Lauda admits faking

Ex Austrian Formula 1 champion driver Niki lauda has admitted he faked his exam results to make his parents think he had graduated with top marks and he would then be allowed to go driving.

The racing pro admitted he was far more interested in motor racing than completing his Matura – the Austrian end of school leaving exams similar to the UK A Levels.

“My parents were insistent that I do my Matura. But it was just taking too long so I faked my Matura report.

“I showed it to my parents, but only at a distance, the forgery was so bad it would have been obvious it was forged if they had taken a closer look. I used ink remover to get rid of the name printed on there and wrote in my name. You could have seen from a hundred meters away that something wasn’t quite right.

“Nevertheless everyone was happy I had completed my Matura and finally I could concentrate on my racing career,” Lauda said this week in an interview with German newspaper Zeit.

Lauda admitted he had a guilty conscience but it didn’t last long. “As I then quickly achieved my dream of becoming a racing driver my guilty conscience quickly disappeared. I only told my mother years later when I was already a successful Formula One driver.”