Niki Lauda

• Born: February 22, 1949
• Birthplace: Vienna, Austria
• Died: May 20, 2019
• Place of death: Zürich, Switzerland

Sport: Auto racing

Early Life

Andreas Nikolaus “Niki” Lauda was born on February 22, 1949, into a wealthy industrial family in Vienna, the capital city of Austria. With all the entertainment of a large city at hand, as well as the sports available on the nearby lakes and Alps, it would have been easy for him to grow up a lazy, rich playboy. Instead, he grew up willing to work hard driving and testing race cars.

The Road to Excellence

At the age of eighteen, after finishing the Austrian equivalent of high school, Lauda turned down his father’s offer to send him to college and insisted instead that he wanted to drive race cars. His father was not happy with this idea and refused to provide the money for a race car. Lauda went instead to his grandmother, who gave him the money for a Mini Cooper, used in hill-climbing events.

Lauda was good at competitive driving and soon worked his way up the ranks of Formula Three, and then Formula Two, cars. When he thought he was ready, he convinced the March Racing Team to hire him as a Formula One driver and persuaded an Austrian bank to sponsor him. His grandfather wanted him to enter the family business and convinced the bank to withdraw its sponsorship. Lauda, with the determination typical of his character, then borrowed $100,000 to begin Formula One racing. Within two years, he had repaid the money with interest.

In 1974, Lauda signed a contract with the Ferrari Company to test drive and race its cars. It is an unusual combination for a driver to be good at both test and race driving. The skills needed are similar, but the understanding of the car is different. As a race driver, he was able to drive fast; as a test driver, he was able to tell how to make the car perform better.

The Emerging Champion

By 1975, Lauda was already at the top of his chosen field. Although he had finished fourth in Formula One Grand Prix points in 1974, his association with Ferrari gave him the cars and the focus he wanted. Often, he worked ten hours a day perfecting the cars for Ferrari and preparing to race. Formula One Grand Prix racing takes much work. At that point the season typically lasted ten months and included sixteen races on six continents. In 1974, Lauda had been leading the race for the championship when he entered the British Grand Prix, losing that race and the championship. In 1975, however, he was ready to win.

Many types of automobile races are not run in the rain, but Formula One races usually continue under almost any circumstances. The British Grand Prix of 1975 was run in a flood. Eleven cars crashed, and the lead changed hands nine times. Finally, the weather became so severe that the officials stopped the race with Lauda in eighth place. Critics immediately began to suggest that he did not have the courage or the skill to be a champion, but he proved them wrong. He held on to his lead in points and at the end of the season was crowned as the World Champion of Drivers.

In 1976, Lauda was eager to repeat his win. Instead, he proved he was a champion in another way. After winning several races and taking the lead in points, he and the other drivers came to Nürburgring for the German Grand Prix. The Nürburgring race course is the longest of the Grand Prix courses. With 172 corners, it is considered the most difficult, and with a number of drivers killed there, the most dangerous.

On the second lap of the race, a wheel came off Lauda’s car and two other vehicles slammed into the wreckage, which burst into flames. For more than sixty seconds, Lauda struggled to free himself from the inferno, inhaling the flames and fumes deep into his lungs. At last released and carried to the hospital, even the best doctors gave him no chance to live. A priest was called in, and he was given the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church, but he refused to die. Even though he knew death would mean an end to the pain, he refused to give in. Almost miraculously, he got up within a week of the accident and began walking. In only a few days, he had returned to his country home near Salzburg, Austria, and begun a rigorous program of physical training. Only ten weeks later, he was back on the racetrack.

Soon Lauda had the point lead again, but just barely. The championship would be decided by the final race of the season, the Japanese Grand Prix. When race day came on the Fuji, Japan, course, the rain had been pouring down for eight hours. After a two-hour delay, the officials ordered the race to begin despite the terrible weather. Lauda took the track but two laps later pulled into the pit and left the race. This guaranteed that Jim Hunt would be the new champion.

Continuing the Story

By leaving the race and giving away the championship, Lauda invited, and received, vast amounts of criticism. Many people concluded that he had lost his courage and said so in unflattering terms. He kept working with Ferrari.

When the 1977 season began, Lauda was back on the track. He won the South African Grand Prix, the third race of the season, and he continued from there. Three races before the end of the season, at the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, New York, he pulled so far ahead in points no one could catch him. For the second time, he was world champion and his courage was beyond question.

Though Lauda did not fare as well on the tracks in subsequent seasons and he even stepped away from racing for a short time, upon coming back to the sport he went on to secure a third world championship in 1984. After his retirement the following year, he worked in management capacities both in the airline and auto racing industries. In addition to working with his Lauda Air company, he had such opportunities as providing consulting for Ferrari and helping manage the Jaguar team for Formula One into the first decade of the twenty-first century. During that period, he established the airline Niki before going on to acquire Amira Air and found the budget airline company Laudamotion in the 2010s while also becoming a non-executive chairman of Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd. in 2012.

Lauda died on May 20, 2019, in Zürich, Switzerland, at the age of seventy.

Summary

Niki Lauda never had the dash and flamboyance of many Formula One drivers. He was a technical genius but preferred a quiet life. He rarely drank, never smoked, and had no use for idle rich people. Although he struck many people as cold, he simply preferred privacy. He kept only one trophy in his house, the first he received. Above all, he was a driver of great courage. His induction into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame came in 1993.

Bibliography

Henry, Alan. Four Seasons at Ferrari: The Lauda Years. Derby, Derbyshire, England: Breedon, 2002.

McFadden, Robert D. "Niki Lauda, Formula One Champion Who Pushed Limits, Dies at 70." The New York Times, 21 May 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/05/21/obituaries/niki-lauda-dead.html. Accessed 9 Oct. 2020.

Ménard, Pierre, and Jacques Vassal. Niki Lauda: The Rebel. St. Sulpice, Switzerland: Chronosports, 2004.

Rusz, Joe. “Pole Position.” Road and Track, April, 2004, 116.