---
title: "Hero of the Day: Moon Racer"
description: "A Formula 1 legend suffers interplanetary shenanigans with grace."
date: "2015-11-20"
modified: "2015-11-20"
authors:
  - name: "Max Prince"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/max-prince"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/accelerator/960/hero-of-the-day-moon-racer"
categories:
  - "News"
---

# Hero of the Day: Moon Racer

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/archive-images/hotd-11-20-credit-peter-bischoff_getty.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

Niki Lauda, who’s posing next to “The Future Car.” This is a promotional still from 1985, for the German television special *100 Years of the Automobile*. Lauda, a three-time Formula 1 champ, known for his no-bullshit approach and exceptional cojones at the wheel, a man who once had his face *melted off* in a [single-seat inferno](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ8kknM7niM>), has been trotted out for publicity photos. It is one of the most absorb things I’ve ever seen. Seriously, is that a tin foil laser gun? Why are the wheels wrapped with kitchen drain strainer? In “The Future,” have we regressed to using cross-hatched plastic lawn chairs as bucket seats? And yet, there’s Lauda, suffering the idiocy with grace. For that, and his courage in an F1 cockpit, we salute him. Hero.

*Want to nominate a Hero? Get at us on Twitter: [@thedrive](<https://www.twitter.com/thedrive>)*

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/themaxprince>)