Formula One: Niki Lauda bats for quieter engines

From Day One they have all been saying that the noise of the new Formula One is rubbish,” an exasperated Niki Lauda said in Malaysia, “and it was Bernie [Ecclestone] who started it all.” Who else but the Austrian warrior, who came back from the last rites after his famed accident at the Nürburgring in 1976 and went on to win two further world championship crowns, could so trenchantly challenge the conventional wisdom of the past few weeks, in which Ecclestone and world champion Sebastian Vettel both criticised the change of pitch of the new V6 engines.

Few people in the paddock have Lauda’s depth of insight, and his candour. And he has no qualms in defending the latest engines whose aural signature has been likened to that of a leaf blower. “I don’t understand this ridiculous discussion,” he says. “If people don’t like the new noise, take the earplugs out; the television people at home, turn the volume up. “And the most important thing is that we, the Vettels, the Bernies, whoever, should not destroy our own sport by making stupid comments.”