Lauda, the winner of multiple world championships, will be remembered for his tenacity and resolve.
BERLIN, Germany—Three-time world Formula 1 champion, Niki Lauda, died yesterday morning at the age of 70, according to press reports from the Austrian Press Association. The Lauda family said that he “died peacefully.”
Lauda won titles in 1975 and 1977. Following a brief retirement, he won again in 1984.
Lauda grew up in wealth but ignored his father’s wishes to go into the banking business. Instead, he went into F2 and F3, taking on future stars, such as the late James Hunt, before funding a drive in F1 with the British BRM squad alongside Swiss superstar, Clay Regazzoni–a driver with whom Lauda would also race with his next team at Ferrari.
Courtesy: ODT
After winning his first world title in 1975, Lauda suffered face and lung injuries in a fiery crash in August 1976 at the Nurburgring. He returned to race a few weeks later in Monza, Italy and, later, narrowly lost to Hunt for the title in Japan that year. Lauda rebounded to take his second championship one year later.
Two seasons later, the Austrian retired from the sport, claiming that he “no longer wanted to go around in circles anymore.” He concentrated on setting up Lauda Air until McLaren lured him back in 1982 with a $3 million contract. There, he continued to drive for the Woking, England squad, alongside Alain Prost. Lauda beat Prost in 1984 to win his third world title.
Lauda retired for good in 1985 and devoted himself to the Lauda Air company, which evolved from a charter organization to an airline, carrying passengers to new routes in Asia and Australia. Disaster struck in 1991 when a Lauda jet carrying 213 passengers and 10-man crew crashed in Thailand. Later, Lauda resigned from the company before it was purchased by Austrian Airlines in 2000.
But that didn’t mean Lauda wasn’t finished with the airline industry. He ran another airline, Niki, from 2003 until it was sold to now-defunct Air Berlin. Today, Niki operates under its original name.
Lauda also continued to make contributions to F1, most recently as chair for the Mercedes F1 Team–alongside fellow Austrian, Toto Wolff. There, he coached current world champion, Lewis Hamilton, even during the time that Hamilton was fighting against German Nico Rosberg, who defeated Hamilton in 2016.
On the health front, Lauda had two kidney transplants and went through another surgery in August 2018 for what was described as “a serious lung illness.”
Lauda is survived by his second wife, Birgit, along with their children, twins Max and Mia, and his first wife, Marlene, and their two sons, Lukas and Matthias.
