Niki Lauda News

Andreas Nikolaus (Niki) Lauda ( Vienna , February 22, 1949 - Zurich , May 20, 2019 ) was a racing driver from Austria . He became one of the most important Formula 1 drivers of his time and won three world titles . In the last years of his life, Lauda was the non-executive chairman of the Mercedes-Benz Formula 1 team .

Biography

After turning his grandfather's estate into a rallycross track (with jump ramp) for his VW Beetle , Lauda began his racing career in a Mini Cooper , taking part in hill climbs. This was exchanged for a Porsche, after which he started driving Formula Vee monopostos in the European circuit. In 1971 he bought himself into the March F2 team by means of a trick with a loan, backed by a life insurance policy.

Lauda made his Formula 1 debut in 1971 that same year with March at the home race , at the Österreichring. He paid off the loan with the prize money that he drove in touring car races with the Alpina BMW . The March was a disaster and his initial results were dire. The solution was to conquer a place with another team with more borrowed money. He got a contract with BRM for 1973 . That season was also in danger of failure, but he was able to show his skills at the 1973 Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix . Because of this, Enzo Ferrari 's attention fell on him and he was offered a contract with Scuderia Ferrari. Success soon came and the loans could be repaid.

In 1975 Lauda won his first world title and he was well on his way to his second in 1976 , when he suffered material trouble in the left corner in front of Bergwerk during the German Grand Prix at the old Nürburgring that year and shot right into the crash barriers. He was in danger of being burned alive when the wreckage caught fire, but he was rescued by four drivers who came close behind him and realized the seriousness of the accident, they immediately stopped and jumped out of their cars. Arturo Merzario was the first to dive into the flames and untie Lauda's seat belts, before joining him with Harald Ertl , Brett Lunger and Guy Edwards.from the conflagration. The ambulance arrived after eight minutes, which was then piloted by Hans-Joachim Stuck to the hospital via the shortest route.

Lauda's racing career seemed to be over, but to everyone's surprise he was already behind the wheel of the Ferrari six weeks later during the Grand Prix of Italy . With meters of bandages around his head and mentally still full of fear and fear, he drove to fourth place. His mechanics were very emotional. "The biggest comeback since Lazarus," the newspapers headlined. In the end he lost the world title to James Hunt that year by only one point, partly because he lost during the last Grand Prix , in Japan., refused to continue racing due to bad weather conditions. 

After the 1977 season , in which Lauda captured his second world title, he resigned from Ferrari and signed with Brabham . In 1979 , during training for the Grand Prix of Canada, he decided it was enough and left to start his own airline company Lauda Air .

In 1982 he was lured back to Formula 1 by McLaren , where he won his third world championship in 1984 . At the end of 1985 , Lauda left Formula 1 for good. In his last year as a driver, Lauda won the last Grand Prix of the Netherlands , which was held on the Zandvoort circuit .

In 1992 , Lauda was brought into the Scuderia Ferrari team as an advisor. As Austrian Airlines gained more influence over Lauda Air, Lauda retired as a director of Lauda Air in 2000. Lauda himself moved to Jaguar 's Formula 1 team , where he took over in 2001 and 2002. At the end of 2002 he was fired by parent company Ford . He founded another airline in 2003. The airline that was named NIKI was later taken over by Air Berlin . Since 2016, Lauda has been active again in the aviation sector, this time with Laudamotion , which was later acquired or merged with Ryanair .Lauda's latest project in the aviation industry was Laudamotion Executive , which, unlike low-costairlineRyanair, focuses on the exclusive segment of the market as a private charterairline. [6]

Lauda has been active as a guest commentator on Formula 1 races for German television ( RTL Television ). In September 2012 he became an advisor to a Formula 1 team again, this time at Mercedes GP . He ended his role as commentator at the end of 2017. On August 1, 2018, he underwent major surgery for respiratory problems. A lung was transplanted exactly 42 years after his accident on the Ring. Due to severe flu, he had to go to hospital in Vienna for a few weeks again in early 2019. He was undergoing dialysis treatment there because of kidney problems. The Austrian was still recovering from a double lung transplant, which he underwent in August 2018. In January 2019 he ended up in intensive carebecause he got the flu during rehab.

Lauda passed away at night on May 20, 2019 in a private medical clinic in Switzerland.