Andreas Nikolaus "Niki" Lauda born February 22,1949 in Vienna,was an excellent Formula one drive from Austria and three times F1 world champion. After starting out with a Mini,Lauda moved on into Formula Vee,as was normal in Central Europe,but rapidly moved up to drive in private Porsche and Chevron sports cars.







His career seemed to be going nowhere in particular until he took out a large bank loan,secured by a life insurance policy, to buy his way into the fledgling March team as a Formula 2 driver in 1971.In 1972 he was promoted to formula one and drove for March team both in formula one and formula two.

In 1973 Lauda took another bank loan to buy his way into the BRM team.In 1974 his teammate Clay Regazzoni joined Ferreri and the owner Enzo Ferreri asked him what he thought of Lauda. He spoke favourably of him and Ferreri decided to sign him,paying him enough money to clear his depts.Lauda was quickly rewarded as he came out second in his debut race for the team. He won his first grand prix only three races later in Spain. The 1975 F1 season started slowly for Lauda,but after nothing better than a fifth-place finish in the first four races he then won four out of the next five races in the new Ferrari 312T.His first World Championship was confirmed with a fifth win at the last race of the year,the United States Grand Prix.

Unlike 1975,Lauda dominated the start of the 1976 F1 season,winning four of the first six races and finishing second in the other two.By the time of his fifth win of the year at the British GP,he had more than double the points of his closest challenger Jody Scheckter and a second consecutive World Championship appeared a formality.But then disaster struck. At the German GP at the long Nόrburgring circuit,on the second lap of the race, Lauda's car swerved off the track,due to a suspected rear suspension failure,and burst into flames. Lauda was trapped in the wreckage.Drivers Arturo Merzario,Guy Edwards and Harald Ertl arrived at the scene a few moments later,but before they and Lunger were able to pull Lauda from his car,he suffered severe burns to his head and inhaled hot toxic gases that damaged his lungs and blood.Although Lauda was conscious and able to stand immediately after the accident,he later lapsed into a coma and a priest administered the last rites. Lauda not only survived the accident but came back to racing 6 weeks later(two races), losing the championship,from James Hunt,by only a single point.The next season Lauda won the world shampionship again. Lauda retired from formula one in 1979,but returned to racing in 1982 with the Mclaren team. He won his last championship in 1984 by one-half point over teammate Alain prost.He retired from formula one in 1985.