Whilst leading the1976 championship—amidst afierce title battle withJames Hunt—Lauda was seriously injured during theGerman Grand Prix at theNürburgring, suffering severe burns andother life-changing injuries as hisFerrari 312T2 caught fire during a crash. He returned to racing six weeks later at theItalian Grand Prix, eventually losing the title to Hunt by one point. Lauda remained at Ferrari in1977, winning several races on the way to his second championship. Vacating his seat after clinching the title at theUnited States Grand Prix and replaced byGilles Villeneuve, Lauda signed withBrabham in1978, achieving podiums in every race he finished that season, with victories inSweden andItaly. Amidst a winless1979 season for Brabham alongsideNelson Piquet, Lauda left the team after theItalian Grand Prix, following their move toFord Cosworth V8 engines. After a two-year hiatus, Lauda returned withMcLaren in1982, winning multiple races upon his return. After a winless1983 campaign, Lauda was partnered byAlain Prost thefollowing season, where he beat Prost to his third title by a recordhalf-point.[a] Lauda retired at the conclusion of the1985 season—taking his final victory at theDutch Grand Prix—having achieved 25 race wins, 24 pole positions, 24 fastest laps, and 54 podiums in Formula One.
Lauda at theNürburgring in1973, three years before his accident
Niki Lauda was born on 22 February 1949 inVienna, Austria, to a wealthy paper manufacturing family.[1][2] His paternal grandfather was the Viennese-born industrialistHans Lauda.[3][4]
Lauda became a racing driver despite his family's disapproval.[5] After starting out with aMini,[6] Lauda moved on intoFormula Vee,[7] as was normal inCentral Europe, but rapidly moved up to drive in privatePorsche andChevron sports cars.[8] With his career stalled, he took out a£30,000 bank loan,[9] secured by a life insurance policy, to buy his way into the fledglingMarch team as aFormula Two driver in 1971.[10] Because of his family's disapproval, he had an ongoing feud with them over his racing ambitions and abandoned further contact.[11]
Lauda was quickly promoted to the Formula One team but drove for March in Formula One and Formula Two in 1972. Although the latter cars were good and Lauda's driving skills impressed March principalRobin Herd, March's 1972 Formula One season was catastrophic. Perhaps the lowest point of the team's season came at the Canadian Grand Prix atMosport Park, where both March cars were disqualified within three laps of each other, just past three-quarters of the race distance. Lauda took out another bank loan to buy his way into theBRM team in 1973. Lauda was instantly quick, but the team was in decline; although the BRM P160E was fast and easy to drive it was not reliable and its engine lacked power. Lauda's popularity was on the rise after he was running third at the Monaco Grand Prix that year before a gearbox failure ended his race prematurely, resulting inEnzo Ferrari becoming interested. When his BRM teammateClay Regazzoni left to rejoinFerrari in 1974, team owner Enzo Ferrari asked him what he thought of Lauda. Regazzoni spoke so favorably of Lauda that Ferrari promptly signed him, paying him enough to clear his debts.
After an unsuccessful start to the 1970s, culminating in a disastrous start to the1973 season, Ferrari regrouped completely underLuca di Montezemolo and were resurgent in1974. The team's faith in the little-known Lauda was quickly rewarded by a second-place finish in his debut race for the team, the season-openingArgentine Grand Prix.[12] His firstGrand Prix (GP) victory—and the first for Ferrari since 1972—followed only three races later in theSpanish Grand Prix. Although Lauda became the season's pacesetter, achieving six consecutivepole positions, a mixture of inexperience and mechanical unreliability meant Lauda won only one more race that year, theDutch GP. He finished fourth in the Drivers' Championship and demonstrated immense commitment to testing and improving the car.
Lauda in 1975
The1975 Formula One season started slowly for Lauda; after no better than a fifth-place finish in the first four races, he won four of the next five driving the newFerrari 312T. His first World Championship was confirmed with a third-place finish at the Italian Grand Prix atMonza; Lauda's teammate Regazzoni won the race and Ferrari clinched their first Constructors' Championship in 11 years. Lauda then picked up a fifth win at the last race of the year, theUnited States GP atWatkins Glen. He also became the first driver to lap theNürburgring Nordschleife in under seven minutes, which was considered a huge feat as the Nordschleife section of the Nürburgring was two miles longer than it is today. Lauda did not win the German Grand Prix from pole position there that year; after battling hard withPatrick Depailler for the lead for the first half of the race, Lauda led for the first 9 laps but suffered a puncture at the Wippermann, 9 miles into the 10th lap and was passed byCarlos Reutemann,James Hunt,Tom Pryce andJacques Laffite; Lauda made it back to the pits with a damaged front wing and a destroyed left front tyre. The Ferrari pit changed the destroyed tyre and Lauda managed to make it to the podium in third behind Reutemann and Laffite after Hunt retired and Pryce had to slow down because of a fuel leak. Lauda was known for giving away any trophies he won to his local garage in exchange for his car to be washed and serviced.[13]
Unlike 1975 and amidst tensions between Lauda and Montezemolo's successor,Daniele Audetto, Lauda dominated the start of the1976 Formula One season, winning four of the first six races and finishing second in the other two. By the time of his fifth win of the year at theBritish GP, he had more than double the points of his closest challengersJody Scheckter andJames Hunt, and a second consecutive World Championship appeared a formality. It was a feat not achieved sinceJack Brabham's victories in1959 and1960. He also looked set to win the most races in a season, a record held by the lateJim Clark since1963.
A week before the1976 German Grand Prix at theNürburgring, even though he was the fastest driver on that circuit at the time, Lauda urged his fellow drivers to boycott the race, largely because of the 23-kilometre (14 mi) circuit's safety arrangements, citing the organisers' lack of resources to properly manage such a huge circuit, including lack of fire marshals, fire and safety equipment, and safety vehicles. Formula One was quite dangerous at the time (three of the drivers that day later died in Formula One incidents:Tom Pryce in 1977;Ronnie Peterson in 1978; andPatrick Depailler in 1980), but a majority of the drivers voted against the boycott and the race went ahead.
Lauda's car on fire
On 1 August 1976, during the second lap at the very fast left kink before Bergwerk, Lauda was involved in an accident where his Ferrari swerved off the track, hit an embankment, burst into flames, and made contact withBrett Lunger'sSurtees-Ford car. Unlike Lunger, Lauda was trapped in the wreckage. DriversArturo Merzario, Lunger,Guy Edwards, andHarald Ertl arrived at the scene a few moments later, but before Merzario was able to pull him from his car, Lauda suffered severe burns to his head and hands and inhaled hot toxic gases that damaged his lungs and blood.[14] In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, Lauda said:
There were basically two or three drivers trying to get me out of the car, but one was Arturo Merzario, the Italian guy, who also had to stop there at the scene, because I blocked the road; and he really came into the car himself, and uh, triggered my, my seatbelt loose, and then pulled me out. It was unbelievable, how he could do that, and I met him afterwards, and I said, 'How could you do it?!'. He said, 'Honestly, I do not know, but to open your seatbelt was so difficult, because you were pushing so hard against it, and when it was open, I got you out of the car like a feather...'.
— "I Was There – May 21, 2019"; "Niki Lauda speaks in 2015"[15]
As Lauda was wearing a modified helmet, it did not fit him properly; the foam had compressed and it slid off his head after the accident, leaving his face exposed to the fire.[16] Although Lauda was conscious and able to stand immediately after the accident, he later lapsed into a coma.[17] While in the hospital, he was given thelast rites.[18]
Lauda suffered extensive scarring from the burns to his head, losing most of his right ear as well as the hair on the right side of his head, his eyebrows, and his eyelids. He chose to limit reconstructive surgery to replacing the eyelids and restoring their functionality. After the accident he always wore a cap to cover the scars on his head. He arranged for sponsors to use the cap for advertising.
With Lauda out of the contest,Carlos Reutemann was taken on as his replacement. Ferrari boycotted theAustrian Grand Prix in protest at what they saw as preferential treatment shown towardMcLaren driverJames Hunt at the Spanish and British Grands Prix.
The corner where the accident happened was subsequently named Lauda Links (Lauda Left).[19]
Lauda missed only two races, appearing at the Monza press conference six weeks after the accident with his fresh burns still bandaged. He finished fourth in theItalian Grand Prix, whilst being, by his own admission, absolutely petrified. Formula One journalistNigel Roebuck recalls seeing Lauda in the pits, peeling the blood-soaked bandages off his scarred scalp. He also had to wear a specially adapted crash helmet so as not to be in too much discomfort. In Lauda's absence, Hunt had mounted a late charge to reduce Lauda's lead in the World Championship standings. Hunt and Lauda were friends away from the circuit, and their personal on-track rivalry, while intense, was cleanly contested and fair. Following wins in theCanadian andUnited States Grands Prix, Hunt stood only three points behind Lauda before the final race of the season, theJapanese Grand Prix.
Lauda qualified third, one place behind Hunt, but on race day there was torrential rain, and Lauda retired after two laps. He later said that he felt it was unsafe to continue under these conditions, especially since his eyes were watering excessively because of his fire-damaged tear ducts and inability to blink. Hunt led much of the race before his tyres blistered and a pit stop dropped him down the order. He recovered to third, thus winning the title by a single point.
Lauda's previously good relationship with Ferrari was severely affected by his decision to withdraw from the Japanese Grand Prix, and he endured a difficult1977 season; he won the championship through consistency rather than outright pace. Lauda disliked his new teammate, Reutemann, who had served as his replacement driver. Lauda was not comfortable with this move and felt he had been let down by Ferrari. "We never could stand each other, and instead of taking pressure off me, they put on even more by bringing Carlos Reutemann into the team."[20] Having announced his decision to quit Ferrari at season's end, Lauda left earlier after he won the Drivers' Championship at theUnited States Grand Prix because of the team's decision to run the unknownGilles Villeneuve in a third car at theCanadian Grand Prix.
Joining Parmalat-sponsoredBrabham-Alfa Romeo in 1978 for a $1 million salary, Lauda endured two unsuccessful seasons, remembered mainly for his one race in theBrabham BT46B, a radical design known as the Fan Car: it won its first and only race at the Swedish GP, but Brabham did not use the car in Formula One again; other teams vigorously protested the fan car's legality and Brabham team ownerBernie Ecclestone, who at the time was maneuvering for acquisition of Formula One's commercial rights, did not want to fight a protracted battle over the car, but the victory in Sweden remained official. The Brabham BT46 Alfa Romeo flat-12 began the 1978 season at the third race in South Africa. It suffered from a variety of troubles that forced Lauda to retire the car 9 out of 14 races. Lauda's best results, apart from the win in Sweden, was a win in Italy after the penalization of Mario Andretti and Gilles Villeneuve, second places in Monaco and Great Britain, and a third in the Netherlands.
The Alfa flat-12 engine was too wide for ground effect designs in that the opposed cylinder banks impeded with the venturi tunnels, so Alfa designed a V12 for 1979. It was the fourth 12-cylinder engine design that propelled the Austrian in Formula One since 1973. Lauda's1979 Formula One season was again marred by retirements and poor pace, even though he won the non-championship1979 Dino Ferrari Grand Prix with the Brabham-Alfa. In the single-makeBMW M1 Procar Championship, driving for the British Formula Two teamProject Four Racing (led byRon Dennis) when not in a factory entry, Lauda won three races for P4 plus the series. Decades later, Lauda won a BMW Procar exhibition race event before the2008 German Grand Prix.
In September, Lauda finished fourth in Monza, and won the non-WC Imola event, still with the Alfa V12 engine. After that, Brabham returned to the familiar Cosworth V8. In late September, during practice for the1979 Canadian Grand Prix, Lauda cut short a practice session and promptly informed team principal Ecclestone, that he wished to retire immediately, as he had no more desire to "continue the silliness of driving around in circles". Lauda, who in the meantime had founded Lauda Air, a charter airline, returned to Austria to run the company full-time.[21]
McLaren comeback, third world title, and second retirement (1982–1985)
In 1982, Lauda returned to racing, for an unprecedented $3 million salary.[21] After a successful test withMcLaren, the only problem was to convince then team sponsorMarlboro that he was still capable of winning. Lauda proved he was when, in his third race back, he won theLong Beach Grand Prix. Before the opening race of the season atKyalami race track inSouth Africa, Lauda was the organiser of the so-called "drivers'strike"; Lauda had seen that the newSuper Licence required the drivers to commit themselves to their present teams and realised that this could hinder a driver's negotiating position. The drivers, with the exception ofTeo Fabi, barricaded themselves in a banqueting suite at Sunnyside Park Hotel until they had won the day.[22]
The 1983 season proved to be transitional for the McLaren team as they were making a change fromFord-Cosworth engines, toTAG-badgedPorsche turbo engines, and Lauda did not win a race that year, with his best finish being second at Long Beach behind his teammateJohn Watson. Some political maneuvering by Lauda forced a furious chief designerJohn Barnard to design an interim car earlier than expected to get the TAG-Porsche engine some much-needed race testing; Lauda nearly won the last race of the season inSouth Africa.[23]
Five years after his first retirement, Lauda won his third title driving aMcLaren MP4/2.
Lauda won a third world championship in1984 by half a point over teammateAlain Prost, due only to half points being awarded for the shortened1984 Monaco Grand Prix. HisAustrian Grand Prix victory that year is so far the only time an Austrian has won his home Grand Prix.[24] Initially, Lauda did not want Prost to become his teammate, as he presented a much faster rival. However, during the two seasons together, they had a good relationship and Lauda later said that beating the talented Frenchman was a big motivator for him.[25] The whole season continued to be dominated by Lauda and Prost, who won 12 of 16 races. Lauda won five races, while Prost won seven. However, Lauda, who set a record for the most pole positions in a season during the 1975 season, rarely matched his teammate in qualifying. Lauda's championship win came inPortugal, when he had to start in eleventh place on the grid, while Prost qualified on the front row. Prost did everything he could, starting from second and winning his seventh race of the season, but Lauda's calculating drive (which included setting the fastest race lap), passing car after car, saw him finish second behind his teammate which gave him enough points to win his third title.[26] His second place was a lucky one though asNigel Mansell was in second for much of the race. However, as it was his last race withLotus before joiningWilliams in 1985, Lotus bossPeter Warr refused to give Mansell the brakes he wanted forhis car and the Englishman retired with brake failure on lap 52. As Lauda had passed theToleman of rookieAyrton Senna for third place only a few laps earlier, Mansell's retirement elevated him to second behind Prost.[citation needed]
Lauda had signed an initial letter of intent to leave McLaren team and join Renault for the1985 season.[27] The agreement was not implemented and Lauda stayed with McLaren for the 1985 season.[28]
The 1985 season was a disappointment for Lauda, with eleven retirements from the fourteen races he started. He did not start theBelgian Grand Prix atSpa-Francorchamps after crashing and breaking his wrist during practice, and he later missed theEuropean Grand Prix atBrands Hatch; John Watson replaced him for that race. He did manage fourth at theSan Marino Grand Prix, 5th at theGerman Grand Prix, and a single race win at theDutch Grand Prix where he held off a fast-finishing Prost late in the race. This proved to be his last Grand Prix victory, as after announcing his impending retirement at the1985 Austrian Grand Prix, he retired for good at the end of that season.[29]
Lauda's final Formula One Grand Prix drive was the inauguralAustralian Grand Prix inAdelaide,South Australia. After qualifying 16th, a steady drive saw him leading by lap 53. However, the McLaren's ceramic brakes suffered on thestreet circuit and he crashed out of the lead at the end of the long Brabham Straight on lap 57 when his brakes finally failed.[30] He was one of only two drivers in the race who had driven in the non-championship1984 Australian Grand Prix, the other being1982 World ChampionKeke Rosberg, who won in Adelaide in 1985 and took Lauda's place at McLaren in 1986.[31]
Lauda's helmet from the 1970s, at theMuseo Ferrari in Maranello
Lauda's helmet was originally painted plain red with his full name written on both sides and theRaiffeisen Bank logo in the chin area. He wore a modifiedAGV helmet in the weeks following his Nürburgring accident so as the lining would not aggravate his burned scalp too badly. In 1982, upon his return to McLaren, his helmet was white and featured the red "L" logo of Lauda Air instead of his name on both sides, complete with branding from his personal sponsorParmalat on the top. From 1983 to 1985, the red and white were reversed to evoke memories of his earlier helmet design.[citation needed]
In 1993, Lauda returned to Formula One in a managerial position when Luca di Montezemolo offered him a consulting role atFerrari. Halfway through the 2001 season, Lauda assumed the role of team principal of theJaguar Formula One team. The team failed to improve and Lauda was made redundant, together with 70 other key figures, at the end of 2002.
Lauda returned to running his airline,Lauda Air, on his second Formula One retirement in 1985. During his time as airline manager, he was appointed consultant at Ferrari as part of an effort by Montezemolo to rejuvenate the team.[35] After selling his Lauda Air shares to majority partnerAustrian Airlines in 1999, he managed theJaguar Formula One racing team from 2001 to 2002. In late 2003, he started a new airline,Niki. Similar to Lauda Air, Niki was merged with its major partnerAir Berlin in 2011. In early 2016, Lauda took over chartered airline Amira Air and renamed the companyLaudaMotion.[36] As a result of Air Berlin's insolvency in 2017, LaudaMotion took over the Niki brand and asset after an unsuccessful bid byLufthansa and IAG.[37] Lauda held an airline transport pilot's licence and from time to time acted as a captain on the flights of his airline.[38]
Lauda is sometimes known by thenickname "the Rat", "SuperRat" or "King Rat" because of his prominentbuck teeth.[41] He was associated with bothParmalat andViessmann, sponsoring the ever-present cap he wore from 1976 to hide the severe burns he sustained in his Nürburgring accident. Lauda said in a 2009 interview with the German newspaperDie Zeit that an advertiser was paying €1.2 million for the space on his red cap.[42]
In 2005, the Austrian post office issued a stamp honouring him.[43] In 2008, American sports television networkESPN ranked him 22nd on their "top drivers of all-time" list.[44]
Niki Lauda wrote five books:The Art and Science of Grand Prix Driving (titledFormula 1: The Art and Technicalities of Grand Prix Driving in some markets) (1975);My Years With Ferrari (1978);The New Formula One: A Turbo Age (1984);Meine Story (titledTo Hell and Back in some markets) (1986);Das dritte Leben (en.The third life) (1996).[27] Lauda credited Austrian journalist Herbert Volker with editing the books.
Daniel Brühl, Lauda and Peter Morgan at the premiere ofRush in Vienna, Austria in 2013
The 1976 battle between Lauda andJames Hunt was dramatized in the filmRush (2013), where Lauda was played byDaniel Brühl—a portrayal that was nominated for aBAFTA Film Award as well as aGolden Globe. Lauda made a cameo appearance at the end of the film. Lauda said of Hunt's death, "When I heard he'd died age 45 of a heart attack I wasn't surprised, I was just sad." He also said that Hunt was one of the very few he liked, one of a smaller number of people he respected and the only person he had envied.[45]
Lauda dated Mariella von Reininghaus from 1968 to 1975. In 1976 he married the Chilean-Austrian Marlene Knaus. They divorced in 1991. Lauda and Knaus had two sons,Mathias, a racing driver, and Lukas, who acted as Mathias's manager. In 1992 Lauda briefly dated racing driverGiovanna Amati.[48] In 2008 he married Birgit Wetzinger, a flight attendant for his airline. In 2005, Wetzinger donated a kidney to Lauda after the kidney he had received from his brother in 1997 failed.[49][50] In September 2009, Birgit gave birth to twins, Max and Mia.[51]
Lauda came from a Catholic family. In an interview withZeit he stated that he left the church for a time to avoid payingchurch taxes, but went back when he had his two children baptised.[53]
On 20 May 2019, Lauda died in his sleep aged 70 at theUniversity Hospital of Zürich where he had been undergoingkidney dialysis. He had experienced a period of ill health exacerbated by his lung injuries from the 1976 accident. He had a double lung transplant the previous year, and kidney transplants in 1997 and 2005.[54][55]
Lauda's grave in Vienna
At the2019 Monaco Grand Prix, current and former drivers and teams paid tributes on social media and during the pre-race Wednesday press conference.[56] A moment of silence was held before the race. Throughout the weekend, fans and drivers wore red caps in his honour, with the Mercedes team painting theirhalo device red with the message "Niki we miss you" instead of their usual silver scheme.[57] TheHaas VF-19's shark-fin engine cover was painted red with Lauda's name and the years of his birth and death.Lewis Hamilton andSebastian Vettel wore helmets in Lauda's honour,[58] and when Hamilton won the race he dedicated it to Lauda.
Lauda, Niki.Technik und Praxis des Grand-Prix-Sports (in German). Stuttgart; Vienna: Stuttgart Motorbuch-Verlag; Orac.
Lauda, Niki (1977).The Art and Science of Grand Prix Driving (a.k.a.Formula 1: The Art and Technicalities of Grand Prix Driving). Translated by Irving, David. Osceola, Wis.: Motorbooks International.ISBN9780879380496.OCLC483675371.
Lauda, Niki (1977).Protokoll: meine Jahre mit Ferrari. Stuttgard; Vienna: Stuttgart Motorbuch-Verlag; Orac.ISBN9783853688434.OCLC3869352.
Lauda, Niki; Völker, Herbert (1986).To Hell and Back: An Autobiography. Translated by Crockett, E. J. London: Stanley Paul.ISBN9780091642402.OCLC476752274.
^From1980 until2022, half-points were awarded in Formula One for incomplete races that had run between two laps and 75% of the scheduled race distance.
^""Was sind überhaupt Freunde?"" [What are friends anyway?].Süddeutsche.de (in German). 15 June 2022. p. 9. Archived fromthe original on 15 June 2022. Retrieved6 December 2024.
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