Luca Lore: Abandoning Niki at the Dutch Grand Prix for No Good Reason*
*he had a very good reason
Back in the 1970s, there was no team radio. All communication between the team and drivers was via the pit boards. This led to things like James Hunt not knowing he was in third place, enough to secure the championship, in Fuji in 1976, and once again, James Hunt being told not to be cheeky in succinct British fashion.
Every driver had a pit board that the team held out as the car went by. This would usually tell the driver things like their position, the lap number, the gap to their nearest opponents, etc.
Someone who is not Luca, holding out Clay Regazzoni's pit board in 1975, while Luca hovers in the background.
Luca Montezemolo, team boss at Ferrari, right-hand-man to Enzo Ferrari, being prepared for high office at Fiat, protege of Gianni Agnelli, was expected to personally hold out Niki Lauda's pit board. Because Niki is a little princess.
Anyway, it's the Dutch Grand Prix on 22nd June, 1975. It's wet. Niki is trying to deal with what will become a race-winning Hesketh driven by his former flatmate James Hunt, in what Hunt would later call "the race of my life." And Luca is in the pits (likely place for him to be), on pit board duty for his pet Austrian.
Then James pitted early for slicks, and changed everything.
Luca was moving around the pits, particularly when Clay had boxed for tyres and Niki had ignored the signals (likely thing for him to do), and stayed out.
And Luca didn't notice Ronnie Peterson's car, and it hit him.
Footage of the incident is at this link - I recommend watching from about 45:50 for 2-3 minutes, to see Luca's unique management style and his accident in the pits, bookended by Niki explaining how you have no friends in motor racing and then agreeing that Luca is actually a friend.
Luca had broken his leg, and his arm. With the race in progress, there was no possibility of getting him to hospital, so he was stashed in the garage, in tremendous amounts of pain, with his leg elevated, to wait out the race.
Look at this poor injured baby.
He also couldn't do the pit board.
And he had a princess on his hands.
Meanwhile, James was fending off Niki on the track. Niki had a faster and better car, but James was Jamesing the fuck out of shit and managed to keep the lead. Niki later wrote "James drove beautifully, and there was a great deal of excitement," and it's clear from the podium photos that Niki was pretty happy his friend had done so well.
But.
He was also Niki, so he was not happy that he hadn't won. He went to the Ferrari pit, asked where Luca was, and stormed to to him, saying that he (Niki) had lost the race because Luca left him alone.
Luca says:
"Niki didn't see me for half [the] race, doing the signals. It was very familiar. It was not a question of the numbers and signals, it was also the face and the attitude. [mimics Niki's mildly hysterical reaction] "Listen, you left me alone for half the race!" I said "fuck off." For me it was even difficult to speak because I was [in] pain a lot. [...] It was a fantastic relationship." Luca speaking on Beyond the Grid with Tom Clarkson in 2018. (From 25:40 - 27:10)
It's telling that Autosport magazine asked if Hesketh could win again at the next race if Luca was out of action. It goes to show how important Luca was considered to Ferrari's success.
Luca did show up at Paul Ricard, and Niki won. History doesn't record if Luca had to do the pit signals on his crutch, but footage from subsequent races suggests that his injuries didn't slow him down much. There is a rather famous photo of Niki and Luca together at the French Grand Prix, where if you look closely at Niki's hands, you can see that he's taking care of Luca's crutch for him.
Finally, in this footage of Luca absolutely losing his shit trying to get a race stopped for safety reasons (my BOY), I think you can see a little hop/misstep as he runs down the pit lane at the end. This was less than two months after he broke his leg.
