Niki Lauda

Like everyone throughout motorsport, we at Evro Publishing have been saddened to learn of the great Niki Lauda’s passing. For us, it has been particularly poignant because Lauda played such a significant part in our most recent book, Will Buxton’s My Greatest Defeat, released only last week.

‘Niki was the first interview I conducted for My Greatest Defeat,’ says Will, ‘and his trademark raw honesty over a period of his life that had affected him so deeply ultimately set the course of what the book was to become. He never knew this. News of his passing reached me just hours after I’d placed a copy of the book in the post for him.’

Today The Times published a shortened version of the interview in which the Austrian explained how his ‘greatest defeat’ came in 1991 when a Lauda Air Boeing 767 crashed in Thailand.

‘I’m honoured that the story he wished to share with people about fighting through his lowest ebb should prove so powerful as to be used as a tribute to him,’ adds Will. ‘Niki’s actions and words have always held great emotive strength. In death, as in life, he continues to inspire us all.’