Remembering Niki: Lauda’s five best races
Date published:
February 22 2021
On what would have been his 72nd birthday, we’ve picked out what we think were Niki Lauda’s five greatest races.
The Austrian claimed victory 25 times in an extraordinary career that saw him become a triple World Champion and one of the sport’s all-time greats.
There’s no such thing as a bad win, but some stand above the rest…
1973 Belgian Grand Prix
By the time Lauda managed to secure his first full-time Formula 1 seat at BRM, he was over £100,000 in debt. He had made his way through the classes with bank loans, and now desperately needed to succeed. Things weren’t looking good four races in with three retirements to his name. Thankfully, this changed in Belgium.
Dutch Grand Prix without fans still off the table
Date published:
January 3 2021
The Dutch Grand Prix remains set to return to Formula 1 in 2021, but again the proviso is that fans must be present.
The event was originally supposed to make its Formula 1 comeback in 2020 at CM.com Circuit Zandvoort, the most recent host of the Dutch Grand Prix until its last staging in 1985.
But with Circuit Zandvoort now redesigned to feature banked turns, while a home crowd hero welcome Max Verstappen, it was set to be a new and improved Dutch Grand Prix.
Sadly though, the global pandemic meant fans were not allowed to attend grand prix weekends for much of the reworked European phase of the 2020 season, and with that in mind the Dutch GP delayed its return until 2021, saying the event could only take place if the grandstands were open to the public.