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Lauda joins Bernie

12. Jul 2022 
by Ziv Knoll
2371 views

As soon as he had sealed his second World Drivers’ title with Ferrari at the 1977 US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, Niki Lauda announced his decision to quit the Scuderia Ferrari at season’s end and join Bernie Ecclestone’s Brabham. The Austrian even left Ferrari earlier, and did not participate in the Canadian Grand Prix.

He later declared: “Enzo Ferrari was furious. He asked me how much I wanted, but it was not a question of money in my mind. I just needed to go. With hindsight, leaving Ferrari was a mistake: I could have won many races and more championships had I stayed, but at the time, leaving felt right for me. When I left Enzo’s office, I felt relieved.”

The Brabham BT46-Alfa Romeo flat-12, designed by Gordon Murray, began the 1978 season at the third race in South Africa (picture above). It suffered from a variety of troubles that forced Lauda to retire the car in 9 out of 14 races. Also, the Alfa flat-12 was too wide for ground effect designs in that the opposed cylinder banks impeded with the venturi channels that generated downforce.

Lauda endured two disappointing seasons (1978 and 1979), remembered mainly for his one race in the Brabham BT46B, a radical design, also imagined by Gordon Murray, known as the Fan Car. It won it’s first and only race at the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix at Anderstorp (picture below), before being banned.

 

 

Source: DR

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