Who is Niki Lauda?

Jun 12, 2018

Taisiya Lavi

Niki Lauda photo by Kommersant



Niki Lauda - The Fighting Rat

*Who is Niki Lauda?

* Niki Lauda race cars and Formula 1 teams;

* Niki Lauda most powerful crash;

* Niki Lauda and James Hunt story;

* Niki Lauda top movies.

Who is Niki Lauda?

Niki Lauda race cars and Formula 1 teams

Niki Lauda most powerful crash

Niki Lauda's accidient

Niki Lauda

Niki Lauda and James Hunt story

Wikipedia

Niki Lauda top movies

"Two little rats fell in a bucket of cream. The first rat quickly gave up and drowned. The second rat, wouldn't quit. He struggled so hard that eventually he churned that cream into butter and crawled out"Probably, this Quote can give us a hint about the life of the legend and the three-time F1 world Driver's champion The victorious Rat " Niki Lauda"Andreas Nikolaus "Niki" Lauda was born in Vienna, There is no doubt that being born in the city of Dreams shaped Niki's personality and developed a unique perspective of life to the young Austrian.Niki started his battles early as he insisted on going into the Racing field despite his parents' disapproval.Lauda's way into F1 wasn't coming up roses at all, as he had to get a €30,000 bank loan just to find his way into March team as an F2 driver before promoting quickly to start his F1 career.Lauda showed marvelous skills in his first days as a driver, But March had a terrible season, and it can be enough to say that at the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport Park, both March cars were disqualified within 3 laps after just past 3/4 race distance. A fact that can show you that it was about time for Lauda to leave the boat and join BRM team, only one year before having his big break and joining the legendary team Ferrari.It's fair to say that Niki got a taste of every major car at his time as he started with A Mini and a Formula vee before controlling the wheels of Porsche and chevron.All of these completely different types of motors and engines made him more than ready to start his career in Formula 1 racing with Ferrari in the best possible way when he came second in his debut race. After a 5 year journey with Ferrari that had two of his three championships in 1975 and 1977, the Austrian driver quit the team and left an outstanding career behind him.After leaving Ferrari, Lauda joined Brabham team. His journey with Brabham was a journey to forget, as it ended with his first retirement in 1979. Niki thought that his racing days were over and returned to Austria to run his own airline company.In 1982, Lauda threw his suit away and decided that he belonged to the racing tracks. Thus, he joined McLaren team, his ride with the British team was full of ups and downs, but he reached its peak in 1984 when he won his last championship.In the following season, Lauda couldn't keep up with his latest performance so he announced that the year 1985 would mark his last year as one-of-a-kind driver.Niki Lauda's most famous accident that marked his career as a real fighter was in 1976 in Nürburgring.On 1 August 1976, just at the second lap, Niki lost control of his Ferrari and crashed into a wall, Lauda was trapped in the wreck and before anyone could get him out, he got exposed to severe burns to his head and inhaled hot toxic gases that damaged his lungs and blood, the troubles didn't end at that point as his modified helmet made his face exposed to the fire. Although the Austrian fighter stood up and walked away, he fell into a coma after that.Niki shocked the world when he returned only six weeks after that horrific accident, The Austrian fighter came forth in Italian GP. "Giving up is something a Lauda doesn't do" Niki Lauda.In the seventies, the eyes of the F1 fans were set on two main figures who helped the establishment of F1, the two contesters were Niki Lauda and James Hunt.A rivalry that started as a friendship, as Niki himself admitted that they were friends and they even shared a flat before getting famous.Their rivalry was mostly due to the Media, which feud the situation in several occasions, but its peak was in 1976. As the two drivers had an astonishing season, Niki took the lead in the Grand Prix but the infamous Nürburgring incident stopped him and gave Hunt a chance to win the Championship only one point ahead of Niki in one of the most competitive seasons of all time.Hunt stated at the end of the race ,that was full of rain and terrible conditions," I feel really sorry for Niki, I feel sorry for everybody that the race had to be run in such ridiculous circumstances, and quite honestly, you know I wanted to win the championship, and I felt that I deserved to win the championship. I also felt that Niki deserved to win the championship, and I just wish we could have shared it.”Words that can show that the rivalry had never turned into animosity.Niki Lauda and James Hunt's story was made into a film "Rush" in 2013. Niki claims that the film exaggerated his character as "he wasn't as strict as the film showed him" but also admitted that it was true in most of its events. A year after the release of the film ̶ in 2014 ̶ a documentary which is called "Lauda: The untold story" came up.There is no doubt that Niki Lauda is considered as one of the most prominent drivers of all time and his Nürburgring recovery will always retain one of the greatest examples of Fighting against all odds.