Niki Lauda demonstrates his skills behind the wheel


Motorsport lost one of its most respected characters this week, the incomparable Niki Lauda. Lauda demonstrated his skills behind the wheel of blue oval-badged machinery throughout his distinguished career; here he is three-wheeling a Ford Capri RS3100 at the Norisring, Germany, in 1974.

The three-time F1 World Drivers' Champion (1975, 1977 and 1984) achieved his greatest successes with Ferrari, but his F1 career began in Ford-powered machinery. He made his debut on August 15, 1971, at the Austrian Grand Prix in a Ford Cosworth DFV-powered March 711 car. After qualifying second from last, he was forced to retire with handling problems on lap 20. It would be his only F1 outing that year.

The following season, Lauda contested 12 F1 races with the STP March Racing Team, achieving his best result of the season at the South African Grand Prix where he took the chequered flag in seventh place.

After a season with the Marlboro BRM Team in 1973, he joined Ferrari in 1974, claiming his first F1 victory at the Spanish Grand Prix, then in 1975 celebrated the first of two F1 titles with the team, but it was the following season that would change his life forever.

During the second lap of the 1976 German Grand Prix, Lauda’s car left the track, hit a bank and burst into flames. He was trapped inside the car for several seconds before being pulled from the wreckage. Although he suffered life-threatening burns and severe lung damaged, he returned to racing just six weeks later.
In an interview with The Scotsman newspaper, Sir Jackie Stewart recalled: “Niki had a degree of bravery that I had never seen the like of before. After his tremendous accident, he was back just six weeks later. I remember seeing Niki put his helmet on, and his wounds were still absolutely obvious.

“I thought to myself that with all the vibrations you get in a Formula One car at Monza, one of the fastest tracks in the world, that this can’t be right.
“To be brave enough to put on the helmet was amazing, but then he went out and qualified fifth. When he returned to the garage, he took his helmet off and I could see he was bleeding. Yet, the very next day, he raced. He was such a brave man to get over that accident.”

Lauda regained the F1 title with Ferrari in 1977, and won it again in 1984, only this time in a Porsche-powered McLaren. He also took two famous victories in McLaren Fords in the 1982 season, winning the United States West Grand Prix, and the British Grand Prix.

After hanging up his racing gloves at the end of the 1985 season, he remained actively involved in the sport and was Team Principal for the Jaguar Racing Team in 2001 and 2002. He also enjoyed stints managing Ferrari and Mercedes Grand Prix and most recently as the non-executive chairman of the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team.

“He will not go down as just one of the best drivers of all time, but one of the most courageous, too,” said Stewart.  “Niki Lauda will be remembered forever.”


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