During the days of the Austrian race weekend, the crowd gathered in the stands of the Red Bull Ring could witness a rare spectacle: Matthias Lauda drove several laps around the track behind the wheel of the Ferrari F312B, in which his father raced in 1974. World Championship.
Legendary Austrian driver Niki Lauda took his first two Formula 1 wins that season, climbing the podium a total of five times.
Matthias Lauda: “My father won the Spanish Grand Prix in Jarama with this car, it was his first victory with Ferrari. As far as I remember he started from pole nine times that season, but the car often broke down.
Behind the wheel of the F312B I experienced unforgettable emotions. I’ve been looking forward to this moment for the past few weeks. I was surprised how fast this car is. She has an incredibly powerful engine and she held the track perfectly on the straights. But driving such a machine is physically very demanding.
Since it has a good mechanical grip, it is very difficult to go through fast corners. There is a chance that you will make a mistake when shifting, because not only do you have to change very quickly, but on cars of that generation you always have to depress the clutch twice. In addition, in those days on tracks like the Nurburgring, there were many overtly dangerous sections where the driver could only pray that he could avoid accidents.
I have to admit that this car is a real wild beast. With the technology of that generation, the rider had to think a lot more and try to avoid mistakes. But for me it’s not a problem, I’ve been racing for 20 years. After one lap I went fast enough. But in the first laps I had very strong experiences and I will never forget them!”
Matthias Lauda has been a motorsport professional since the early 2000s, having competed in both youth formulas and the DTM touring car series, in the Porsche Supercup, but he has achieved the greatest success in endurance racing: together with the Aston Martin Racing team, he won the 2017 FIA WEC Championship in the LMGTE Am.
Source: F1 News
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