Niki Lauda was one of sport's great survivors... his bravery undeniable, his talent supreme

With nearly half-a-century of experience in Formula One, Niki Lauda was always quick to cut through the bluster.

Not one to suffer fools gladly, the word “bulls**t” was never far from his lips in the paddock, although usually delivered with faux indignation. In a sport synonymous with big characters, few came bigger.

Until his passing on Monday after a series of health problems, Lauda had been one of the sport’s great survivors, even with the odds very much stacked against him.

After being engulfed in a fireball for 50 seconds following a crash at the 1976 German Grand Prix, which left him with severe burns, he was read the last rites by a priest in the hospital.

But despite having most of his right ear, his eyebrows and eyelids burned off, he missed just two races, returning to the cockpit of his Ferrari for a remarkable fourth place at the Italian Grand Prix.

Pete Lyons wrote in Autocourse at the time: “It was said that when Niki took off his helmet in the pits after the race, his balaclava was soaked in blood where his part-healed burns had opened up.”

At the time, the Austrian claimed publicly that he had already recovered from the mental scars of his horror accident, from which he had to be dragged by fellow drivers Arturo Merzario, Brett Lunger, Guy Edwards and Harald Ertl.

But years later, he admitted his comeback race at Monza had been “the most terrifying weekend” and how he had been “rigid with fear” from start to finish of the race weekend.

That he returned to the cockpit at all was astonishing. That he came so close to winning that year’s world title was the stuff of the silver screen.

His refusal to race at the season-ending Japanese Grand Prix in shocking weather, despite Ferrari pushing him to do so, cost him the title by a single point to James Hunt.

The season was eventually retold in the 2013 film Rush, which depicted the pair as contrasting characters and virtually sworn enemies. While the former was true, they were close friends up until Hunt’s death in 1993.

Hunt would joke that Lauda, who earlier in his career was nicknamed ‘The Rat’, was actually better looking after the accident.

In all, Lauda won 25 grands prix during a racing career which he began in direct opposition to his family, who were wealthy industrialists. His grandfather, who worked on an advisory board for an Austrian bank, even blocked a loan to Lauda to enable him to begin his F1 career. So determined was the young driver to succeed, he sought loans elsewhere and began racing with the March team. Lauda never spoke to his grandfather again.

It was not until he joined Ferrari in 1974 that the wins started coming and the first of three titles followed in 1975. He had been cruising towards a second title before his accident but, in one of sport’s most remarkable comebacks, returned to the top of the sport and won again for Ferrari in 1977.

A move to Bernie Ecclestone’s Brabham team followed but, increasingly irritated by reliability issues, Lauda retired from the sport midway through practice for the Canadian Grand Prix in 1979.

He was coaxed out of retirement by McLaren boss Ron Dennis in 1983 with a £1.5million pay cheque, a sizeable fee for an F1 driver in those days, and edged out Alain Prost to the title by half-a-point in 1984, the closest in F1 history, after which he retired again.

Niki Lauda - In pictures

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By then, his airline business, Lauda Air, had taken off. But it was beset by tragedy in 1991 when one of its planes crashed in Thailand, killing all 213 passengers and 10 crew members on board. Following a lengthy battle, the airline was exonerated of fault.

He later revealed: “People always think that the worst time of my life must have been after the German Grand Prix crash but it wasn’t. When you run an airline and more than 200 people want to go from A to B and they don’t survive, that’s a different responsibility.”

The business was eventually sold to Austrian Airlines in 1999 but he launched subsequent airlines. He also remained involved in F1, first as a shortlived consultant for his former Ferrari team and then as team principal for Jaguar before its F1 operation folded.

He went on to work as a television pundit before being named non-executive chairman of Mercedes. As well as taking a 10 per cent stake in the team, along with Ross Brawn he was a key figure in bringing Lewis Hamilton to the team.

For decades, he was omnipresent in the F1 paddock, with his trademark red baseball cap covering many of his scars. He liked to make disarming jokes about them and turned down all opportunities for plastic surgery. In the intervening years, he battled with ill health, first two kidney transplants and then a lung transplant in August.

He is survived by his second wife, Birgit, and his five children, Max, Mia, Mathias, Lukas and Christoph.

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