The Courageous Niki Lauda
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Niki Lauda is an icon in Formula 1 history, not just for his driving skills that were certainly impressive but also for his indomitable courage and grit in face of personal tragedy. Niki was the son of a wealthy Austrian paper manufacturer and as a child showed an intense interest in and love of cars. The family indulged what they thought was a passing fancy by allowing him to drive at an early age and at age 12, to park their visitors’ cars. Then, to their utter dismay, Niki decided he wanted to pursue a career in auto racing rather than enter the university. Since they felt this would bring dishonor upon the family name, they refused to support his goal.
Niki intense desire would not be denied and although the family refused to help him, the name allowed him to procure loans from Austrian banks that would enable him to buy a place on a racing team, first MARCH and then BRM. He had minimal success in the beginning due to poor choices in teams and lack of experience. Niki was learning on the job or in this case on the track. But he believed that the fastest way to improve was to learn from your mistakes. So he made them and by 1974 he had evidently learned enough to be signed by Ferrari. Ferrari had not fielded a champion since 1964 so Enzo, impressed by Niki’s no-nonsense driving attitude, decided to take a chance on the little known driver.
His gamble paid off as Niki placed second in the Argentine Grand Prix, his first race with the Ferrari team. Then in the same year he won both the Spanish and Dutch Grands Prix. Mistakes due to inexperience and mechanical problems still cost Niki some races at the start of the 1975 season but by its conclusion he had a world championship. At the start of 1976, Niki was clearly dominating the season. He won five out of the season’s nine races and was well on his way to a second consecutive world championship when he entered the tenth, which was the German GP at Nurburgring.
Niki had just started when, on lap 2, his car spun out of control, bounced off an embankment and toppled back on the track in front of another car driven by Brett Lunder. Then it erupted into a blazing inferno with Niki trapped inside. Lunger and drivers Arturo Merzario, Guy Edwards and Harald Ertl worked feverishly to rescue him but by the time they had him out of the car Niki was suffering from lung damage, first to third degree burns and broken bones. When he arrived at the hospital he was in a coma and expected to die. A priest even administered the last rites.
However, Niki bounded back and made a miraculous recovery that doctors attributed to sheer grit and determination. Then, in six weeks he was back on the track finishing fourth at Monza. However, due to eye problems, he decided to withdraw from the last race and lost the championship by one point. His action angered Ferrari. The rift didn’t heal and in 1977, after winning the world championship, Niki left the Ferrari team.