Three-time Formula One champion Niki Lauda dies aged 70
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ByEurosport
Updated 21/05/2019 at 07:10 GMT
Niki Lauda, whose comeback from a near-fatal crash made him a global symbol of resilience and determination, has died at the age of 70.
Niki Lauda has died aged 70
Image credit: Eurosport
The former racing driver, who was crowned Formula One champion with Ferrari in 1975 and 1977 and then again with McLaren in 1984, died on Monday, eight months after undergoing a lung transplant.
Jenson Button has led the tributes, describing him as a "legend" of motor racing, having made an incredible recovery from being badly burned in a crash at the German Grand Prix in 1976.
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The wreckage after the Ferrari driver's crash in 1976 at Nurburgring
Image credit: Getty Images
The Austrian's family have released a statement, which reads: "With deep sadness, we announce that our beloved Niki has peacefully passed away with his family on Monday.
His unique achievements as an athlete and entrepreneur are and will remain unforgettable, his tireless zest for action, his straightforwardness and his courage remain.
"A role model and a benchmark for all of us, he was a loving and caring husband, father and grandfather away from the public, and he will be missed."
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Niki Lauda will be remembered for one of the most courageous comebacks in sport
Image credit: Imago
Lauda was so badly injured in an accident at the 1976 German Grand Prix that a priest gave him the last rites as he lay in a coma.
His Ferrari had slammed into a barrier and then burst into flames as it spun back onto the track, where an oncoming car hit it again. By the time he was pulled from the wreckage, his face, scalp and right ear were severely burnt and his lungs scorched.
Just six weeks later, his burns bandaged and raw, he was racing again, vying to retain his Formula One world title. It remains one of the sport's most memorable acts of courage and defiance.
"It was the most terrifying weekend," he said in 2013, in a late admission about how scared he was to race so soon after cheating death. He finished fourth that day.
But he would rarely indulge in such sentiment, even long after a racing career in which he won three world championship titles, as many as Brazil's Ayrton Senna or Briton Jackie Stewart.
"It's finished. I live today and think of tomorrow. Take the experience," he said in the same interview.
Lauda, who would later become a racing team executive and airline entrepreneur, applied that no-nonsense style to most things. When he had accumulated so many trophies that were mostly "ugly and for me useless", he gave them to his local garageman in exchange for a lifetime of free car washes.
| Year | Formula One career |
| 1971-1973 | Raced with March and the British Racing Motors team where he impressed Ferrari despite having an unreliable car |
| 1974 | Signed by Ferrari and finished fourth in the World Drivers' Championship in his debut season with the Italian team where he won his first race at the Spanish Grand Prix |
| 1975 and 1977 | Won two championships with Ferrari over the next three years |
| 1976 | Had a near-fatal crash at German Grand Prix after a failed race boycott over safety measures at the track. He suffered severe burns to his face and damaged his lungs while he was trapped in his car that had burst into flames |
| 1976 | Made a remarkable comeback after missing two races but lost out on the title by one point - to arch rival James Hunt of McLaren - after retiring in the final race in Japan due to dangerous conditions |
| 1978-1979 | Raced with Brabham, owned by former Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone, before retiring after two unsuccessful seasons |
| 1982 | Made his Formula One comeback with McLaren. |
| 1984 | Won his third title and his first with McLaren, beating team mate Alain Prost by 0.5 points - even though Prost won more races |
| 1985 | His last season as a Formula One racing driver, retiring with 25 Grand Prix wins |
| 1993 | Inducted into International Motorsports Hall of Fame |
DOGGED 'RAT'
Apart from reconstructive work on his eyes and eyelids he opted against cosmetic surgery on the burns that disfigured him. Instead he covered much of them with a baseball cap that became his trademark, charging sponsors to put their logo on it.
"Sure, people change their tits and ass and whatever. In my case there could be something done but I wouldn't. Because this is a fact of life and that's it," he said.
Lauda also saw the lighter side. Even before his crash his buck teeth earned him the nickname "The Rat", and he would later recall that his friend and rival James Hunt told him he looked better after the accident than before - a scene depicted in the Hollywood film "Rush" about their rivalry that season.
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Formula One legend Austrian Niki Lauda has died at the age of 70
Image credit: Getty Images
"Now if people try to annoy me with comments about my face, I just say: 'I had an accident. But you were born this way,'" he told German newspaper Die Welt.
He overcame internal injuries, too. After two kidney transplants in 1997 and 2009, he underwent a lung transplant in 2018, 42 years almost to the day after the crash at the Nuerburgring in which he inhaled hot toxic gases.
Doggedness was a hallmark of his life.
Born to a wealthy Vienna family, he defied its wishes to pursue a racing career. Lauda's grandfather, who was on the supervisory board of an Austrian bank, even blocked his own firm's sponsorship deal with his grandson. The family rebel took out loans to fund his early years.
A NEW LOW
In 1979, after two years with the less competitive Brabham-Alfa Romeo team in which he failed to win a world title, he decided he was fed up with driving and retired from the sport.
He struck out on his own again that year, founding his first airline, Lauda Air, which he would sell to Austrian Airlines three decades later, having made a habit of surprising passengers by flying their plane himself.
That career brought its own major setback in 1991 when a Lauda Air plane crashed in Thailand, killing 223 people. Eventually the Boeing plane rather than his airline was found to be at fault.
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Niki Lauda with Ferrari in 1976
Image credit: Getty Images
"People always think that the worst time of my life must have been after the German Grand Prix crash ... But it wasn't," he told the Observer newspaper in 2006. "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."
His love of aviation endured. Last year he bought back another airline he founded, Niki, after its new parent Air Berlin went bankrupt. He rebranded it Laudamotion and soon sold a stake to Ryanair, quickly recouping much of his investment.
As with aviation, he was unable to turn his back on racing for long. Just two years after he first retired from the sport, the McLaren team lured him back, and he won his third world championship in 1984. Only five drivers have won more titles.
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Lauda formed a close bond with Lewis Hamilton
Image credit: Getty Images
His tally was very nearly higher. The year of his crash he lost the world title to Hunt by a single point after deciding the rain-soaked last race of the season was too dangerous. He retired after a single lap.
"The rain did not stop for two hours and this idiot Japanese race director came and said the race is on now... this for me was the most stupid decision ever. I did one lap so that Ferrari gets the money and off I went," he said.
Still, he said he had no regrets.
"For me it was logical. I think I would do the same thing again today."
Prior to his death, Lauda was at a private clinic in Switzerland receiving dialysis, according to the Austria press agency. He had kidney transplants in 1997 and 2005, the second of which was donated by, Birgit Wetzinger, who would become his wife in 2008.
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