Especially his family. "I wish I could still go out in the evening and have fun together," says Mathias Lauda, remembering the good times with his greatest role model. "We used to almost only fool around. I really miss just spending time together. The banter, the laughter, taking the piss out of each other," says Lauda wistfully. "My father was actually a rascal to the end."

His mother Marlene Knaus feels the same way. "She misses him terribly and is still suffering." She has changed a lot since Niki left, says Mathias Lauda. "The joie de vivre is no longer there like it was before."

Niki Lauda is also still extremely present in the lives of his second wife Birgit and their twins Max and Mia (14). "They always watch Formula 1. It's somehow like a kind of DNA that has welded itself into Max and me. It lives on in us, and that's particularly nice," said Birgit Lauda recently on ORF.