Formula One world champion Niki Lauda of Austria, who survived a fiery crash in 1976 and went on to win the championship twice more. He was 70.
Conceived Andreas Nikolaus “Niki” Lauda, he was a conspicuous race Car driver during the 1980s, who initially won the F1 championship driving for Ferrari in 1975.
He’s known by numerous individuals for the genuine crash he endured the next year, in the 1976 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring race track, where he endured severely charred areas to his head and face. At the hospital, Lauda fell into a coma, and also received last rites.
“For three or four days it was touch and go,” Lauda recalled later, according to ESPN.
All things considered, he managed out how to race again only a month and a half after the mishap, taking fourth spot in the Italian Grand Prix. As the BBC reports:”By the end of the race, his unhealed wounds had soaked his fireproof balaclava in blood. When he tried to remove the balaclava, he found it was stuck to his bandages, and had to resort to ripping it off in one go.” The BBC calls his quick return to racing “one of the bravest acts in the history of sport.”
Lauda proceeded to win the F1 title again in 1977. In 1979 he resigned and swung to avionics, making Lauda air, declaring that he “didn’t want to drive around in circles anymore,” the AP reports. But he was lured back to racing a few years later by a big offer from McLaren.
He won the F1 championship for a third time in 1984, preceding resigning from the game for good the following year.
“His unique successes as a sportsman and entrepreneur are and remain unforgettable,” his family said in a statement, the AP reports. “His tireless drive, his straightforwardness and his courage remain an example and standard for us all. Away from the public gaze he was a loving and caring husband, father and grandfather. We will miss him very much.”
