F1's biggest scandals: Niki Lauda orchestrates drivers' strike

Niki Lauda had just been tempted back out of a three-year F1 retirement after memorably telling Bernie Ecclestone during a 1979 Canadian GP practice session that there was "more to life than driving in funny-shaped circles".

Sure the record $3 million salary Ron Dennis had wafted under his nose might have had something to do with it, but Lauda wanted to scratch the competitive itch he had lost after quitting.

So, after testing the new McLaren, he headed to the Kyalami circuit for the 1982 season-opening South African Grand Prix - and his in-flight entertainment was to read the application form for the super licence he would be required to sign. 

That's where the story of the 1982 South African GP drivers' strike begins, one that includes grand pianos, 30 drivers crowded into a single hotel room and Alain Prost and Gilles Villeneuve sleeping on the same mattress...

Niki's back

Whilst reading the super-licence form, Lauda noticed clauses that immediately piqued his interest.

The document stated: "I am committed to the above team to drive exclusively for them in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship(s) until the [date]' and that 'I will do nothing which might harm the moral or material interests or image of International Motorsport or the FIA Formula 1 World Championship.'

In short, the first clause meant that when signed, the contract would bind a driver to the aforementioned team until the end of the said period, with no chance of the driver alone deciding to move. Only another team, if they wished to sign the driver, could make a move. 

For Lauda, that was completely unacceptable, and he immediately brought it to the attention of Grand Prix Drivers' Association leader Didier Pironi of Ferrari. 

Unusually, Pironi and Lauda found that Jean-Marie Balestre of FISA (think today's FIA president) and Bernie Ecclestone of FOCA - usually sworn enemies - were actually united, and told the drivers to suck it up, sign on the dotted line, keep their mouths shut, get in the car and race.

With the race, as it was at Kyalami set to be run on Saturday, come Thursday morning, Pironi and Lauda were to take action, with Lauda organising his colleagues onto a coach as Pironi stayed behind to lead the negotiations. 

After a trip to the Sunnyside Park hotel in Johannesburg, the 29-strong pack of drivers found themselves confined to one room, at Lauda's behest.

He felt that if the drivers went to separate rooms, the solidarity he was trying to marshal would collapse.

One or two of the younger drivers were alarmed by a threat Pironi had sent back from organisers and team bosses, signalling they would be banned for life. The senior hands, though, ensured them no such ban would happen whilst they were around. 

Pianos, toilets, and a chicken driver

The small suite was equipped with a grand piano, on which Villeneuve and Elio de Angelis provided light entertainment through the night.

Remarkably, the piano later served as a barricade against the door after one team boss tried to force his way in to retrieve his drivers.

Lauda had also arranged some mattresses for the drivers to hit the sack, leading to Villeneuve and Prost buddying up, with Patrick Tambay quipping that if a child resulted from the arrangement, and turned out to be a racing driver, the rest might as well give up. 

There was one slight problem: there was no toilet. 

On scout's - or should that be racing drivers' - honour, each was to lock the door again after they returned from their business, but one, Teo Fabi, scarpered back to the track - leading to Keke Rosberg - that year's eventual world champion - furious.

"Teo Fabi ran like a chicken," Rosberg recalled.

"He went out, didn't come back, and lost all our respect forever. Not because he decided to leave, no, but because he betrayed us all. He went straight to Balestre and Ecclestone and told them everything that we had discussed."

But the morning brought good news as Pironi informed the drivers they had won and organisers and bosses would drop the clauses which had so offended Lauda in the first place.

Bans were issued to the drivers, but they were quickly forgotten and overturned, and even today, in the super licences issued, there is no such clause drivers must agree to. 

Niki Lauda 1-FOCA/FISA 0.