Plenty of interviews pack a punch in the moment, but some of the best of all time only get better and better with hindsight – thankfully, you’ve got the Magazine Archive to help you find some of them.
Few interviews cause the jaw to drop as sharply today as the one Pete Lyons conducted with Niki Lauda for Autosport in late July 1976. The reigning Formula 1 world champion, looking all but certain to retain his title in his Ferrari, he was interviewed in the run-up to the German Grand Prix, to be held at the mammoth Nurburging circuit. To say that the famously unsentimental and ferociously professional Lauda was not looking forward to it is something of an understatement.
“My personal opinion is that the Nurburgring is too dangerous to drive on nowadays. Because if I go to Paul Ricard or any other permanent circuit and something breaks on my car, the wing falls off, the suspension fails, I have a 70/30 chance that I will be all right or I will be dead. Because of the circumstances of the circuit.
“We’re not discussing if I make a mistake. If I make a mistake and I kill myself then tough shit. If I have been so stupid to make a mistake, to kill myself, this is my risk in motor racing. I have to be fit. I have to be mentally free to drive my car concentrated on not making mistakes.
“So, Nurburgring, if you have any failure on the car, hundred per cent death.”
Lauda was, of course, the victim of a horrific crash at the Nurburgring just a few days later, pulled from his burning car and had the last rites administered in his hospital room. Thankfully, he recovered to regain his F1 title in 1977, but when somebody of his stature spoke, perhaps the sport should have listened?
The rest of the interview doesn’t disappoint either, and you can read it here.
