“Ferrari called me a traitor!”

Niki Lauda, tired of the constant tensions inside the team and satisfied to have clinched the 1977 Drivers’ World Championship with two races remaining, decided to skip these and tell Ferrari he was leaving.

Enzo Ferrari, surprised, first tried to convince him to stay, but when he failed, vexed, called him a traitor for moving to Bernie Ecclestone’s Brabham team.

Niki Lauda: “I told Ferrari I was leaving to Brabham, and Enzo was surprised and disappointed. He asked me how much Bernie was paying me, but it (the amount) didn’t matter to me. I had decided to leave and felt so relieved when I left his office.”

Niki continues: “Retrospectively, it was a mistake, I would have won more races and championships had I stayed, but it definitely felt the right thing to do at the time.”

The 1978 season with Brabham was satisfying. Niki won twice, in Sweden (in the famous “fan-car”) and Italy, drove superbly at Monaco and finished fourth in the championship (picture below).

The following year, the Brabham car was not competitive enough and Lauda scored only four points prior to the penultimate race, in Canada. There, after the first practice session, he suddenly walked away from racing, saying he was “tired of driving around in circles” and would now start his own airline.