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Niki Luada: The Champion Who Wouldn't Give Up

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Niki Lauda: The Formula One Champion Who Wouldn't Give Up

Born on 22nd February, 1949, in Vienna, Austria, into a family of affluent entrepreneurs, Andreas Nikolaus ‘Niki’ Lauda incurred his well-recognized relatives’ displeasure when he decided to shun a conventional vocation for a career in motor racing. Denied of his parents’ considerable wealth in pursuing his driving passions, Lauda accumulated considerable debt from Austrian banks to kick-start a career in motorsport; an irony, considering the Laudas themselves were famous bankers. To hone his driving acumen, Niki snubbed university education and enlisted himself at a racing school. Armed with a mini, the Austrian initiated his run in 1968 and battled all the way through Formula Vee and Formula Three into the Formula One March squad in 1972. The incompetence of the March team frustrated Niki’s ability to display his true driving grit, let alone help him avert imminent financial defaulter. Untutored in an alternate profession, the young Austrian had no option but to continue as a race driver.

In 1973, Niki managed to negotiate a complex rent-a-ride agreement with BRM. Lauda’s ever-assuring performances that season proved fruitful in the shape of a fresh deal that promised to overlook his indebtedness in return for Niki pledging his loyalty to BRM for two more seasons. Yet the Austrian purchased himself out of his agreement with the British-based team courtesy of the funding afforded to him by his new hirer Enzo Ferrari, who enrolled him on to the payroll for the 1974 campaign.

Facing a trophy drought since John Surtees’ 1964 triumph, Ferrari was swayed by the slender self-assured Austrian’s down-to-earth work conduct. Now being widely touted as Ferrari’s probable redeemer, the press woke to Niki’s composed, level-headed attitude to his game and aptly labelled him “The Computer.” However, Lauda’s driving yet desired some polishing and he made quite a few serious blunders in 1974. The Austrian wisely stated that missteps were the most efficient formula for learning and validated the assertion by sealing his very first Formula One triumph in Spain and then following it up a win in Holland.

In 1975 Lauda steered his Ferrari 312/T to wins at the Belgian, Swedish, French, Monacan and American events to land his first World Championship title. The whole of Italy took delight in Ferrari’s return to the pinnacle of Formula One after more than ten title starved years. Yet the exaltation held little value for the pragmatic new World Champion. Reasoning that the bourgeoning assemblage of “useless” silverware was littering up his residence back home, Niki happily handed them over to a nearby car stall in return for free of charge car washes.

As the 1976 Formula One campaign hit the mid-season mark, Lauda had already booked five race victories to his name and seemed well on course to repeat last year’s feat. However, then came the ill-fated run at the threateningly hazardous Nurburgring circuit for the 1976 German showdown. Halfway through the second lap, Lauda’s Ferrari unaccountably veered off the track and went ablaze, owing to a suspected rear suspension failure. The Austrian’s tormented body was salvaged from the enkindled vehicle and taken to hospital. With serious first degree burns on his limbs, a number of broken bones and lungs blistered from sniffing poisonous gases, Niki Lauda was written off as good as dead.

Yet, only a little over than a month later, with blood trickling from his bandaged scalp, the unsinkable Austrian clinched the fourth spot at the Italian Grand Prix. Amazed doctors attributed Niki’s survival to utter force of willpower and the entire motor sporting world celebrated one of the bravest rebounds in history.

Although Lauda’s friend James Hunt took the 1976 Championship title, the result was rather inconclusive, considering Lauda had pulled out of the year’s decisive run at the Japanese event where he was well poised to seize the driver’s title had he decided to compete. Yet, the Austrian returned to grab the Championship trophy the very next year before bidding farewell to Ferrari for a move to the Brabham squad. After two reasonably successful years at Brabham, Lauda retired from Formula One racing in 1979, only to return in 1982 with McLaren. Yet after acquiring his third drivers’ trophy in 1984 with Ron Dennis’s squad, Lauda bid a final farewell to the sport he loved in 1985. The Austrian has since busied himself with various entrepreneurial ventures and also recorded a spell at Formula One commentary.

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