Originally Posted by alcheng

He is old and he might sound stupid at some point nowadays, but Niki Lauda knows how to drive an F1 car, how to build up an F1 team and how politics work in F1 better than anyone.


He went to Ferrari when the team was struggling badly at that time and than he took WDC with Ferrari.

When he won his 3rd and last WDC with McLaren in 1984, he knew he just need to finish 3rd to take the tittle even if Prost wins the race, thus when he was up in 3rd, he started cruising, even let the slower cars un-lap him, that year, he took the WDC by a 0.5 point advantage.

In 1985, where Ron Dennis said they want to put Prost as the 1st driver and have Lauda to support Prost, Lauda refused and told Ron he will drive in his own term. That year, McLaren favorite Prost a big time, where Prost took the WDC and Lauda was down the table nowhere, that's when Lauda retired.

He is old and maybe arrogant, but he is very very smart.