Newsgroup: it.sport.formula1.moderato
Titolo: [ENG] Lauda on safety in 76 before shunt

Questa ve la riporto tutta perché, a ben vedere, qui sopra ci possiamo 
passare tranquillamente l'inverno
Da Autosport.com
1976: Lauda on F1 safety
AUTOSPORT offered space to Lauda to get his ideas across in English; not the 
first public figure in the world's history to become annoyed with the Press, 
he showed so much concern that he literally jumped at the chance, organised 
the mini-conference himself, and devoted a long hour of a recent race 
morning to an earnest espousal of his personal points of view. We began with 
the emotional matter of the Nurburgring.
"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 percent 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 percent death."
Q: You had a big accident there three years ago and got out of it okay.
"Yes, I was lucky. I was sliding six hundred metres and if they had a brick 
wall... You know what I mean. You can have accidents and the car is just in 
a thousand pieces and you get out of it, you have nothing, if you are lucky. 
You know, I can't rely on luck. You know why Hailwood is alive? Because he 
was lucky. Normally, there is no way out of an accident like this.
"I look at other circuits, where the safety facilities provide a much 
easier, a much safer driving, and I compare to the Nurburgring with 260 
kilometre-an-hour jumping - only God saves you. So therefore I think it is 
too dangerous. I was against the Nurburgring because I think it should be 
like any other circuit, up to the standards. Why do they do the work, if the 
Nurburgring doesn't? They say, we are 22 kilometres long. But they don't 
say, we have 300,000 spectators. You know what I mean. They make more money, 
they are going to have to spend it."
Q: You do believe they have enough money to do everything you want them to 
do?
" I don't know. The best thing is to shorten the place. Leave in as many 
jumps as you want, leave in as many hairy places as you want, but just make 
the guardrail to be back 30 metres. So if really something happens, you 
don't go like Hailwood straight in."
You say the jumps are OK, the difficult places are OK, you would be happy to 
use the entire circuit as long as they move the guardrail back?
"Sure. I don't care what they do, but they should bring it up to normal 
standards. As long as, you know, on a jump where easy something can go wrong 
with my car, I need runoff. All I want is to have, the more dangerous it is, 
the wider I need run-off area.
"I was there when they had the drivers' meeting, to say what to do. Some 
people said that for the sport we have to go this year to help the 
organizers. We should be cooperative and all that. My opinion was that the 
risk is too high that somebody gets killed or badly hurt, just to be fair. I 
think the risk involved in being fair is too much.
"But this is my personal opinion. I am a member of the GPDA, and we voted, 
and the vote was to go. Some of the drivers think for the sport it's very 
important we can't kill a race like this. But we go this year only, and next 
year they have to modify it.
Q: Didn't you feel that it was important not to kill a race like the 
Nurburgring?
"For me the problem is, easily somebody can get killed there. I think human 
life is more important than more bloody motor racing. The question now is, 
what is more important, that you see at the Nurburgring Mister Lauda jumping 
farther than Mr. Guy Edwards, ten metres more, really struggling to get out 
there to the Schwalbenschwanz and maybe in the race somebody gets killed; or 
you see maybe a little bit less hairy driving but at least safer for the 
drivers."
Q: Don't you think that motor racing is a very special sport, because it has 
a sense of danger, and don't you think this is what captures the imagination 
of the public, and is there not a danger that if the drivers make racing 
safe, or look safe, they'll lose much of the interest from the public?
"Depends. If the public comes to see blood and death, OK, these people will 
go. But I think the majority are coming to see good motor racing. This 
doesn't mean fire, blood and death, it means fighting, driving, sliding 
maybe, different cars, different nationalities, racing, challenge, risk.
" If we look back in the past, why is the development of safety coming up? 
Because everybody understands there is no point in just killing people. The 
sport, it doesn't get better, it gets worse. If you say, motor sport is only 
good because every year one guy or two guys are being killed, OK, you have a 
different opinion. If you say the people come to see people dead, I wouldn't 
understand. I wouldn't understand them at all. Then I 'm completely out of 
it."
Q: And this is why you want to change the 'Ring, with run-off areas?
"Only in case of technical failures. I made a mistake, and I hit the 
guardrail head on, I'm dead, tough shit. The drivers have to try to stay 
alive, working precisely, being fit. But what happens if something comes off 
these bloody cars? We have engineers in motor racing with degrees from 
University and whatever; always things falling off. Why. Because we drive on 
the limit.
"If you would take a bicycle, every day you want to go quicker, it will 
break all the time. Logic. Because this is doing development. But do we have 
to take the risk, the drivers, to get killed because of a logical 
development? No. So you have to do something outside, on the circuit, 
because you can calculate everything but it still breaks.
"The only thing I want is that the driver is not a dummy, just watching the 
way the guardrail is going to hit his face. The human driver, as a human 
being, should always have the possibility until his last second to try to 
change things, that he doesn't get killed. Because to be a dummy, to sit in 
something and do nothing, just to watch when you get killed, is not funny, I 
think. It's not good for the people; if we would be an animal, all right, I 
have no brains, so.
"But this is the only concern to me, to bring the safety up to that point 
where the driver is at least able to do a little Bit that he is just hurt, 
maybe, if something comes off my car or somebody hits me. That's all I want, 
that I don't be the dummy."
Q: Is motor racing a sport for you which you actually enjoy?
"I enjoy the challenge of working with cars, preparing cars, developing 
cars. I enjoy all the technical work with the machine, with the engine, with 
the tyres, everything. This I enjoy. And if you want to call it a sport, all 
right, but I think the word sport is wrong. You need to create a new word 
for, for motor racing. Half sport, half technic."
Q: A lot of people appear to think it should be a sport, that it should be 
colourful, enjoyable, flamboyant...
"Depends how competitive it is. You know what I mean. If there are, let's 
say, two people competitive, everybody enjoys it. One of the two will win. 
Easy life. All the rest know there is no way they are going to win. So they 
go for the sport, for enjoyment, to go with the women, to have drinks; you 
know what I mean.
"But nowadays unfortunately there are 30 Formula 1 cars practising, 30, and 
maybe ten who can win. Each of us has first to qualify, and then ten people 
can win. A big difference. That means you have to work much more, and 
therefore all the rest, the nice enjoyment, is gone, because the word "work" 
took place where the "enjoyment" was. There's no time left, because the day 
only has twelve hours."
Q: That's partly you that has made that change, you and Ferrari, testing and 
testing all the time.
"Yeah. It's the way to go. As you see."
Q: You speak of enjoying the technical challenge of developing the car. Do 
you actually enjoy driving it?
"Yes, sure, I enjoy it. It's wrong to say I enjoy the driving plus the 
technic. I enjoy first the driving and then the technic."
Do you enjoy dicing with other drivers?
"Yes. If it's necessary, yes."
Q: What are the races so far this year that you've enjoyed?
"Listen, every Grand Prix is bloody hard work! All the pressure. To say I 
enjoy now the next two hours coming up, no, I wouldn't say. Because it's 
bloody hard, bloody difficult, and you know a lot of things can happen. A 
lot of question marks. I think the enjoyment will stop when the race comes, 
because then I want to be as accurate and precise as possible. To do my job.
"But I enjoy all the work before, the, the, you know what I mean, to get to 
this point. This is what I enjoy. It's the same thing when you write an 
article, for example. You first just put all the ideas down quickly, 
brbrbrbrbrp! This you enjoy. After, you have to go and check if everything 
is right, to make it fit the space, to cut away a bit, to add a little bit. 
This for sure you don't enjoy. It's difficult."
Q: You obviously have experience in writing!
"No, but I try to think what it must be. So you understand, with my car 
before the race I did all my brbrbrbrbrp! and I have a good car, but now I 
must do the work."
Q: So it's not sport, it's not technic, it's hard work. It's getting the 
best out of the machine.
"To get the best out of the possibility I have. Even if I finish a race, for 
example, I am tenth, I might be happier being tenth one day than if I would 
win the race. Because maybe, in the race I won, I made mistakes, and maybe 
when I was tenth I didn't make any mistakes and tenth was the maximum I 
could do with the car.
"For example, winning the, oh, the Monte Carlo Grand Prix, I made no 
mistakes, none. It was for me a better win than Zolder. Because in Zolder I 
made a big cockup. I thought something broke on my car, when I hit the oil, 
and I slowed right down. I was going to go into the pits. Took me half a lap 
to realize, it's only oil, and Clay nearly caught me up.
"So I was upset after Zolder. I nearly threw the victory away, thinking 
something broke, but I just hit some oil I didn't see. This is a cockup, a 
mistake, I never should do. I was upset. I try to do the best with the 
possibilities I get. If I'm happy about myself, then everything's all 
right."
Q: Can you keep yourself at this kind of level of perfection all the time?
"After a GP I need at least two days, no cars. The worst for me, it's 
happened a couple of times, is a test laid out the day after a race. It's 
impossible for me to do. Because I'm tired. I'm tired and weak. When you're 
tired you can't feel the bloody car, and when you're tired you're not 
concentrating. It's a risk, not to be hundred percent concentrated. It's a 
risk to be weak and drive the car. It's a risk and what for I should take 
it? So I need Monday and Tuesday at least to be relaxed, at home.
Q: How do you relax, Niki?
"Sleep. Go home, sleep. I can't sleep anymore in the afternoon, which 
sometimes I do. Two years ago I slept 12 hours, now I sleep nine and I can't 
sleep any more. Because I'm getting tired, I'm getting overrevved. Sure, 
because if you do things every day, you know, travelling, heat, cold, 
Brazil, ten hours time difference, back, testing, you know what I mean, for 
me is tiring. I don't know about the other people.
"This is why I just can't do everything on the outside which everybody wants 
me to do. I can't go and speak to the public, please the public, when in the 
same time I am so tired that I lose all my strength. The most important 
thing is having 16 races a year. To calculate the season. There's no point 
in rushing like hell the first ten races, and in the last six you're just 
finished. Because you can't cope with testing, travelling, racing, 
speak-ing, signing autographs. I'm only a, a, human being. I only have one 
body. I only have that much strength, and that strength I have to divide, 
during the season. To be able to be fit in Tokyo as I am fit in Brazil.
"Therefore. As soon as I realize I am getting tired, because I have to test 
too much or it's too hot, or whatever, I just close everything and try to 
save myself. There's no way I'm going to wear myself out just to be a good 
World Champion. That the people say, "Lauda! Fantastic! He makes jokes, the 
whole thing ..." You know? But it's my substance which goes away.
"To win races I have to be strong and fit. But the night before the race 
they say, Oh, I have a party and you must come, and it is at eleven o'clock 
the night before the Monaco Grand Prix; OK, I was there, I said hello to 
him, I said hello to her, and I left the same moment. Because it's no point, 
to stay around, to shake hands, to keep smiling, so people will say, "Oh, 
Lauda is here, very nice guy, sympatique, smoking with us" - you know what I 
mean. Because I have to drive the next day. They enjoy, they watch, they 
look. I risk my life and I have to win. Because I'm employed to win. If I 
don't I will get half money and I m finished.
"So which is important? To make the big show, to have long hair, to be in 
the evening around with girls, to live, I don't know, the Playboy life, 
arrive with a Rolls-Royce or a Cadillac, whatever - or to be able to win. I 
think to win is the better show."
© Autosport.com 2003
 

 car, hundred percent death."
Nel 1976 avevo 10 anni; credo di aver cominciato a comprare Autosprint nel 
77 o nel 78; leggere queste cose dette da Lauda "mi cambia tutto", 
l'orizzonte temporale della F1.Voglio dire: non credevo che i piloti della 
generazione di NL corressero con questa mentalità, io retrodatavo questo ai 
piloti dei '60s.
Sono sicuro, perché dal 79 in avanti ho ricordi molto più particolareggiati, 
che la generazione dopo, i Piquet, Patrese, De Angelis per intendersi, lo 
stesso Gilles credo, non fossero capaci di questo atteggiamento.
Anzi, alla luce della mia conoscenza di Niki, credo che Niki stesso sia lo 
spartiacque, anzi lo sia il 1 agosto 76 ed il rogo del Bergwerk; da lì in 
avanti la maggioranza (o quasi totalità) dei piloti, credo, non è più 
disposta a considerare l'equazione:
mio errore = mia morte
come legittima
Che ne pensate? Che ricordi avete?
IMHO su questa intervista ci possiamo davvero passare l'inverno, meglio che 
sulla papamobile non trovate?
-- 
Fluoredshift
"I miei valori sono più forti di chi cerca di influenzarli". A. Senna