When Niki Lauda won his first Austrian Grand Prix despite $400,000 worth broken gearbox in 1984

Niki Lauda won his first home Grand Prix at the Österreichring in Austria in style after a gearbox issue left him with broken fourth gear.

Niki Lauda is one of the most respected drivers in Formula One history. He won three world championships and made a remarkable come back to the sport after the horrific crash in 1976.

Going into the 1984 season, Lauda was fighting for the World Championship with teammate Alain Prost in the McLaren-TAGs cars. Remarkably, even after his debut 13 years ago in F1, he had never won his home Grand Prix at the Österreichring in Austria. 

Niki Lauda’s McLaren MP4/2 gearbox problem

Niki Lauda could only qualify fourth in his home race while Brabham BMW’s Nelson Piquet took the pole. Moreover, Alain Prost was just 4.5 points ahead of the Austrian with five races remaining.

The three-time world champion’s McLaren MP4/2 was the most consistent car throughout the season. However, on that fine race day, the car turned out to be a reliability mess.

Alain Prost retired after spinning off and having problems in his gearbox. He could not change his gear at all due to an oil spill by Renault’s Elio de Angelis.

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Niki Lauda on switching between third and fifth gear

Lauda had the same issue just like Prost. As his gearbox’s differential was not working, he held his hand up trying to park his McLaren MP4/2.

However, in true champions’ nature, he kept on going. Eventually, he would go on to win the race ahead of Nigel Mansell by 23 seconds.

He stated: “I made no conscious effort to check what possibilities are still left. I simply put my foot down in third, shift up to fourth as the revs come up, get no response, and automatically move up to fifth. Fifth is working.”

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