一位特别的朋友

我父亲告诫过我许多次：“永远不要和车手做朋友，因为他们迟早会离开你：他们要么换车队，要么不幸地死去。”

我不确定他是否真的这么想，因为我敢肯定，他喜欢一些车手的为人，而不只是欣赏其优异的运动表现。但我自己肯定不同意这个想法，因为我已把多位车手当作终身的朋友。其中代表性的一位，就是尼基·劳达。 

尼基来到马拉内罗参加1974年世界锦标赛。当时我父亲已经雇佣了克莱·雷加佐尼（Clay Regazzoni），正是克莱推荐这位年轻的奥地利人。尼基曾是他在BRM车队的队友，不仅天赋非凡，对赛车的敏感度超乎寻常。 只是大多数人几乎不知道劳达的存在。我们也正好即将结束与彼德·雷夫森（Peter Revson）的谈判，他当时隶属于迈凯轮车队。

尼基在 1974 年加入了法拉利车队（Scuderia），与克莱·雷加佐尼并肩作战——并在 1975 年赢得了他的第一个世界车手冠军。

但摩纳哥大奖赛开始了，像往常一样，我父亲从费奥拉诺赛道的小办公室内紧密追踪车赛实况。虽然尼基·劳达是一场重要单座比赛的明星，但无法真正与泰瑞尔、莲花或迈凯轮等当时占主导地位的英格兰车队竞争。就算如此，他还是决定下注。

这件事，尤其在现在这个科技导向的时代回想起来，几乎让我想笑：单靠克莱的建议和在电视上观看比赛，足以让我父亲本能地雇佣了一名赛车手，而且他将创造一级方程式历史。

尼基一到，就表现出他作为一个出色的试驾手的风范。312 B3在转向不足方面有些问题，这不适合他的驾驶风格，但是他仍能够逐渐解决，他有一种超凡的记忆力，能够记住赛道上所发生的一切：尼基能够告诉你，在某一圈上及特定的弯道上，他在换挡时犯了什么错误，甚至能够记得赛道墙上展示某个广告的位置和时间。

他的思维如同计算机般的精确。但在赛道上犀利无比的尼基，一旦脱下头盔和赛车服，就变成了另一个人。我们年龄相仿，晚上经常一起出去吃饭，最常去摩德纳市中心的Fini餐厅。尼基很有趣，他喜欢开玩笑并懂得玩乐，能够将比赛的压力放在一边，回到一个二十出头的年轻人的身份，和朋友们一起出去玩。我们以前很喜欢赌大奖赛的结果，输了的人必须请所有人吃饭。

1975 年 9 月 7 日，我去了蒙扎大奖赛，当时雷加佐尼赢得了比赛，而尼基则名列第三，理论上肯定能赢得世界冠军。我不记得我们在颁奖后对彼此说过了什么，但我记得我们激动的拥抱在一起。

在各种记忆中，自然有1976年8月1日尼基在纽伦堡发生的严重事故。一周过后我去萨尔茨堡的家看望他。当我走近他坐着的桌子时，我听见他和往常一样轻松又讽刺的说话声调，但当我看到他时，我感到震惊。那张毁容的脸和仍未愈合的伤口，让人一时认不出他是谁。

在蒙扎赛的前一周，尼基又回到了赛道上，那是在费奥拉诺赛道。他们用特殊的衬垫为他做了一个头盔，以减少对面部的伤口的摩擦。他上了单座车出发，在第一圈他才刚刚加速，赛车就突然失控，让我们所有人都心惊胆战。但后来他安全回到赛道上，开始用和往常般的速度进行绕圈。

Piero Ferrari (standing, centre) watches as his friend Niki takes the 1975 title at Monza

When the test was over he stopped in at the box, and when he came up to me I said to him: “Great Niki! You’ll be pleased, you’re driving like before.” But he shook his head. “No, Piero,” he said, “It’s not like before: when I went into that tailspin at the beginning I felt my heart beating stronger. And that’s never happened to me before.”

The following year, though, Niki became competitive once again. It was clear from the outset that he wanted to reclaim the title that had been so dramatically snatched from his grasp. Knowing him, that was no surprise. Instead what was a real surprise was his decision, in that same 1977 season, to leave the Scuderia. It came as a bolt from the blue that exploded one hot August morning.

Niki had asked for an appointment in the office in Modena and before he arrived my father asked me: “In your opinion what will he want? A tweak to the contract?” I replied that I really had no idea. Present at that meeting, as well as me and my father, there was the Press Officer Franco Gozzi, and the Managing Director Ermanno Della Casa. And we were all left open-mouthed to discover that Niki was leaving, without making any requests and not having another contract to go to, and that he was absolutely implacable about his decision. Something fully in keeping with his personality.

A few weeks later we met up together in Monza. During a pause in testing, we climbed into my grey Fiat 131, just the two of us, and I said to him: “Niki, okay, you’ve decided to leave. But there’s a World Title at stake: so don’t fool around.” He stared at me, with that ruined face that he would wear with such pride for another forty years, and those eyes that were so penetrating. Then he smiled and said: “Don’t worry.” He was right. He won that title.

Lauda, the human computer.

Niki, my friend.