Rivals and friends The men who raced him, and the few who beat him

Lauda joined March for the European Formula Two championship of 1971, alongside Peterson, and at the Austrian Grand Prix that August he drove a third works car in Formula One beside Peterson and Nanni Galli: his first World Championship race. In 1972 he had a full season in the team’s Formula One cars, and Peterson was ahead in 10 of the 12 races they both started. In Formula Two that year, at Oulton Park in September, Peterson won and Lauda was 2nd. How he paid for the seat is told in The way up.

The record turned with the cars. In 1975, 1976 and 1977, with Lauda at Ferrari, he finished ahead in 36 of their races and Peterson in 5. In 1978 Peterson was 2nd in the championship, behind Andretti, with Lauda 4th. Peterson died of his injuries after the start-line accident of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza that September, a race in which Lauda drove. Born on 14 February 1944, he died on 11 September 1978, aged 34.

At BRM in 1973 Regazzoni was the established man, and he and Jean-⁠Pierre Beltoise both finished ahead of the newcomer more often than not. Lauda remembered it differently: “During testing at Kyalami I was quicker than my team-⁠mates Beltoise and Regazzoni, so Clay asked if he could try my car. We swapped, I adjusted his car the way I felt it should be and was still quicker, so was performing well against a couple of experienced drivers.” Enzo Ferrari wrote later that it was Regazzoni who had encouraged him to choose the young Austrian he had been considering since the British Grand Prix (Lauda put Ferrari’s first interest down to Monaco); the signing is told in 1973.

At Ferrari the order reversed. Over three seasons Lauda out-qualified him 40 times to 3, and finished ahead 25 times to 18. In 1974 the points still went the other way, as Der Spiegel noted in September: “Lauda is regarded at Ferrari as the number one driver. But when he dropped out in eight races, the championship points mostly went to Regazzoni.” Regazzoni finished the year 2nd in the championship, 3 points behind Fittipaldi, and Lauda 4th. At Monza in 1975 Regazzoni won the Italian Grand Prix, and Lauda’s 3rd place behind him made Lauda champion for the first time.

At Brands Hatch in July 1976 Lauda’s and Regazzoni’s cars collided on the opening lap, and Hunt’s McLaren was thrown up over Regazzoni’s: the beginning of a dispute that lasted into the autumn, told in Lauda and Hunt. Regazzoni left Ferrari at the end of that year. He was born on 5 September 1939 and died on 15 December 2006.

In 1975, the year the balance turned, the first win of the new Ferrari 312T came in the BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone, a race outside the championship, and Lauda beat Fittipaldi to it by a tenth of a second. For 1976 Fittipaldi moved, late, from McLaren to his family’s Copersucar team, and the seat he left became Hunt’s. At Fuji in October 1976, in the rain that decided the title, Fittipaldi too withdrew from the race. He was born on 12 December 1946.

In 1975 Reutemann finished 3rd in the championship for Brabham, behind Lauda and Fittipaldi. The next year, while Lauda recovered from his accident at the Nürburgring, Ferrari signed him. By Goodwood’s account Lauda was furious at the hiring, and it pushed him to return early; Reutemann drove a Ferrari at Monza, the race of Lauda’s return. In 1977 they were team-⁠mates: they out-qualified each other seven times apiece, but in the races Lauda finished ahead 11 times to 3, and won his second title. Lauda left Ferrari for Brabham before the last two races of the year.

Reutemann stayed at Ferrari. He was born on 12 April 1942 and died on 7 July 2021.

Watson was already at Brabham when Lauda came in 1978. As he told Motor Sport in 2022, Bernie Ecclestone had asked him in 1977 whether he minded Lauda joining, and he had asked to be treated as Lauda’s equal; but the sponsor Lauda brought with him became the team’s own, and that, as Watson saw it, settled who led it. Of their races as team-⁠mates that year, Lauda had the better result in nine, Watson in seven.

At McLaren they met again in 1982, when Lauda came back to racing, and Watson had the better of the championship, 3rd to Lauda’s 5th; in 1983 they finished ahead of each other seven times apiece. How their partnership ended, which the two men told differently, is told in Lauda and Prost. Watson, born on 4 May 1946, remembered him in 2019 as great company and a man who laughed a lot at dinner with Ecclestone, and added that “he was the most indiscreet man I’ve known – you could never tell him a secret.”

Piquet joined Brabham in a third car at Montreal at the end of 1978, and in 1979 he was Lauda’s team-⁠mate. On paper they were even: counting the races they both started that year, Lauda was ahead six times and Piquet five, two were level, and Lauda out-qualified him seven times to six. But by Motor Sport’s later account Lauda’s interest in racing was fading, and the young Brazilian was one reason. In practice for the Canadian Grand Prix that September Lauda stopped and left racing, a story told in The retirements.

At the Österreichring on 19 August 1984 Lauda took the lead from Piquet on lap 40, and 2 laps later lost fourth gear. He drove on at a pace that left Piquet, behind him, believing he was easing off, and won his home Grand Prix for the first time. On the podium, by his own account, he told Piquet that the gear had gone, and could see what it cost Piquet to have missed his chance. Piquet, born on 17 August 1952, had been champion the year before, when Lauda was 10th.