He was a well-respected member of the paddock and was a regular visitor to the Grand Prix weekends
#3 1982 United States Grand Prix
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Niki showed he had lost none of his class when he returned to racing and won his third race
Lauda returned to competitive racing for an unprecedented salary of $3m with McLaren in 1982 after a self-imposed retirement. Initially, it was said that Marlboro wasn't entirely sure about paying Lauda such a huge sum to return to racing. They were not entirely sure how good he was going to be. Soon in his comeback, Lauda dispelled all those fears as he came back and won his third race as he returned to competitive racing.
In a race heavily reliant on the rubber the drivers had underneath them, Lauda intentionally kept a fresh set of Hard tire available for the race. The polesitter, Andrea De Cesaris, set his lap on the softer rubber. In a race of attrition, Lauda kept a calm head and ultimately prevailed as he overtook De Cesaris and went on to win by a huge margin.
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About the author
Charanjot Singh Kohli
Charanjot is an F1 writer and Content Specialist at Sportskeeda with over 5 years of experience covering news, trends, and analyses related to the sport.
He started watching F1 when Narain Karthikeyan made his F1 debut in 2005 and was hooked when Kimi Raikkonen delivered a stunning lap in Monaco in the same season. He has been with the firm for almost 4 years and tries his best to put his links in the F1 paddock to the best use so as to report relevant and accurate information.
Charanjot has interviewed Indian motorsports driver Kush Maini during his time with Sportskeeda. He has also written 4K+ articles on the sport and is the key factor behind all the F1-related content that goes out in the domain.
If given a chance, he would like for India’s Buddh International Circuit to be added back to the calendar. A Mechanical engineer and an MBA, Charanjot aims to spearhead the cause of making F1 a mainstream sport in India. Apart from F1, he also follows MotoGP, cricket and MMA.