I'm a massive F1 fan and 2.3 seconds faster per lap is an insane performance difference F1 teams spend tens of millions fighting for hundredths and tenths of a second today obviously back then teams were no where near as clued into the science of automotive aerodynamics and weight reduction as they are today Nikki was truly a pioneer of the time for the sport.
Don't forget you still have to look at how much fuel is in the car...... I expect this test lap to must have been done with low fuel and the race obviously they carry more fuel in the beginning
He sure was he was everything. Rare to see that these days but back then most people didnt know Now of niki wasnt around maybe fFerrari could figure it out but it would have been longer. Or someone else would figure it out. But Niki was right place right time
Yeah, I remember it too. After that flame and lung job, I thought he was done. Then, when he came back in what, 6 weeks? I remember thinking I guess the injuries weren't that bad. Only to fing out, that yes they were that bad. Remarkable. Still my favorite driver of all time.
Friend A: "5 minutes 14 seconds is the best that I can do for this track." Friend B: "Why so `slow`?" Friend A: "I already tried everything. Good diet. Regular exercise, cardio, and training." Friend B: "Are you taking magnesium supplements?" Friend A: **hmmmm**
i dont know why but it reminded me of my chemistry teacher. Everyone hated her at first because she required much more than anyone else, but near the end of the year we respected her the most. She learned me smth. :D
I've got a highschool math teacher just like that, in the end, he became my favorite teacher for his ability to push me to not be scared of mathematics
Haha when we nearly hit a cabrio in Italy also in a cabrio on a very curvy and narrow street the other guy yelled something at us, dunno what but he spoke italian😎.
This guy was a self taught mechanic who came from a family of bank managers and political figures so not only could he make a car nearly two and a half seconds faster but he could also negotiate crafty deals to get a race seat for nothing. These days even those special skills probably wouldn't be enough to get a race seat especially at Haas lol.
They look miserable when they start the project but, working with him on that car must have been an awesome experience. Don’t know if him working late with the crew is true but, it’s definitely awesome if it is.
Having seen interviews with Lauda, he definetly seems likke a determined hard but fair man, so I would vouch he did push them hard and appriciated their hard work. and working on a team that gets results, even if the work is hard can be very satisfying. may he rest in peace 🙂
Zimmer's soundtrack is absolutely beautiful during the construction scenes, and then when it calls back with power after the lap-time.... Genius. I love this film, and the music's a big part of it.
Perfect change in how they viewed Niki. First scene after he mentions magnesium parts they looked at him like are you seriously going to make us stay here and replace everything tonight? But after seeing the fruits of their labor on the track it changes everything and makes it all worth it.
Wow, he's the type of person who deserves to be known in the racing world. If you know the car inside and out, if you're able to understand how to make the car go faster (legally) and do so well, you should be recognized for it.
To those who come here after 20th May 2019 Rest in Peace, Niki Lauda.... -From a James Hunt fan. Because its no longer about fandoms, its about racing.
@@Lieutenant_Dude I am a James Hunt but hikd equal respect and regard for Niki, because on-track on open track days... my thought process matches Hunt more than Lauda's (althoigh I am part both like most people)
Agree. I was so invested in this that I literaly forgot it was just a 3 minute clip when started watching it. I though I was already watching the movie
Magnesium parts are a smart choice because it was light but also very sensitive for heat wich produce fire and sparks and that was prob the reason why his car burned so bad at that crash.
Don't know if that makes a difference, but the car he crashed with was a Ferrari. Probably magnesium there, too. Gas tanks ripped open would be my guess of main reason for the disaster.
indeed.. Ferrari was no doubt using magnesium parts in the car, but the main cause of the fire was the ruptured gastanks, magnesium doesn't burn like that..it burns with a bright white flame.
My favorite scene. The surgical technician of speed racing at its finest. Not just a F1 racer. Lots of time and hard work to make the difference on the track. Dedication.
Seeing as this scene happened prior to the 1973 season, Regazzoni wasn't exactly a "senior figure" in Formula 1 as this was his only his 4th season. Jackie Stewart, Denny Hulme, Graham Hill, they were senior figures at this point, Clay not so much.
That was the 4th season of Regazzoni but, back in those days, if you were still alive after four years racing, you would be considered as a senior too lol
Early in the movie, Niki says that "twenty-five drivers start every season in Formula One. And each year, two of us die". So after four seasons, Regazzoni would have seen several fellow drivers get killed. Just a perspective...
Vaffanculo is taken from the Phrase "Vai a fare in culo", which translates to "Go fuck yourself". That's the meaning when spoken to a person. But, when used towards a situation as in this scene, it means "Fuck this" or "Fuck this shit"..
The best racers always have been perfectionists that knew the car they were driving from scratch and beeing a "magician with a car" doesn't mean to swing a wand but to put in work :P
He knew EXACTLY what he was doing. And if any that has the know in Motorsports knows 2.3 seconds is the difference between winning and losing- 2.3 seconds in racing is an ETERNITY
Getting a hold of the car is one thing, understanding how and why it works is completely another. Knowing how to set a car up is as important as the parts it's made from, moreover in F1 what qualifies as a 'fast' car is always changing. Even back then F1 cars would finish the season several seconds a lap faster than when they started, so having a car you don't know how to develop further is no better than having a slow car to begin with. If Niki could make the car 2 seconds faster in a few days he could probably find a lot more given time, so he was even more valuable.
Yea, sure you can. Initially, you will have a fast car. However, that fast car will no longer be fast when every other car keeps improving. What you get is a fast car today but will be an average car tomorrow if it doesn't improve.
1. Well, they probably don't want to get involved in the middle of a contract dispute. 2. They also seem to like Niki Lauda now, and want him on the team. So helping him out by keeping it secret would help everyone. 3. And even if the techs we're forced to tell the owner what Niki did to the car, the owner is cutting off potential future improvements to the car, and a great driver. 4. Niki has all the leverage. You can tell the owner wants him, but is trying to bargain and be cheap. Niki's demands aren't too out there. It's within reason.
Ok this is the Hollywood move, so there is a lot of freedom to be involved. Lauda was very good with set ups. But at the start of 1973 he was just a potless guy without a good name. He was without any points up to 1973 season, and Ronnie Peterson beated him totally in 1972. He was not a rookie as it was mention in this scene and Regazzoni was not a veteran. In fact Clay debuted just one year before Niki, in 1970. But Regazzoni was a winner with Ferrari and he was 10 years older then Lauda. But the real senior driver with BRM in 1973 was in fact Jean-Pierre Beltoise, who was the last BRM GP winner in 1972 in Monaco. He was the oldest of them all and the most expirienced. But as I mentioned this is the movie so all facts are not means to be correct beacouse of dramatisaton.
Haha - and I doubt Niki would have been this brash about his terms as well...the company might be falling, but no employee is going to treat his boss like that and get away with it as shown. Seems implausible.
marko ros true, but bear in mind that March wasn't really able to prepare cars on an identical level. March brought two cars to the races, and after the first practice session, Niki always had to take the monocoque that Ronnie decided not to use. plus, March tried the innovative 721X with a new gearbox/differential-layout, after a first test, Ronnie deemed the car as good, while Niki said it was terrible. Robin Herd believed Ronnie and brought the "X" to the races, where it proved to be a barrel burst. After two races, Ronnie suddenly called the car "undriveable".
Steve Cuss absolutely agreed. if You read his book "Niki Lauda protocol - my four years with Ferrari" , You will pee Your pants when it comes to contract negotiations.
Also, getting twenty more hp and a hundred less kilos on a F1 car is something that isn't done overnight, it requires binning the chassis and the engine and starting from scratch, basically. And if he asked his mechanics at BRM if they "tried magnesium parts", they'd have likely answered with a "no, are you going to pay for them?". Setting up a car is one thing, engineering it is another; Lauda was a genius, but this is fairy tales.
The mechanics were on the track and also timing the laps, so when they saw that Clay lapped faster in Nikki's car, I'm sure that must've been gratifying for them to see their hard work pay off on the track.
this bit was great but it annoyed me greatly. magnesium is not a wonder material that makes everything lighter. yes, for cast casings that are low stress anyway and just need to keep oil in and create second moment of area, magnesium can be the right option. its density of 1.73 is lighter than the 2.74 kg/l of cast aluminium. however, for instance A383, a midrange casting alloy has a tensile stress of 310MPa, vs 160ish for magnesium alloys, and a youngs modulus of 42GPa is barely to be called metal. then there is creep to worry about, which is so much you can lose all pretension in the bolts in an hour, if the bolts haven't eaten the magnesium due to corrosion before that. flammability can be reduced by calcium but they didn't know that back then. scandium can reduce creep but again, no-one knew. it's nice if you can get it to work, but it's a complete redesign at the least, not grinding stuff and waving spanners about. besides this, i've known many drivers, pilots, managers and marketeers, hell i've even been 3 of those on occasion, they all seem to think they know how engineering works and think they are blessed with the best ideas. like many fields, your idea can be great, but it can fail on a minute detail of which there are thousands. rarely this scenario of a driver being more versed in material science making a more or less off hand suggestion lead to significant difference. Set-up of a car however, now that is a different matter entirely. as proven by renault engineers making a car that had absolutely no body roll. great in theory, but it was undriveable because all feeling was gone.