Niki Lauda and the Forty-Three Years After the Fire

In 2020 in Bahrain, while Romain Grosjean was trapped in a damaged vehicle, my coffee turned cold. This was going on for 28 seconds. During that time, I was thinking about all the modern technology: the survivor cell, data behind the barrier, and the people running to Grosjean where he once was until a fire incased his car.

In 1976, Niki Lauda sat in his car for 55 seconds at the Nürburgring. Fire was produced by a broken fuel tank, and the race was stopped by only four other drivers. At that time, a priest gave him the last rites in the hospital. Six weeks later, he came in fourth at Monza with blood soaking the bandages.

While this is widely known, I am interested in what happened in the next 43 years. One reader asked me which driver I would give my team to, and I keep thinking about this question.

The numbers first

Three world titles. Twenty-five victories, twenty-four pole positions and fifty-four podium finishes in a total of 171 races, the complete information you can find in the table presented above. Just by itself the information makes him recognized as a good racer of his generation; however, this underestimates the reality. There is a technique behind these numbers. He was not the fastest driver of his time, and he was aware of this. Instead of speed there was a deep understanding of the car that nobody would be able to compare with, a capability to tell the truth to engineers and to know which risk is the right one. People of that kind are seen in clubs, and sharing a car with them creates a feeling of agitation. The moment you say hello, your sentence gets corrected due to the presence of this type of people.

How did he arrive here

The family was rich, came from Vienna, and was not interested in the world of motor racing at all. At the beginning of his career, he received funding from bank loans against life insurance, which shows a lot about this man’s character.

The process of racing started with driving a Mini, after which he graduated to Formula Vee, then to Formula Three and Formula Two only to end up racing in Formula 1. Financing for that came in the form of bank loans; I had spent a small part of the desired amount in my own racing career but had to pay out the entire amount; therefore, I do not find the idea of using one’s life as collateral especially appealing. It was Clay Regazzoni who recommended him to Ferrari for the season of 1974 when he achieved the fourth position in the championship before winning in 1975 with five victories at the age of just twenty-six.

1976, in the order it happened

By the time the 1976 season reached the halfway mark, Lauda had accomplished five victories and it looked like he would be crowned champion. But then came the German Grand Prix at the historic fourteen-mile Nürburgring track, an experience Lauda attempted to stop through boycotting for safety reasons.

What happened during the second lap can only be considered tragic. A faulty fuel tank started the fire, Lauda being unconscious in the car meanwhile four drivers abandoned the race to rescue him. Arturo Merzario was the first one there to save him from the seat.

The term ‘miracle’ is what comes to mind in this situation. In reality, it was just a decision made by a person who understood that he still had a chance to obtain the title, thus getting back to racing again six weeks after that at Monza.

The season concluded in Fuji where Lauda left the race after two laps stating that the conditions were not worth dying for, allowing James Hunt to win the championship by one point. Lauda himself never described it as anything other than obvious.

What he did afterward

He won the championship again in 1977 with Ferrari and left the team before the season was over, which is not a thing people did. Two seasons at Brabham followed, and then, mid-weekend in Canada in 1979, he told Bernie Ecclestone he no longer wanted to drive in circles and went to run his airline.

He came back in 1982 with McLaren, for money, and said so openly. In 1984 he took his third title from his own teammate Alain Prost by half a point, the smallest margin in the history of the championship, and he did it by being better than Prost at the parts of a season that are not raw speed. He retired for good after 1985, with a final win at Zandvoort.

The business, which he took more seriously than racing

According to different sources, Lauda established three airlines in a period of almost 40 years. Lauda Air is considered the first one to be opened, and in 1991 an aircraft of the Boeing 767 model crashed in Bangkok, killing all passengers. What I find hard to believe is what Lauda did next. He visited the scene of the accident, he pushed for the investigation concerning the thrust reverser that had deployed in the air, and he learned to drive the Boeing 767 in the simulator, proving that the equipment was incapable of being controlled. In the end, Boeing accepted the conclusions of the investigation.

Mercedes, and the phone call

He was a non-Executive chairman and co-owner of the Mercedes Formula 1 team from 2012 up until his death. The biggest thing he did there took him around a week’s worth of phone conversations. Lewis Hamilton was convinced to part ways with McLaren, where everything was running smoothly, and join the Mercedes team, which had achieved only a single victory in a span of three years.

Whatever your views on the period that followed, that phone call changed everything. The credibility Lauda had came from the fact that he had done the thing himself, badly injured, for money, for pride and for arithmetic, and had never once pretended otherwise about any of it.

The last part

The lungs that were burned during the 1976 Nürburgring accident were forever damaged, resulting in a transplant in 2018. On May 20, 2019, he passed away at the age of 70, six days before the Monaco Grand Prix. Mercedes used red halos in that race, while Hamilton wore Lauda’s helmet from 1984.

Forty-three years is a long time to complete a crash, isn’t it?

Personally, I don’t think of the return itself, as this story has been told too many times and has lost most of its interest for me. Fuji is, however, the story worth mentioning as coming back to the car in Monza implies a type of bravery that can be appreciated by anyone. Leaving the car in Fuji demonstrates a different, unappreciated by anyone kind of bravery.

What readers ask about Niki Lauda

How many world titles did Niki Lauda win?

Three, in 1975 and 1977 with Ferrari and in 1984 with McLaren.

How badly was Lauda hurt in 1976?

Burns to his head and wrists, broken bones and lungs damaged by toxic fumes. A priest administered the last rites in hospital.

How long was he out after the crash?

Six weeks. He returned at Monza and finished fourth, with bandages still bleeding under his helmet.

Why did Lauda lose the 1976 title?

He withdrew from the final race at Fuji after two laps, judging the rain too dangerous, and Hunt took the championship by one point.

What did Lauda do after racing?

He built airlines, worked as a team manager and consultant, and from 2012 was non-executive chairman and part owner of Mercedes.

How did Niki Lauda die?

He died on 20 May 2019, at seventy, from complications after a lung transplant. His lungs had been damaged in the 1976 fire.

Jake Holloway is a club racer, track-day instructor, and motorsports editor based near Charlotte, North Carolina. He has raced karts, Legends cars, Spec Miatas, and amateur endurance cars, and he writes for GreenyCars about how racing actually works, from the rule book to the pit lane.