Niki is gone, buried in his red Ferrari driver suit upon his request that he wore during the wins of the world titles of 1975 and 1977. The last suit that he will be wearing for good. That’s saying a lot, despite him being irreverent and disinclined to romanticism and his work with Mercedes. It also says a lot about what Ferrari represents to those who have driven it and brought it to victory.
To see his track colleagues of those years again makes us relive, if only for a day, the wonderful world of this eternal champion. Martians from another dimension, like him; those who had two lives.
He lived during the golden age of Formula 1, when this sport became extremely dangerous. In the late 1960s, race cars doubled their engine capacity and started to show ailerons, elements which made them incredibly fast but less and less safe. Rivers of money started to flow by sponsorships and TV world, drivers became superstars, pushed in the circuit like gladiators. Drivers were legends with extraordinary charisma and talent, but many of them paid the ultimate price for that.
Tenacious protector of his personal life, said to be insensitive and a calculator, the iconic former Formula 1 driver was, indeed, always a romantic (and his love stories confirm it). His nostalgic millions of fans remember his exploits on tracks. More than anyone, he is mourned by his beloved wife Birgit, to whom he was linked by a moving story and by a detail which made their relationship very special.
Each era has its own heroes and Lauda today is one of them because he made an entire generation dream with his achievements in Formula 1, even aboard the Ferrari that, thanks to him, began again to shine in international fame.
He even got some “war” wounds. His face was disfigured due to a serious accident at the Nürburgring on August 1, 1976. Plastic surgery of the time did its best to give him back an acceptable face, but lung surgery he recently underwent is a consequence of that far away misadventure.
The name of Niki Lauda has become a word by definition. In the ‘70s every child who speeded on the bike identified himself as him and screamed his name as a battle cry. Meanwhile, he found himself fighting for the podium with his historical rival, James Hunt, so different from him regarding character and lifestyle. A captivating story, that of their friendship/rivalry.
Hunt was a devil of a lady killer and a bon vivant while Lauda, who was called (not-so-politely) “King Rat” due to his prominent upper teeth, was a sort of accountant of races, who spent his time making calculations and strategies to increase his performance on track. Actually, Lauda was just very reserved in regards to his private life, which was instead alive and interesting, especially from the emotional point of view.
Mariella von Reininghaus at Monza Grand Prix in 1975
The historic first Niki Lauda’s fiancee was Mariella von Reininghaus. She was heiress to the family which produced the most famous beer of Gratz. Beautiful, imperturbable, with an aristocratic personality and resembling Carolina di Monaco, Mariella was the antidote to Niki’s impulsiveness.
Even if later he is known to say, describing her, “she’s the woman who luckily I never married.” Lauda in those years had essentially been cut off from his wealthy family. His father and mother were against his vocation of becoming a pilot and he, in order to continue, preferred to turn away from them, a thing that made his life difficult. Lauda fell into debt borrowing money.
Niki Lauda and his first wife Marlene Knaus
At that historical moment Mariella was his only point of reference. But their story ended in 1975, when Lauda met in Salzburg the ex-model, photographer and interior designer Marlene Knaus. They were both at one of the parties of the actor Curt Jurgens, who at that time was the lover of Marlene.
It was real love at first sight. The two left the respective partners and within two months they went steady. Five months before the fateful accident Lauda and Marlene got married and had two children – Mathias, who would later become a driver like his father, and Lukas, who manages his brother.
For them be together it had to be above all dedication with which she assisted him while he came in and out of the operating rooms to reconstruct the upper part of the face and an ear. "Marlene must have been terrified by my face,” he has said later, “but she just made me feel to be a great man and gave me the will to heal.”
Their relationship will always appear perfect, to fans and media. But, around 1982, Lauda had an affair. The name of his flame is shrouded in mystery, or better yet, the Austrian didn’t want it to be published in the newspapers (“I’m certainly not Boris Becker, who airs his life”, he said). From this relationship a son was also born, Christoph. It seems that Lauda had no contact with him as at the time he would have decided, in agreement with the mother, that their lives would have been separate.
Niki Lauda and his second wife Birgit Wetzinger
Marlene only apparently took the blow.
In 1985, after becoming three-time world champion, Niki Lauda decided to retire definitively from racing. It’s considered a miracle that, after the accident, he was able to race for another nine years. But now he wanted to devote attention to his other vocation, the entrepreneurial one.
He worked for some time as a consultant at Ferrari, with Luca di Montezemolo, then at Mercedes team. But meanwhile he invested in his first airline company. In 1991, after 15 years of marriage and two children, Niki Lauda and his historical companion Marlene Knaus split up, without indicating the reason. Since then she is no longer in the spotlight but doesn’t seem to have new relationships. The two remained friends, with her living in Ibiza; one could often see them having dinner together somewhere in the world. Over the years Niki Lauda wrote five books and ran his investments in the airline which bears his name, Lauda Air, then he sold it to buy it again at the beginning of 2018. In the meantime, his historical rival, James Hunt, died of a heart attack at 45 (“I’m very sorry about it, but not surprised”, he declared to the press referring to the adventurous private life of Hunt the playboy).
His health started suffering from congenital kidney problems and he had heart surgery. His brother Florian gave him his kidney when Niki’s ones stopped functioning, but unfortunately the surgery failed and shortly also the donated organ became unusable. His son Lukas offered himself to save him but he was found to be incompatible to the donation with his dad.
Niki Lauda seemed to have come to the end. Love performed a miracle. At the time Lauda dated for four years Birgit Wtzinger, an hostess of his airline, 30 years younger than him. Birgit stepped forward to take a compatibility test with her man and the result was positive. In 2005 the two went into surgery together and the former champion received from his girlfriend the kidney that allowed him to keep living. Niki was so impressed with the act that three years later decided to marry her.
They had two children, Mia and Max. “I adore Birgit. For me, she’s the perfect woman. I want to spend the rest of my life with her”, he said to explain the reason of their wedding. “Our relationship is going perfectly, I did what every gentleman has to do.”
Goodbye champion.
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