Niki Lauda

“The crucial point is always the own cost structure. Therefore I created a Low Cost alliance with air Berlin.”

“After my accident, I never worried about how I looked.”

“My life is worth more than a title.”

“Running an airline is a normal job. Racing is more.”

“In racing, you want to win - there are no rules, and you can do whatever you want. Flying a plane is the opposite: you respect rules and fly to the rules. You can't possibly compare the two.”

“We now fly with an airbus, which has 210 seats, six times the week to Palma to the spider of the air Berlin.”

“For sure, when you are being beaten by your team-mate, it hurts.”

“The idea that people would work on themselves, who hadn't had an accident - I can't stand plastic surgery.”

“I employ 20 people in Vienna. The other 130 coworkers are pilots and flight companions. The Overhead is limited with me. Reduces naturally the costs of my fliers.”

“I don't want to sound like a retrospective person stuck in the past, but the fact remains that, in my day, everything was in the hands of the driver - the gear changes, the delicate art of clutch control during race starts, managing engine revs during gear changes - everything.”

“I fought my grandfather like you wouldn't believe. I went my own way and decided to become a racing driver. I don't think I would ever have fought as hard as I did if my grandfather had been a reasonable person.”

“Cosmetic surgery - it's boring and expensive, and the only thing it could do is give me another face.”

“Patience is a virtue in life, of course, but it's not something we F1 people have too much of.”

“Millions around the world see Formula One as the pinnacle of motorsport, and I firmly believe that we should do whatever it takes to keep this accolade. Traction control, automatic gear changes, and launch control isn't my definition of the 'pinnacle of motorsport.'”

“Pressure is always on if you don't perform. There is no question.”

“This aircraft tops everything. All the others look old as compared to this one.”

“When I was in motor racing, I had taken the decision to risk my life. But when you run an airline, and more than 200 people want to go from A to B - and they don't arrive - that's a different responsibility.”

“One of the things that gave me most pleasure was a letter sent to me by Sebastian Vettel, written in his own hand, full of beautiful words and kindness. I wasn't expecting this; usually, drivers don't do this: they drive, and that's it. But he is a beautiful person.”

“I always go extreme ways.”

“Airlines go in the long run at the competition to reason. For the passenger the competition is good, because each competitor tries to undercut the other one.”