[Driver] The GOAT - Round Two - Lauda vs Gurney

[crmalcolm]

The eighth match-up in Round Two sees Lauda vs Gurney.

Lauda was victorious 10-0 in the first round, whilst Gurney took a 9-3 victory.

So who do you vote for as the greater driver?

Niki Lauda
Niki Lauda has the impressive distinction of winning world titles nine years apart, despite an intervening two-year retirement. He proved himself one of the top drivers of the 1970s and then came back to narrowly clinch a title against Alain Prost, the top-rated driver of the 1980s.

Starting his career as a pay-driver, Lauda took some time to get on terms with an F1 car, not being rated inside the top 10 by the model until his third season. In 1972, his rookie season, he was beaten by Ronnie Peterson (in his third season) 1-6 in counting races, 2-10 in qualifying, and 0-12 in points. In 1973, he raced alongside both Clay Regazzoni and Jean-Pierre Beltoise. Against Regazzoni, he scored 2-3 in counting races, 5-8 in qualifying, and 2-1 in points. Against Beltoise, he scored 2-1 in counting races, 4-10 in qualifying, and 2-7 in points.

Beyond 1973, Lauda rapidly improved. Ferrari (who were in a rebuilding phase, having failed to even score a podium in 1973) saw enough promise to sign him for 1974. By 1976 he was the best driver on the grid and Ferrari’s investment paid dividends. Since Regazzoni and Lauda moved to Ferrari together, Lauda’s improvement can be tracked across this time period by comparing his pace to Regazzoni.

In 1973, Regazzoni was clearly the quicker driver over one lap, with a median advantage of 0.71% of lap-time over Lauda. By 1974, Lauda had completely turned the tables, leading Regazzoni by 0.43%. This advantage increased to 0.57% in 1975 and 0.54% in 1976. Notably, there was no apparent dip in Lauda’s performance following his horrific accident in 1976.

By the model’s estimation, Lauda reached his absolute best in the period 1977-1978. In the 1977 season, he was paired with Carlos Reutemann at Ferrari. Lauda emerged as the clear team leader, winning the championship despite missing three races, while Reutemann, in full attendance, finished 4th in the championship. In 1978, Lauda moved to Brabham. The car was not quite competitive or reliable enough to make Lauda’s attempt at a championship defense viable, but he was still clearly driving at a very high level. He beat teammate John Watson 6-1 in counting races, 10-6 in qualifying, and 44-25 in points (despite 7 mechanical DNFs for Lauda vs. 3 for Watson).

Lauda was paired with the promising rookie Nelson Piquet from the last race of 1978 into 1979, beating him by the relatively narrow margin of 2-1 in counting races, 8-6 in qualifying, and 4-3 in points. Neither driver was helped by a hopelessly unreliable car, making a direct comparison difficult. As a highly pragmatic driver, Lauda was always focused on achieving ultimate goals, with little interest in individual qualifying sessions or races if they did not serve that purpose. As an example, he simply did not turn up for the last two races of 1977, having already won the championship. Demotivated by fighting for a paltry amount of points at Brabham in 1979, Lauda shocked the team by abruptly retiring from F1 in the middle of practice for the Canadian GP, aged 30.

Lured out of retirement by a $3 million contract (equivalent to $8 million today, and among the top driver salaries at the time), Lauda returned to race for McLaren in 1982. Initially, the contract was on a three-race basis, as Marlboro were reticent to commit to a full contract until Lauda could demonstrate his abilities. He won the third race and the contract was immediately extended.

Against teammate John Watson across 1982-1983, Lauda’s advantage in qualifying was actually more convincing than it had been in 1978, with a 23-6 lead. But in races, Lauda was not as competitive as he had been before his retirement, leading 7-6 in counting races, and trailing 42-57 in points.

In the final few races of 1983, under pressure from Lauda, McLaren experimented with their new turbo TAG engine developed by Porsche, which formed the basis for their 1984 championship campaign. In 1984, Lauda was joined at McLaren by Alain Prost. What became immediately clear was that Lauda could not compete with Prost in qualifying, when the turbo engines were dialed up. Across the season, Lauda was outqualified 1-15 by Prost and never qualified on the front row. He won the title despite an average grid position of 8th.

“You had for one lap you have 1,200 horsepower and for the race you have 600. I hated this system, so I didn’t really like these stupid engines. And therefore Alain outqualified me all the time. At the first race he was five tenths quicker. Then when I improved my speed he was three tenths quicker. And this went on through the whole season.”

“I realised I wasn’t going to beat him in qualifying and decided I had to try something else. So from Friday I worked on race set-ups and on Sunday I was generally in better shape, could look after the tyres and so on.” – Niki Lauda

Switching his focus purely to races, Lauda very narrowly won the championship, scoring 4-5 in counting races and 72-71.5 points.

In 1985, Lauda was again dominated by Prost in qualifying, 1-14. In races, he was completely derailed by 10 mechanical DNFs in 14 starts. With little left to prove, Lauda retired for a second and final time.

Dan Gurney
Dan Gurney never quite made a serious challenge for the WDC, but he was just as quick as title winners of the era and his abilities were deeply respected by his peers. His career began at Ferrari in 1959 before a move to BRM alongside Graham Hill and Jo Bonnier in 1960. While he was initially outperformed by Hill, 1961 saw an improvement in form, as Gurney dominated Bonnier at Porsche. He carried this momentum into 1962, again outperforming Bonnier. Across 1960-1962, he beat Bonnier 6-2 in counting races, 13-9 in qualifying, and 36-10 in points.

From 1963-1965, Gurney demonstrated his potential by facing and beating double-champion Jack Brabham 5-5 in counting races, 19-7 in qualifying, and 54-34 in points. Gurney was also joined by the rookie Denny Hulme in 1965, beating him 1-0 in counting races, 5-0 in qualifying, and 13-5 in points.

Gurney left to start his own team with the new 1966 regulations, just as the Brabham team became front-runners, carrying Brabham and Hulme to titles. The model predicts that Gurney would have been favorite to take both the 1966 and 1967 titles, had he remained at Brabham. Gurney spent 1966-1967 as sole driver at his new team, with a crippling 14 mechanical DNFs in 19 starts. In the remaining five races, he finished four in the points, including a win at the 1967 Belgian GP. Thereafter, Gurney made only occasional race appearances in F1.

One of Gurney’s key attributes was his incredibly clean driving. In 86 starts, he had only two crash-related DNFs, one of those in wet conditions. His crash rate of just 1.4% in the dry is the lowest of any driver who started at least 50 races.

[Adam43]

I want to vote for both.

One of them does have a bumper sticker saying vote for them (shown not on bumper).

[Racing Harz]

Lauda.

[Aysedasi]

Lauda for me.

[FIRE]

Lauda

[morninggents]

Lauda was a great champion and a brave man and surely would have been champion again in 1976 if not for his accident.


Gurney was a good driver and a likeable man but the results don't quite go his way.


Has to be Niki.

[FIRE]

I am surprised Gurney's US career started after he had done a few F1 seasons.
For an American you would expect the other way around.