Free Rush to Glory: FORMULA 1 Racing's Greatest Rivalry by Tom Rubython Page B

Europe’s best-known and loved celebrity couples. In the top social salons of continental Europe, they were the top go-to couple.
    Almost everyone regarded their relationship as near perfect. Mariella was an extraordinary woman in every way, striking to look at and owning a personality that was very easy to like. If Europe had then had an eligible woman league table, Mariella would have been at the top.
    The fact that she was also one of the best-connected young women in Austria seemed almost inconsequential. Added to that the fact that she was the daughter of an Austrian brewery millionaire and the product of an enormously wealthy family, she was indeed the perfect woman that Lauda had always sought and seemingly found so early in his life.
    If Mariella had a fault, it was with her sexuality. Outwardly she had sex appeal, but inwardly she was reserved.
    They met when they were both teenagers, and she was his first girlfriend and he her first boyfriend. He was attracted to her smooth beauty and she to his dashing lifestyle. Although he was perpetually broke, he drove a Porsche 911S. She liked his seemingly endless ambition to get on at such a young age and found life around him to be exciting.
    He found her totally undemanding and willing to fit in with the life of an aspiring racing driver. She was content to let him take the limelight and to settle down as his shadow. Socially, however, Lauda was in her shadow; he was not in her class.
    Success in his career was the objective that both of them worked toward. Mariella devoted years to supporting her young boyfriend as he struggled to make it as a racing driver.
    Lauda admitted that Mariella had all the qualities that he really looked for and respected in a woman. As he said many times: “Mariella was very disciplined, quiet, thoughtful, and with endless patience.” So it was no surprise when he proposed to her soon after they met, although no wedding date was ever set.
    Lauda was just as keen as Mariella toward that end, and he called his relationship with her a near-marriage. He said about her, “I was almost certain we would get married.” Her personality suited his career perfectly, as Lauda always readily admitted. As he described it: “During test driving and practice, she could sit for hours on a heap of tires without moving or speaking; she was good at yoga! If I came by once an hour and gave her a kiss, she was perfectly satisfied. Her self-control was sometimes almost uncanny.”
    But the downside of Mariella, and an aspect Lauda railed against, was the total control she sought over his life. As he explained: “She had great influence over me and tried to have even more. Up to that point, I was glad to let this happen.”
    There was, however, a sting in the tail. As soon as he was successful, Mariella expected her boyfriend to retire from racing and to settle into a safer, more predictable career. While he was unsuccessful, Lauda went along with that. And he couldn’t imagine being with anyone except her.
    All went along swimmingly until Lauda signed for Ferrari in 1974. For the first time they had money. With some of the cash, they bought land outside Salzburg for their dream home, for when they got married and started a family. It was something that was absolutely taken for granted in the relationship.
    Mariella firmly believed that once her boyfriend had achieved his goals and become world champion, he would be true to his promise made many years earlier and would give up his complete obsession with motor racing and devote himself to her and a family—she really believed that. She thought they were an unbreakable team, and so did he.
    But she hadn’t counted on success changing Lauda into something he wasn’t when he was 18 and struggling. It has to be said: It wasn’t a change for the better.
    As soon as Lauda tasted success, he wanted more and more. When he had been a failure as a race driver, it was easy to think of stopping, as Lauda got no