Niki Lauda's childhood-teenage years
(I want to emphasise that not all information is available to me as I don't speak German so I couldn't watch many untranslated interviews he and done for tv. I found a bunch for written interviews with Niki and a few with his brother translated so I'm depending on them.)
Andreas Nikolaus Lauda (Niki Lauda) was born in Vienna February 22 1949 to Ernst-Peter Lauda and Elisabeth Maurig Lauda. He was their first son, which meant the Lauda name would determine his fate.
The Lauda family was a noble Austrian family. Niki's grandfather, Hans Lauda the head of the family was an Austrian industrialist who co-founded the Federation of Austrian Industries which he was president of it for most of Niki's childhood. (Fun fact Niki's great grandpa was knighted for helping end the catastrophic Danube floods that effected Austria almost every year. But then the monarchy fell and those titles weren't used anyone but the Lauda family still held its place in the high social status in Austria as they continued to play a significant role in politics, medicine and economics.)
Its important to bring up his grandfather as he greatly effected not only Niki's life but the entire Lauda family. He was a strict man and expected everyone in the family to follow his same discipline. This included his son Ernst and his wife Elisabeth. They both worked in the families paper manufacturing company, and dedicated most of their time to working so they weren't a big part of their kids raising.
Niki and his little brother Florian Lauda were raised by nannies. A quote from Niki: "Actually, I was raised by nannies, even the way they put together their uniforms remains vivid in my mind," Niki Lauda recalled. " They were constantly there for me, but they couldn't replace my parents, who lived in a completely different world to me. I can't identify with my parents' ideas and worldview, and I never had a particularly cordial relationship with them. My father was an intelligent man, but not a characterful, role model type. My mother was a hard-nosed woman, and in fact, this cold woman determined my later personality. We couldn't talk about a warm, loving home."
Niki had always wanted to distance himself from the Lauda name, he didn't want the Austrian social prince image attached to him. Whenever he had the driver take him and Florian to school he would tell him to stop a road away and let them walk the rest.
Niki's was terrible at school barely passing by with the help of his little brother, though he was quite social at school. He was so bad at school to the point where his father decided he would pull him out and make him work as an apprentice at a mechanics shop. At first Niki was happy to do so, then he realised it was pretty bad. Once he was told to help with an oil change, he ended up breaking it and went back to his boss saying it wouldnt open. So the boss went to check and saw the disaster, he then had to tell the customer that the car needed to stay for 2 days to fix it up. So after 3 months of working there he decided to ask his father to let him back into school, he went to an afternoon school where teachers focused on students.
He failed a lot. He had 2 more exams to graduate which were religious studies and math. Though he didn't want to take them as he wanted to get his drivers licence and follow his dreams. One day a girl in his class showed off that she had finished her exams, so the guy behind them told Niki to take the paper from her let him write his name over hers and show it to his parents to they can let him go. So he did and it was so badly done that when Niki went home to show it he announced "I passed the exam!" Flashed it to his parents then shoved it into his pocket before they see the modification. They were very happy crying and hugging him because finally after so long he had passed.
From the beginning Niki hated the families traditions, from parties to horse riding. What he hated most was the pressure on him to follow along into the family business. He would try to stir up trouble so his parents would kick him out of parties, he'd also somehow tied his little brother along since it was boring to be alone. A quote from Florian when asked what he remembered about Niki: "How he stole the keys from guests during parties at my parents' house in order to secretly repark their cars. He was twelve. Very soon, everyone began to give him the keys, knowing that he would park the car correctly, and that would be the best part of his evening." And a quote from Niki about the horse riding tradition enforced onto him: โIn the spirit of family tradition, it was logical and inevitable that I too had to learn to ride a horse, even though I was disgusted by it,โ said Niki Lauda. โEvery time I entered the gates of the riding school, the smells alone made me feel disgusted. When I heard the horsesโ hooves, I felt sick. I felt pressure in my pants and I ran to the toilet. No one in my family was flexible enough to spare a ten-year-old child this stress and postpone teaching him to ride until later.โ
Niki's biggest conflict in the family was between him and his grandfather. His want to stray away from the path determined by his grandfather made their relationship extremely rocky. Though once he did promised Niki he'd buy him a car if he passed his english exam. A quote from Niki about the story: "When I went to his twenty-room house in Schubertring and reminded him of his promise, he called me a naughty boy. My father told me not to take it to heart, because during his studies he had always promised him a horse, but he never got one. As soon as I became a little more independent, I swore revenge on him. I deliberately stayed away from the Christmas lunches that the whole family attended at one of Viennaโs most luxurious hotels, the Imperial. A young Lauda could hardly have offended an older Lauda more than that. My grandfather was a real tyrant โ the old man kept the whole family in terror with his domineering behavior. Once, when I slipped on a banister in his house in St. Moritz as a child, he screamed my head off because of the alleged scratches. Even on the birthdays of his grandchildren, only his secretary would remind him. Then he would hand me an envelope with a few hundred schillings, a signed greeting card, and "That's all he knew."
Niki's love for motorsport had always been there, he actually began driving around 10 years old. He would steal guests cars and take a few of his families car for a ride around the houses huge garden. Most would assume he would go with karting but instead he would hang around the family's industrial sites. A quote from Niki: "From the age of twelve I was very interested in tractors and other commercial vehicles, and since I was the owner's grandson, they allowed me to drive them. Once, one of the workers said that when it snowed, I should go there at five in the morning and drive the snowplow. I had fun with him for a few hours until the factory opened, and by then I had cleared the roads. After that, I wanted to try the big trucks with the long trailers. They told me to come at four in the morning, because they had to leave at half past four. I could only drive in the dark, because the police would have spotted me during the day, so I always handed over the steering wheel to the driver at dawn. I was already sixteen or seventeen years old at that time."
(There are many conflicting stories surrounding Niki's Hill climbs and formula vee days, but I'll be sticking to Niki's interviews and people whom where involved in his early career)
After Niki gained is freedom after lying about finishing his exams, he began racing in hill climbs in Austria in his mini Cooper (how he got said mini Cooper is argued apon some say he asked his grandmother for some money to get it other say he acquired it from a friend, I cannot say which is real since I cannot find the specific interview where Niki brought that subject up). He had the help of a friends father to take his car to the races. Later on his father's suspicion had grown and Niki confessed to racing. His father accepted it though his mother was a bit hesitant because of the large danger aspect of the sport. He also felt that what gave him the push to pursue racing so strongly was his grandfather, almost in a 'I will prove to you that I can do it' way. After that he borrowed a sum from his grandmother and used to to help him traded his mini Cooper for a Porsche.
After watching the German GP his goal had clicked, he wanted to become an F1 racer, and the climbing of the formula ladder began. At 19 Kaimann team principle offered Niki a factory driver in the Kaimann Mk4. He took several podiums and 2 wins that season.
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