I don't know much about classic F1, but I have a few questions out of curiosity!
What was Niki like on and off track? How did his relationships with others affect who he was? How did they mesh with him?
On track he was precise, disciplined and valued the cars so he rarely abused the cars to the extreme like other drivers did. His approach was calculated and slow. He understood the car like no other driver (as he was obsessed with them). All this meant that his style was the exact opposite of James Hunt's style.
On and off track Niki weren't too different. He liked routine and habit. He also had extreme work ethics which is something Enzo Ferrari liked about Niki. Though he did hurt Enzo's pride every now and then with his extreme critic of the cars (but they helped and Niki was a good driver too, so he lasted a while in Ferrari before he left on his own)
Niki had always been a very strong character, he understood his abilities and self worth. A few people have called Niki egotistical or self centred, one was his ex-wife Marlene Knaus (After divorcing they stayed good friends). When Niki was told what others said about him, he simply nodded and agreed that he was indeed that. Even though Niki was self centered, he always admitted when he was in the wrong and worked on fixing the mistake.
When he wanted to do something it consumed most of his time. This was a thing that his teammate Clay Reggazoni criticised Niki about, and told him that he needed to do something else other than racing. But Niki still spent most of his time on racing and when he retired he focused his time on his airline. As he grew older the more he did incline to having a life outside his work, but his love and need to work in motorsport never stopped.
While Niki was driving in F1, the media portrayed him as a self righteous ego driven heartless man. That image hurt Niki (as it would any person). They twisted his words, skipped on parts and pushed him into saying certain things that would feed into that image they had created. (of course it was mostly british media who did this. As my mother says "its always the british!")
He got along well with the other drivers though they did find him a bit annoying for his extremely unfiltered straightforwardness. But they also saw the positive in that too, as he would tell the full truth and help them improve. Whenever something was happening drivers would usually go to Niki for the gossip. (Yes Niki Lauda was the grid's informant, I too was shocked when I learned this information.) They also went to him when they needed advice and he always helped them.
He also gained a lot of respect from other drivers for pushing to get drivers rights in many ways. One of the biggest examples is the drivers sleepover strike of 1982.
He had always said he didnt have friends. As he did that for self protection from the fake relationships that came with being an F1 driver. Though he had admitted if he could call one driver a friend it would be James Hunt. Which makes alot of sense knowing their history as they were flatmates during F3 and shared conjoined hotel rooms in F1. They also flew to see the other and had phone calls (international phone calls were expensive asf in the 70s-80s). They enjoyed the others company even if they were the complete opposite in everything. (He also called Toto Wolff a half friend)
Funny story to add, Daniel Bruhl the actor that portrayed Niki in RUSH (2013) (carried that movie on his back btw) had Niki call him at 6 am and told him to meet him at Vienna, but also to bring hand luggage so if they didnt like each other he could piss off immediately. In the end (as that one person on said on twt), Niki ended up liking Daniel so much he ended up becoming his purse dog. No joke Niki brought that guy everywhere and opened up to him about extremely sensitive topics.
