4. Niki Lauda

Motor Racing – Formula One World Championship – Bahrain Grand Prix – Qualifying Day – Sakhir, Bahrain
Age 66
Occupation Non-executive Chairman of Mercedes F1 Team
Nationality Austrian
Position last year

Niki Lauda has seen it all – he gave his F1 debut at his Austrian home race, he signed a deal with legendary Enzo Ferrari, he survived a massive fire accident at the Nürburgring, he won three F1 titles, he was hired by German TV channel RTL as their F1 expert, and he saw his racing career filmed in motion picture sensation “Rush”. But the 65-year-old has neither failed to surprise experts and fans, nor ever shied away from taking on a challenge. At the end of 2012, the man with the red baseball cap was asked by Mercedes boss Dieter Zetsche, whether he was ready to take over at the helm of the struggling F1 outfit. Niki agreed and Zetsche, Chairman of Daimler AG, was quickly impressed by the turn around effects.

The Benz boss is certain that his Silver Arrows will battle for Silverware in the 2014 season. “Formula One is a global platform and we have assigned a significant sum of our marketing budget to be part of it. But because many people are following the sport, they quickly depict, whether we are successful or not, and whether the results meet our expectations. For a brand like Mercedes these expectations can only be fighting for victory in every race. As we did not meet our goals, we had to make some changes”, Zetsche explained. “These changes have now been made and last season was quite promising. Therefore, I am confident that we will be highly competitive in 2014”, he added. Good call, we’d say! As for 2015, Mercedes is not about to let someone take the title position yet.




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